04 Dec 2024
Meet the 2024 World Rowing Men’s Crew of the Year
Meet Lennart Van Lierop, Finn Florijn, Tone Wieten, and Koen Metsemakers. They make up the indomitable Dutch men’s quadruple sculls and they’ve just won the 2024 World Rowing Men’s Crew of the Year following their outstanding season that ended in gold at the Paris Olympic Games.
As a complete crew Metsemakers, Wieten, Florijn and Van Lierop first raced internationally on the waters of the Rotsee at World Rowing Cup III just a year out from the Paris Olympics. It was clear right from the beginning that this line up had something special. At World Cup III they won their heat and sailed across the line in the final in first having led the entire race and finishing with a two second advantage over Great Britain.
With some minor tweaking to the seating order, the crew remained the same for the rest of the season and through to the Olympics. They never lost a race from heats through to finals and at the Olympic rowing venue, Vaires-sur-Marne the crew led from start to finish in a final where they had now established themselves as favourites.
In stroke, Metsemakers was defending his Olympic title from Tokyo. The 32-year-old had set out on his rowing journey while at university. “A friend suggested I give it a chance. She warned that I shouldn’t be too involved, because I might get addicted. It is clear that I did not listen!”
“Rowing has been a part of my life for 20 years,” described Tone Wieten at the award ceremony. “It’s been an amazing time.” Wieten was also defending his Tokyo Olympic title. His rowing journey started on the Dutch junior team and since 2015 he has been part of the Dutch national team. He remained in his country’s senior eight and raced to bronze at the Rio 2016 Olympics. Wieten then moved to the four where he remained for the next two years. In 2019, Wieten swapped one oar for two and joined the Dutch quad. At that year’s European Championships, the crew won and the line up looked to be set leading into Tokyo.
Finn Florijn came into the quad in 2022. He is the youngest of the crew and had come from racing the single at the Tokyo Olympics. At Tokyo Florijn’s regatta got cut short after contracting Covid-19 and he didn’t make it past the repechage.
“Then I got a chance to crew with these guys and it’s been a lot of fun. Koen is the best stroke I’ve ever seen. He can be a bit spicy sometimes because he knows what he needs to do to be the best. Lenny, our bow, keeps the balance for us even if we’re not helping him. They’re all great teammates and I wouldn’t have done it with anyone else.”
Like Florijn, Van Lierop only joined the quad at the 2023 World Rowing Cup III. He had been on the Dutch national team ever since he was a junior. Two years out of the junior squad, Van Lierop was selected for his country’s senior eight. He was just 20 years old. The next year Van Lierop moved to lightweight rowing and raced at the under-23’s in the lightweight single. He then made it back onto the senior team and became the ultimate mover going from the double to the pair and then the eight and single.
One of his stand-out races was gold in the men’s single at the 2023 European Rowing Championships. Despite his relative naivety in this boat class and only at the event as a spare for the quad, Van Lierop beat the Olympic Champion Stefanos Ntouskos and the World Champion Oliver Zeidler to the line. This effort helped earn Van Lierop a spot in the quad, and with that crew he never lost a race.
Finalists Men’s Crew of the Year
- Sholto Carnegie, Rory Gibbs, Morgan Bolding, Jacob Dawson, Charles Elwes, Thomas Digby, James Rudkin, Tom Ford, Harry Brightmore, Men’s Eight, Great Britain
- Lennart Van Lierop, Finn Florijn, Tone Wieten, Koen Metsemakers, Men’s Quadruple Sculls, Netherlands
- Nicholas Mead, Justin Best, Michael Grady, Liam Corrigan, Men’s Four, United States of America