Image Credit: World Rowing
How do you define greatness? A mind-bending feat that surpasses expectation and rationality? A moment of authentic surprise that inverts the weight of pressing odds? Or perhaps an incision in the linear unfurling of your heart?
In sport, we are quick to anoint greatness upon each other. A performance that impresses us is often bestowed the virtue of greatness before it can even truly be understood. It is easy to attach brilliance onto bravery and boldness but sometimes the two should not be conflated. True greatness should combine mastery, magnanimity and more than a hint of magic.
The Olympic Games is our ultimate magic show. A procession of truly elite talent, operating at the pinnacle of their sport and thrust forward into a limelight fostered by four years of relative translucency. These two weeks are stitched into the very fabric of competition, dating back to the lore of Ancient Greece, and have transcended the politics of modern society to become the ultimate marker in sporting excellence. To win Olympic Gold gives you immortality of a rare and timeless specification – your story will be perpetuated forevermore, carried forward by the whispers of generations to come, who too aim to climb those sacred steps and join this club of champions. Emerging over the horizon, this time in the blue and red hue of palatial Paris, we are ready for the very fastest in rowing to be crowned.
Step forward, my friends – The Olympic Games have come.
Alexandra Foester (Germany)
The young German – who only turned 22 in January – is on a mission to re-establish her homeland at the serious end of the women’s sculling scale. Since qualifying the scull at the 2023 world championships by finishing eighth overall, she has enjoyed some career-best performances, including dual silvers at the first World Rowing Cup and the European championships. She was also an A-finalist at the second World Rowing Cup in Lucerne, slotting in behind a pretty fast front-end that comprised the Olympic and world champions.
Foester is a former junior world champion, having triumphed in the single at the 2019 junior world champions after collecting a silver in the quad the year before. She failed to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics but looks to be a bright spark for the LA Olympiad, having collected two U23 world titles between the last Games and now. If she can secure an A-final position in 2024, this would represent a serious statement as her fastest years approach.
Jovana Arsic (Serbia)
The European champion has only raced once this season – winning the latter regatta – but qualified the boat by placing ninth at the last world championships in Belgrade. The 31-year-old has been active on the racing scene since 2009 – where she placed 13th at the junior world championships – and has rotated through various boats classes, including the double and the pair through the second half of last decade.
After narrowly missing out on qualification for the Tokyo Games by finishing third at the 2021 World Rowing European Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Regatta, she has had a much more profitable series in the Paris Olympiad, including World Rowing Cup medals and two successive B-final placements at the world championships. I’d be surprised to see her in the A-final but her speed was clearly there in late April.
Kara Kohler (United States of America)
Ninth in Tokyo, Kohler of the USA will be hoping to improve on this showing in Paris. She’s had a varied career that begun with a gold at the 2010 U23 world championships, arguably peaked in 2012 with an Olympic bronze – just a few years after she first entered the sport – and almost ended in 2016 when she was not selected for the Rio Olympics.
The Paris Olympiad has been varied for this former University of California, Berkeley athlete; 2022 saw her win the Princess Royal Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta before placing 13th at the world championships. 2023 was a noticeable pick-up in form as she won bronze at the second World Rowing Cup before finishing fourth at the Belgrade world championships. Although her sole appearance in 2024 was a seventh-placed finish in Lucerne – someway off the pace of category leaders from New Zealand, Australia and the Netherlands – she’ll be aiming to fire on all cylinders come Paris.
Magdalena Lobnig (Austria)
One of the most experienced athletes on the circuit – with international pedigree dating back to 2006 and a bronze at the junior world championships – Lobnig is a former U23 world champion and Olympic bronze medalist in Tokyo. Her rivalry with Jeannine Gmelin of Switzerland through the latter half of last decade was one of the prevailing narratives of pan-European competition; Gmelin seemed to have her number in successive world champions but the Austrian prevailed at the right moment to steal onto the podium in Japan three years ago.
Lobnig’s stint in the double through 2022 and part of 2023 did not ever really ignite, with that pairing failing to make a podium at the world championships. She hopped back in the single in Belgrade to secure a slot at the Olympics, winning the B-final ahead of four other athletes on this page. She’s an outside bet for a medal, depending on what sort of form she arrives into Paris with. She dabbled in coastal rowing at the back end of last year, winning silver in the double sculls, and her only appearance in 2024 was a fifth-placed finish in Poznan at the third World Rowing Cup (nearly 20 seconds back on Tara Rigney of Australia).
Tatsiana Klimovich (Individual Neutral Athletes)
Another storied athlete for her native Belarus, Klimovich started her rowing career with four consecutive appearances at the junior world championships, the best of which amounted to a silver in the single in 2013. She was also an U23 silver and gold medalist in the double in 2016 and 2017 respectively before a firm switch into senior rowing from 2018 onwards.
Racing under the AIN flag – given the ongoing conflict with Russia and associated territories – Klimovich makes this list by virtue of her blistering performance at the 2024 World Rowing European Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Regatta, where she won the final by ten seconds over Diana Dymchenko. She then showed up at the second World Rowing Cup – admittedly in peak condition – and finished just outside the medals in a field that featured the fastest women in the world. After placing tenth at the 2023 world championships, an A-final stamp would be a credible performance from the 29-year-old.
Virginia Diaz Rivas (Spain)
An athlete who laboured for a long time in minor finals before finally breaking through in 2019, Diaz Rivas came through the 2024 World Rowing Final Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Regatta to earn her place in Paris. She won the final ahead of Aurelia-Maxima Katharina Janzen of Switzerland and other strong contenders, including Ireland’s former world champion Sanita Puspure.
The Spanish 32-year-old is an athlete who is building speed at just the right moment. She was sixth at the 2022 world championships and even has World Rowing Cup gold to boast of in the past few years, having won the first Cup in 2023. 2024 saw her place sixth at the equivalent event and she has past Olympic experience, after placing sixth in the A-final of the pair in Tokyo. If she can emulate this feat in Paris, I would class that as a great innings.
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