Tufte just wants to get better

2004 Olympic Champion Olaf Tufte

Olaf Tufte, Norway’s reigning Olympic and world single sculls champion, is a man with a mission ? he wants to row better.

The 29-year-old has dominated the single sculls this millennium, adding a gold at the Athens 2004 Olympics to his World Championship golds in 2001, 2002 and 2003. He also took a double sculls silver at the Sydney 2000 Olympics. The 6ft 3in (193cm) oarsman heads an impressive entry list competing in the men’s singles sculls at the first BearingPoint Rowing World Cup event of the 2005, which begins in Eton tomorrow, Thursday 26 May.

But there’s bad news for his competitors who are looking for a chink in his armour ? Tufte is still looking to further improve his performance.

?I have been training okay but my performance shape isn’t too good yet. I am on track, but I am not in race shape,? said Tufte.

?My goal isn’t to win the Rowing World Cup. I have to come here to see if I can row faster and if I can row well when I am trying to row faster,? he added. ?I don’t win every race, but I have to see where I am going.

?I want to row better than I did. I want to develop my rowing. That’s my goal. If I didn’t have that as a goal I would have nothing to row for.

?There are probably going to be people here who could beat me, but I’ll be doing everything in my power to beat them,? he added.

And the philosophical Norwegian says he doesn’t see the 2005 World Rowing Championships in Japan as a case of aiming to defend his title.

?The world champion is something you were or you can be, it’s not something you are. It’s something you are on that day,? he said.

Tufte could face stiff competition from Bulgaria’s Ivo Yanakiev, bronze medallist in Athens last year, Germany’s Marcel Hacker, who took silver at the 2003 World Rowing Championships in Milan, and Slovenian Iztok Cop, who has three Olympic medals under his belt from four Olympic Games.

The BearingPoint Rowing World Cup begins tomorrow, Thursday 26 May at 9:30 GMT and reaches its climax on Saturday 27 May.

Thanks to 2005 RWC : ETON / Matchtight

Useful Links
Olaf Tufte Photo Gallery
Tufte Challenges Athletes to a Farmer’s Life
Coaching Tufte the Norwegian Way