Top rower Neykova; holding onto the desire

Start off rowing in the single. Win silver in your first international race. Become a Junior World Champion in your second year internationally. Go to the Olympic Games when you’re just 20 years old and then come back a year later and become the world under-23 winner.

This is the opening formula to number six on the list of the Top 10 for 2005, Bulgaria’s Rumyana Neykova, and it represents just the start of her illustrious rowing career.

Currently taking a break from the international scene, Neykova gave birth to her second child earlier this month but she has every intention of returning to the single. “Probably in September,” she says. Neykova sees this break as no hindrance to her career as in 2002 she did a post-baby comeback which culminated in her first World Champion title and a setting of the World Best Time (which remains unbroken). This was part of what she describes as the best year of her rowing career.

Neykova began internationally as a junior in 1990 and continued for more than a decade as part of a tight clique at the top of women’s single sculling. At the core of this upper elite was current World Champion Ekaterina Karsten and current Olympic Champion Katrin Rutschow-Stomporowski. Together the three have allowed no one else onto the Olympic medals podium for the last two Games.

Neykova worked her way up to this position from a B Final finish at the 1996 Olympics through to a photo finish for first at the Sydney Olympics. Twenty minutes of deliberation declared Neykova just a split second off gold – she won silver behind Karsten.

Taking a year out in 2001 for the birth of her son, Emile, Neykova came back stronger to become World Champion for 2002. Remarkably a year later she repeated this performance but in Athens she sat back in third behind Rutschow-Stomporowski and Karsten.

So what keeps Neykova going? Declaring Bjorn Daehlie, cross country skier and most medalled Olympian (12 medals, eight of them gold), as her sporting hero may give an indication. But behind the customarily cool exterior Neykova describes her motivation coming from a love of the thrill of the race, the adrenalin, the atmosphere and the desire for self realisation and recognition. These elements have inspired the Bulgarian from Sofia to continue onto the next Olympic Games.

Meanwhile, Neykova stays very much in touch with the rowing scene. She intently follows the progress of her event on television, but declares, “I’d prefer to be rowing myself.”

Major Results:

Edition   Competition                          Venue             Event  Rank
2005    World Rowing Championships  Gifu, JPN            2x      2
2004    Olympic Games                      Athens, GRE       1x      3
2003   World Rowing Championships    Milan, ITA          1x     1
2002   World Rowing Championships   Seville, ESP         1x     1
2000   Olympic Games                      Sydney, AUS        1x     2
1999   World Rowing Championships  St. Catharines, CAN 1x  3

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