In a year dominated by Olympic Qualification, Oliver Zeidler has his sights firmly set on punching his ticket to Paris.
However, the current World Champion in the Men’s Single Scull couldn’t have been more at ease as he strolled through the Henley Royal Regatta boat tents, an event he has made his own in recent years.
Zeidler, whose defence of the Diamond Challenge Sculls victory last year gets underway this afternoon, is fully embracing the Henley atmosphere, one of the reasons he keeps coming back.
“I think that Henley is one of the nicest regatta experiences you can get, it’s a lot of fun to come here. The people are very friendly and I always feel very welcome coming here to Henley.
“I’m peaking for a World Championships with the goal being Olympic qualification. However, I also decided I wanted to do a lot of racing at the World Cups, and European Championships, and while Henley was the one that was marked with a question mark, I just love the atmosphere here.
“The signs are good so far because in 2019 and 2022 I won the Diamonds and I also became World Champion so let’s see if I continue this again,” laughed Zeidler.
For the Zeidler family, this year’s Henley is a particularly special one. Marie-Sophie Zeidler made her debut in the Princess Royal Challenge Cup, losing out to Georgie Robinson-Ranger in one of the races of the regatta yesterday.
Having been unwell at the beginning of the year, Zeidler who was sixth in the Women’s Quads at last year’s European Championships, will switch to sweep in her efforts to qualify for next year’s Olympics.
“She’s my younger sister but she actually started rowing before me,” said Oliver with a smile.
“She was my inspiration to get into rowing and she’s always the happiest when I’m successful.”
Oliver explained: “Sport is always an important part of family and life and we were always so supported by our parents and loved ones. We wanted to do all sorts of activities when we were younger. I did a lot of swimming and the other little sister did a lot of sports.
“We don’t speak a huge amount about rowing. We’ve got other stuff to talk about and sometimes it’s important when you are with your family to turn off the rowing channel,” he added.
It’s not just this generation of the Zeidler family who are sporting trailblazers. As the current World Champion is targeting Paris 2024, he’s able to reminisce about his grandfather’s heroics at the Olympics of yesteryear. Hans-Johann Färber won gold in 1972 and 1976 in the Coxed Four.
“I’m looking forward to the Olympics a lot. When I was a child I looked through books with my grandfather with photos from the Olympic Games. I also heard all sorts of stories about people travelling all over the world spending the money they had earned over four years just to watch the Olympics.
“It’s something I’m really looking forward to in Paris, not only racing in front of friends and family but having the crowds behind us and just experiencing the full Olympic atmosphere would be very nice,” he added.
Before Paris, there is the small challenge of qualifying his boat for the Olympics.
At this year’s World Championships, there are nine automatic spots up for grabs in the Men’s Single Scull, all of the A finalists plus the top three in the B final will be Paris bound.
“The World Championships is two milestones for me,” explained Zeidler. “When I make it into the A Final then it means I’ve qualified the boat for the Olympics.
“When I think back to Linz where I qualified for the Tokyo Olympics it was actually more important than winning the gold medal the next day. Both goals are very important to me and we’ll see how we get on.”
Zeidler, who struggled in the rough waters of Tokyo, found himself in the B Final of the Olympic Regatta. Since then he’s used the bouncy waters of Henley and other European lakes to gain vital experience in testing conditions.
“I think the biggest competition actually comes from Greece this year. It was his water in Bled but I’m very pleased with the result because it was similar waters in Tokyo and it was 2 lengths in the semi-final of the Olympics and a few centimetres in the final on Lake Bled so I’m getting where I want to be.
“Henley in the past years always gave me more stability in my strokes, it was like rowing on completely different water, very bumpy and challenging but it actually made the boat run better after I returned from Henley so I hope to benefit from this year as well.”
Oliver Zeidler will start his Diamond Challenge Sculls campaign at 14:45 today against Liam Smit racing for the University of British Columbia, Canada
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