Guillaume and Thibaud Turlan (FRA)

Rising Stars – February 2018

The identical twins, Guillaume and Thibaud Turlan made the French junior national team together in 2014 and raced in the final of the junior men’s eight. The next year they took a step up together and made the final of the World Rowing Under 23 Championships – Guillaume in bow and Thibaud in stroke of the eight. Their rowing ascent continued as they started in the senior squad for the 2017 season together in the men’s pair and made the World Rowing Cup final. The twins then capped the season off with an under-23 silver medal in the pair. World Rowing expects to see a lot more of the duo in the 2018 season and years to come.

We discovered rowing… through our Parents, they found it to be a charming sport.

What we like most about the sport of rowing is… the speed and the Cassoulet Regatta.

Rowing as twin borthers is an advantage because… we know each other very well and we are brutally honest with each other.

Rowing as twin brothers can be a disadvantage… when you’re over 15 seconds apart on the same erg test.

Our biggest strength is… our ability to overcome adversity and get over procrastination together.

A weakness we would prefer not having is… our capacity to invariably get tomato sauce stains on our nice French kit.

When we set a a new under-23 World Best Time… we were satisfied yet a bit frustrated we did not go under 6 :20. (the brothers did 6 :20.06 in the heats at the 2017 World Rowing Under 23 Championships)

On a typical day… we will do 20km of rowing in the morning and will lift weights in the afternoon.

Our best erg scores are… 5:59 for Thibaud and 5:54 for Guillaume.

What we like to do most outside of rowing is… going on 9gag with Uncle Edy and losing chess games to Mr Todorov.

We manage to balance rowing and studying… by being well organised. 

Our non-rowing friends think… that we are deranged for doing this much sport.

A food we never tire of is… foie gras.

The best thing in life right now… are weeks off of rowing.

Our goal for next season is… to join the French Olympic squad and get into the fourth chess division.