May 2024 – Inger Seim Kavlie

ROWER OF THE MONTH – Norway’s Inger Seim Kavlie has been racing internationally for a decade now, but 2024 looks like being her breakout year. After winning bronze in the women’s single sculls at World Rowing Cup I in Varese, Kavlie teamed up with Thea Helseth in the women’s double sculls at the 2024 European Rowing Championships and beat reigning world and Olympic champions Romania twice on their way to gold. It was Norway’s first-ever women’s medal in an Olympic boat class. She is our Rower of the Month.

How did you get into rowing?

That’s a long story. I started pretty late. As a kid I did some cross country skiing, I wasn’t very good at that; tried some handball, wasn’t very good at that; did football, was quite good at that. I started at a local gym with a small group of people that were completely obsessed with indoor rowing, so they did these group workouts. The first time I tried it out the instructor came up to me after the session and was telling me I was as strong as a man. Each year they went to CRASH-Bs in Boston as a group and each year they would sponsor one of their members at the gym, so I got the opportunity to go with them in 2011 and I started rowing on the water after that.

Learning to row is so difficult. I was trying to learn how to scull in a single and I was completely hopeless. My coach was rowing in the single as well and coaching at the same time, and I would flip the single each session and we’d row it into the bank and try again. I met a lot of great people throughout the years and have just been enjoying it more and more.

What is your best rowing memory so far?

This season is pretty high up there already. Back in 2014 I did the World Rowing Under 23 Championships with a great friend of mine and we did pretty well that season as well (winning silver in the women’s double sculls).

You raced the single sculls at the 2023 World Rowing Championships and World Rowing Cup I in Varese – do you enjoy that boat class?

It’s not something I’ve done a lot of, I’ve always been in bigger team boats – the double, and the eight at university in Berkeley. But you learn a lot from it and you figure out what you need individually to go fast and what your standards are, and how you want to go at it by yourself. You have to do a lot of work and you have to prepare mentally because you only have yourself.

How did you feel before the European Rowing Championships? Did you know your boat was going fast?

We were a little nervous. We had some ideas that it could be a fast combination but you never know how you will compare to the competitors. We were both a bit surprised about how fast it was.

Why is the partnership with Thea Helseth working so well and so quickly?

Thea is a nightmare to sit next to on the ergo and do pieces against in the single, but it’s a dream to row with her in the double. She is always pushing for more and is super strong physically and mentally.

Did you know before the final in Szeged that you had the chance to become the first Norwegian women to win a medal in an Olympic-class boat? What did achieving that mean to you?

I’ve been looking this year at the medal history for Norwegian rowing and it’s a lot of male rowers. Thart’s been a big dream for the girls on our team and for Norwegian rowing that we can make women’s rowing equal to what they’ve achieved on the men’s programme.

It’s also just the girls on the team now that have stuck it out for a long time and never given up. This is the beginning of a new era for Norwegian women’s rowing. We have a few rowers at junior level that are very good, so I hope that they will also stick around for a few years. It’s a very small sport in Norway so I hope that now we are finally seeing some results on the women’s side it will inspire more people to give it a go and hang in there.

How is rowing perceived in Norway?

Most people don’t know what rowing is. Cross country skiing is super popular and soccer is popular. There’s not a lot of media focus on Norwegian rowing. We have a very good team this year, we’re a very good group of both men and women that are hungry to do some good results.

What are your hopes and aims for the rest of the season?

It’s hard to say. We’re excited to race some overseas competitors next weekend, and then I’m sure that people will be in very good shape in Paris. I hope that we also have some room for improvement, and continue to make a mark on the rest of the season.

Who has inspired you in your career?

There’s a lot of inspiring people in the rowing community and that was one of the things that fascinated me about the sport, that you meet people across all age groups that devoted their life in sport and their life after sport to rowing.

I am very grateful for the community in my rowing club Christiania Roklub, they are a big reason why I still love rowing and kept at it; and my coach Sebastian Baranzano, as he is a big part of the recent success for the Norwegian women’s team. He is a very knowledgeble coach who genuinely cares for his athletes, and has always stayed true to our dreams and goals.

What’s your favourite training session?

You have to like all the training that you do as an athlete. Tomorrow we’re doing some 500m pieces to prepare for next weekend, and it’s fun that after a long weekend of slow and steady training that you get to test whether you’re prepared for the summer.

What’s on your ergo playlist?

Whatever the team DJ puts on. It rotates. I’m usually not the DJ.

Where is your favourite place to row?

Probably my favourite place is Varese. That’s where me and Marianne Madsen took a silver medal at U23s (in 2014) and it’s also where I took my first senior medal this year. We’ve been on the other side of the lake in Gavirate on training camps quite a bit. It’s a nice lake, nice view of the mountains and a fast course. When our coach is tired of looking at the rowing, he looks at the mountains.