Young Olympians - on the road to the masters regatta Part I

“It was a good environment for young people, we had friends there, we spent evenings there,” says Vetle Vinje – one of those young Norwegian boys and also an Olympic silver medallist in the men’s quadruple sculls. Vinje did not start out at the top of his rowing team, but he was determined. “One summer I spent the three week vacation going to the club every day to train in the single. At first I was tipping all the time, catching crabs, falling in, but by the end of three weeks it went better. And when everyone came back, I was the fastest. I was always very competitive, to row and to win felt really good,” Vinje laughs.

He is seated next one of his best friends and crewmates, Lars Bjoenness at a picnic table at the 2015 World Rowing Masters Regatta. The two of them laugh as they stroll down memory lane to their first strokes.

“I think I was 10,” Bjoenness says. “But I was just hanging around the club. I was so small, I started with coxing. But those years were my best learning opportunity. I was coxing quite good crews, I got to learn the rhythm just by sitting in the boat,” Bjoenness says. It turns out that he started coxing the Hansen brothers. And just a few years later, he raced with one of them (Alf) in the 1988 Olympic Games.

“I was really motivated by my progress, by seeing my improvements,” Bjoenness says. “I was very skinny and had always been running after my older brother. At one point, I began to row faster than him and that was very motivating.”

Their self-deprecating jokes continue as Bjoenness and Vinje work past the early years and into the first elite years. They are both laughing as they describe “pushing to your limits, or past them” and “being on the edge of injury all the time” as though it is a vague memory of a harder time.  

The reality is – these two were good.

At the 1988 Olympic Games, they took a silver medal together with Alf Hansen and Rolf Thorsen in the men’s quadruple sculls (coached by Frank Hansen). Bjoenness continued on, picking up two World Championship titles in the men’s double sculls and another silver medal at the 1992 Olympic Games again in the men’s quadruple sculls.

But here they sat, more than 35 years after they took their first strokes, joking about how the last time they were in Hazewinkel (for the 1980 World Rowing Junior Championships) the doors on the boathouse seemed a lot bigger.

Meanwhile, a couple of countries over, another young Olympian picked up her first pair of oars. At age 16, Ann Elise (Annelies) Bredael’s school decided to bring them to the Hazewinkel course to try rowing. Soon after, Hazewinkel staged a regatta for schools and Bredael, along with three friends, decided to participate. Intrigued by this quad, the local club asked them to come and train. “It was funny, I did not do anything until then and all of a sudden I started training five times a week! My parents were asking me what I was doing,” Bredael laughs. But the four girls in that quad went on to become Belgian Champions and continued rowing together for two years.

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“I just liked (rowing),” Bredael says. “At first because it was a group of girls and we had fun. We trained hard and our coach was tough, but it was fun and we were good.” After turning 18, the other three girls decided to stop rowing and focus on their studies. But Bredael was not ready. “It was 1983 and in 1985 we were due to have the World Rowing Championships here in Hazewinkel. It was my neighborhood and I wanted to participate. So I just kept on rowing,” Bredael says. This theme followed her throughout her impressive 11-year senior level career.

“I was lucky because I always had opportunities to step up. From the World Junior Championships to the Match des Seniors (now called the World Rowing Under 23 Championships) and then to the World Championships. I always had something to look forward to, there was always a new goal to set.”

Bredael had her breakthrough year in 1991. Following a disappointing summer season in 1990 when she was not allowed to compete at the World Rowing Championships, Bredael came back ready to fight. Following success early in the season, she expected a medal at the World Championships. But tragedy struck. Her father passed away just 14 days before the championships. “I needed to go to the funeral, so I left a day late,” Bredael says. “I won the bronze medal. It was very hard, but I just focused on the racing. He was always very proud of me. I am sad that he never knew how good I became.”

The next year Bredael went on to win a silver medal at the 1992 Olympic Games in the women’s single sculls. Bredael finally ended her international career following the 1996 Olympic Games when, at 31, she decided to have children.

 all had different relationships with the sport of rowing following their Olympic careers, but all three find themselves competing at the World Rowing Masters Regatta. Their journeys will unfold in Part II – stay tuned.