Nico Rienks ? Driven by Intuition

Rienks receives the Thomas Keller medal
© FISA

For a guy that runs an occupational health company of 1000 employees, has a couple of Olympic gold medals and managed to persuade a group of independent thinking small boat rowers to become part of an eight, as well challenge the Dutch Rowing Federation in the process, Rienks is remarkably unassuming.

Lauded in his country and admired by his peers Rienks was recently honoured as the 2004 recipient of the Thomas Keller medal recognising an exceptional rowing career.

Rienks downplays his success and in person he rarely talks about his extensive achievements. ?At the time I never really thought about it,? Rienks says of his accomplishments, ?but now, years later, I'm proud of it.?

The young Rienks could have been a top soccer player or he could have chosen volleyball but, at the age of 14, something about rowing struck a chord.

?I liked being on the water on my own,? says Rienks. ?I did not have the Olympics in mind when I started, I just liked the movement.? By the age of 17 Rienks had begun rowing competitively starting off predominantly as a single sculler.

However, despite winning nearly all of the Dutch races in the single, Rienks realised his limitations. He knew that he was not capable of winning gold at the Olympics in this event. In Rienks' matter-of-fact approach to his sport the single sculler decided that it made more sense to go after the double with top Dutch sculler Ronald Florijn.

A year before the 1988 Olympics Rienks and Florijn teamed up. ?We thought that if we trained together twice a day for the whole year, we could go for gold at the Seoul Olympics,? says Rienks. Florijn and Rienks trained literally every day without a break. ?We started one week after the 1987 World Championships. We really rowed every day twice,? stresses Rienks. ?We had no injuries at all.?

The training paid off. One year later they raced to a gold medal.

Rienks then chose Henk-Jan Zwolle to defend his title at the 1992 Olympics following the same method of rowing every day.

Zwolle describes Rienks as a natural leader. ?He goes his own way, it's up to others to follow,? says the former roommate and doubles partner. Zwolle and Rienks won the World Championships in 1991 and at Barcelona they were leading at the 1000 metre mark of the final. ?Bronze,? said Rienks who knew they could not maintain the boat speed. Rienks was right.

This intuition came out on many occasions and proved right when Rienks decided to put together a men's eight, going against the advice of the Dutch Rowing Federation.

?Holland had never had a good eight at the Olympics. We wanted to change that,? says Rienks who saw the potential in the country's large group of rowers who had won medals in smaller boats. The crew were all friends with an average rowing experience of 15 years. Both Zwolle and Florijn were in the boat with Rienks stroking.

Rienks believed that fast small boat rowers would make a fast eight. ?Most of our rowers in the eight were fast in the single. That says a lot more to me than 2000 metre erg scores,? says Rienks who holds that the top eight single scullers in the world together would produce a world record breaking eight.

After the 1992 Olympics Rienks set the target of the 1996 Atlanta Games and training got under way. The result made history for Dutch rowing, made Rienks a household name and gave the Netherlands an Olympic gold.

The fifth Olympic Games for Rienks, Sydney 2000, spelt the end to his career but Rienks remains active in the sport. ?I still row in some long distance races,? says Rienks who just completed a 200km race with his club team. He also helps organise the Holland Beker Regatta and coaches occasionally.

Rienks recently became the eighteenth recipient of the Thomas Keller Medal for ?an outstanding career in rowing,? when FISA President Denis Oswald announced the award at the first World Cup in Poznan. Oswald said the list of nominees this year had been outstanding, but a choice had to be made and Rienks's achievements stood out.

Rienks was presented with the18-carat gold award at the final day of the Lucerne World Cup on Sunday 20^th June.

The Rienks Record:

2000   Olympic Games                                 M8+                8
1999   FISA World Rowing Championships            M8+                5
1996   Olympic Games                                  M8+                1
1995    FISA World Rowing Championships            M8+                2
1994    FISA World Rowing Championships            M8+                2
1993    FISA World Rowing Championships            M8+                5
1992    Olympic Games                                 M2x                3
1991    FISA World Rowing Championships            M2x                1
1990    FISA World Rowing Championships            M2x                8
1989    FISA World Rowing Championships            M2x                2
1988    Olympic Games                                 M2x                1
1987    FISA World Rowing Championships            M1x                8
1986    FISA World Rowing Championships            M4x                5
1985    FISA World Rowing Championships            M1x                9
1984    Olympic Games                                 M4x                9
1983    FISA World Rowing Championships              M4x            8

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