October 2024: Magdalena Lobnig

ROWER OF THE MONTH – Austria’s Magdalena Lobnig has been on the international rowing scene for well over a decade, winning multiple world and European championship and World Rowing Cup medals and bronze at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in the women’s single sculls final. Now, Lobnig has expanded her repertoire to coastal rowing and emerged as a double champion – in the coastal women’s double sculls with her sister Katharina at the 2024 World Rowing Coastal Championships, and in the coastal women’s single sculls at the 2024 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals. She is the Rower of the Month.

How did you get into rowing, and what made you stick with it?

Me and my sister live really close to our rowing club here in our little city in Austria. We always wondered what the people were doing there on the lake with the boats.

Once a friend of my sister said come to the club, we need girls. With the school rowing programme we joined the club, and I fell in love immediately. I loved to do something together with my sister and not against her.

At our first regatta we just won straight away, so the success was there from the beginning. I joined the junior national team at the age of 16, so I was really young, and we medalled at the junior world championships.

It’s like a current, once you’re in it it’s hard to get out of it. I love the community and the lifestyle, I love rowing training. I love the environment, I love the feeling of rowing, of sitting in a boat and being responsible on my own for the flow of the rhythm and the boat.

You’ve spent most of your career in the single scull – what do you enjoy about that boat class?

I love the feeling of being independent. I started in team boats – as a junior and under 23 I was always in doubles and quads. I always wanted to try the single as an under 23 but the federation didn’t let me.

In 2013 I got the chance to try it, because I had a huge development, I was way faster than the other Austrian girls. I got straight away a silver medal at the European championships behind Mirka Knapkova, which was very amazing.

Since then they let me in the single to do my thing. The best thing is that you’re independent, you don’t rely on other ones for the performances on day X. It can always happen that the other one is not focused or ill, or injured. Anything can happen. In a single it’s just you and I really like the feeling. I can train whenever I like and do whatever I like.

How would you describe the 2024 season?

It was a very difficult season. It’s been really a rollercoaster for me.

We always had the goal to do the double with my sister and to qualify it in Lucerne for Paris was always the main goal. Then I got a bad injury in the spring with my disc herniation in my neck and I had to stop rowing for two to three months. The doctors said that I might not be able to row again because it is so big. Then we found a great medical team that brought me back to be able to compete in Paris.

The timeline was really stressful. I got there right on time. Tenth place in Paris was really a success for me because the doctors said I wouldn’t be able to row there. It was really nice to fight back and to show them it was possible. But of course I had to struggle, each race was a big success that I made it to the finish line.

To reach the semifinal was really cool. The women’s single is so competitive and it’s amazing that I made a 10th place there. After you win a medal at the Olympic Games you always want to win more medals, but I knew how much I had to train to win the medal in Tokyo and I knew my body wouldn’t do it this season.

What is it like rowing with your sister?

It depends on the session. If it’s great running it’s easy, but it’s not always great in training.

Of course we argue a lot when it’s a bad session, but in the end we always have a lot of fun. We can argue but it’s staying in the boat. There should be nothing between us with being sisters because we are also best friends in real life.

We had bad races in the past three years but it never changed our relationship together. It’s the best, best thing to row with my sister.

We are a perfect match because we are physically very different as sportswomen – she’s my diesel engine and I am her petrol because. I help her to get us out of the blocks and she helps me in the middle of the race. We know that each one has the perfect strength for a rowing race.

It’s the best feeling to share more times with her, and I really enjoyed the past two or three years where we have been together for so many kms and so many adventures and regattas. It was one of the best times of my life.

What made you give coastal rowing a try?

Last year I stepped first into coastal rowing at the world championships in a double together with my sister. After that I thought oh my gosh, now I know what all the people are saying about the coastal scene. On paper it looks easy, but when you’re in the boat out there it’s really challenging.

I was really stressed in my first race. I thought I would be done with it after the heat at the world championships but then you get used to it. You have to change a little bit your tactics from flat-water rowing, you learn how to handle the big boats and the big waves and then it’s getting fun.

Do you prefer coastal endurance rowing or beach sprints?

I love both, because both disciplines are so different. From my physiology I would say the sprint distance is more for my body. It suits me really well.

I love the racing, it’s short, it’s adventurous, it’s exciting to watch and anything can happen. But also in the endurance I like it because here also anything can happen until the finish line, you’re never done until the finish line.

You really have to try it to get a real opinion about beach sprints. It’s hard fun, it’s hard, tough racing and it takes a lot of each athlete to be fast there. You need a lot of skills, you need to be fast-thinking, fast-moving.

And you need a great boat handling team. You need three boat handlers who can do everything perfectly. All those people are close. My sister was holding the boat: I run to my closest people.

Did you think you could win either of the coastal titles this year?

I saw the entry list and I thought oh my gosh, all these Olympians are coming, it’s going to be really hard. Then I said to my sister I want to win this, I don’t want to be second, I don’t want to be third, I want to win the double.

After a great heat I knew we could do it. We had a bad start in the double in the endurance race, but we fought back so great that we could get the lead at the first buoy line, and once you’re in the lead you can more or less hold it. It’s so difficult if you’re in second or third position to pass a boat especially on that course. We managed to win and it was so nice, it was an amazing feeling, it was so nice especially for my sister.

Then we had one week until beach sprints and I thought double world champion also sounds nice. But it was my first race in beach sprints so I didn’t know what was going to happen. My coach said to me it really suits me, I’m a fast sprinter and a fast thinker as well, which you need for beach sprints.

The biggest challenger was Emma Twigg in the semifinals. There were not many times I could beat Emma but here I was a bit stronger.

Will we see you on flat or coastal water at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games?

I don’t know yet. But I will most likely focus more on beach sprints. It should be able to work more professionally now it’s in LA. But I have to see how my body reacts. I’m still fighting against my injury and trying to make it better, so I have to see how things develop.

Where’s your favourite place to row?

My favourite place to row and the most beautiful one is the lake Weissensee in Austria where I always spend my camps before the big regattas. The water is like in the Caribbean, it’s crystal clear water, it’s like holidays.

Poznan is one of my favourite regatta courses because it’s very fair racing there and it’s often fast times. It’s not beautiful, but I like the good rowing there. I know most people say Lucerne but Lucerne is so narrow, everything is so tiny – it’s too tiny for me.

What’s on your erg playlist?

I listen to almost every type of music, but for hard erg pieces it’s mostly techno or house music. I have several playlists which I can use for several training sessions so it really depends. If it’s hard then it’s fast and loud music, if it’s slower then it’s a good rhythm which I can stick to.

What’s the best piece of advice anyone has given you?

Stay in the moment. It doesn’t matter what was in the past, it doesn’t matter what’s in the future. In racing you always have to stick in the moment and not think too much. You have it in your hands now and not in the past.