AAs a child, Oliver Zeidler liked leafing through the 1972 Olympic books and finding his grandfather in them. Hans-Johann Färber had won gold in the four with helmsman in Munich. “Back then,” says his grandson, “the seeds were sown for me to want to go to the games myself.” However, not at first like my grandfather and other relatives in a rowing boat, but as a swimmer. At a young age, Zeidler had fallen out of the wobbly sports vehicle, which spoiled the fun of the family tradition for the time being.
When it comes to the continental crowns at the European Championships on the regatta course in Oberschleißheim, the 26-year-old will still be in the singles for the heats that start this Thursday. In 2016 his training group at SG Munich was dissolved and the multiple German vintage champion switched from freestyle to the skulls. The 2.03 meter tall model athlete is European and World Champion, but at his Olympic premiere in Tokyo in 2021 wind and waves caused him to fail in the semi-finals.
Focus on the 2024 Olympics
He has ticked off the deep disappointment, the focus is on the games in Paris 2024. The European Championship is an important milestone on the way there and a home game for the native of Dachau. Although Zeidler started for Frankfurt’s RG Germania this year, he has not changed his training location. Father Heino, who looks after him, works full-time for the Bavarian police. When he didn’t have time in June because of the G7 summit in Schloss Elmau, his grandfather used his expertise to stand in for him.
“He has a different look,” says Zeidler. “And such a race is complex.” He has learned from the experienced specialist to prepare his head for what needs to be done and not just leave everything to his body. “I’m not a psychology friend,” says Zeidler. But he was convinced of this visualization.
It fits with the story that he wants to write in the coming days to have his grandfather at his side as a companion. “He made sure that we are all sporty,” says the grandson. “And gave us the will to do competitive sport.” Winning the gold medal there, where the RG Wetzlar ancestor had celebrated his greatest triumph 50 years earlier, would be “super nice” for the grandson. The fact that sister Marie-Sophie, who found rowing earlier than her older brother, is also in the women’s quadruple at the European Championships, increases the level of emotion.
Zeidler expects a completely different race from the usual ones in the final on Sunday at the latest. “In recent years I’ve rowed my opponents tired.” Now that the competition has changed and younger athletes have joined, the German champion, who seems to have dominated numerous international comparisons at will, believes he has to “fight to the end”.
The tests make him optimistic: Zeidler was unbeatable at the World Cup opener in Belgrade at the end of May, and he was at the top of the traditional Henley Regatta. A good sign, he emphasizes. In 2019, the guest from the mainland had already won the competition on the Thames. In the same year he became world and European champion. The trip to Lucerne, where Zeidler wanted to win the overall World Cup, he had to cancel at the beginning of July because of a cold. But since then everything has been going according to plan.
Zeidler welcomes the fact that, in times of gigantism at the Olympic Games, the European Championships set an example for sustainability by going back to the sports facilities from 1972. However, the regatta course was said to be “dilapidated”. A larger planned renovation was postponed. The spirit of that time has remained. Zeidler will sit in his wheelchair with all the stories his grandfather told him about the games in Germany. The EM is only an intermediate station. But a unique chance to add a very special chapter to the family chronicle.
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