January 2025 - Marian Enache

Marian Enache made history last year together with his rowing partner Andrei-Sebastian Cornea, when the duo won Romania’s first-ever men’s double sculls medal at the European Rowing Championships in Szeged. They went on to claim a spectacular gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, claiming Romania’s first ever Olympic medal in men’s sculling. He is the Rower of the Month.

How did you get into rowing?

I started rowing 15 years ago. I was selected by a coach. She came to my city: in that period my city was really far away from the club where I started rowing, it was 400km away.

I started at the age of 14. I like it, I love it. I love the pain I feel, because I understand that that pain makes me stronger and nobody else can really endure that kind of pain. I think rowing was made for me.

I started other sports at a young age, like handball and football a little bit, but I found myself in rowing. This beautiful sport gives me the best result of my career.

Between the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and the 2023 World Rowing Championships in Belgrade you were in the men’s quadruple sculls, qualifying for Paris – did you expect to be racing that boat in Paris?

I was in final B in Tokyo but for me it was the same as final A. Every race is the best I can make it at that time.

I found myself in the next years in the quad; the quad is a difficult boat, not just for me but for the whole crew, because it’s not easy for all four to be in the same village.

I tried to make our quad the fastest boat, but how fast we got in that period was enough for us because we qualified for the Games. I didn’t expect to row at Paris in the double, I expected to row in the single or in the quad.

But I found myself in 2024 stronger than I was before, and I said OK, let’s go in the double again and make it fly. I don’t know exactly what the future has for me but the double remains my favourite boat class. I hope in the future I will beat the world rowing record.

What made the combination with Andrei Cornea work?

In 2021, in the last qualification in Lucerne we tried to qualify the quad also and we failed. That was the first time in my life when I rowed with Andrei in a boat.

Andrei started to grow up. He understood what he had to do to become better and better every day. I was lucky because Andrei, when he came in the double with me, he understood that he had to be with me in the same line. He knows that in whatever boat I am in, that boat is faster.

I told him, Andrei we have a shot, you’ve got only me, I’ve got only you. We have to make this double faster. We have the same parameter, we are strong enough, we are stronger than the others, but we have to enjoy it, to enjoy more the pain and suffering.

Andrei understood that. We give our max in every training, we enjoy it so much, we understand each other like brothers. From my point of view trust is the principal factor in a crew. Being there for him when he needs it the most is a plus. It’s helping the crew.

So we trust each other, he understands what I need, he understands that he’s stronger than he thinks. We just made our race and we got the confirmation that I was right, we are the best.

You were third in the semifinal in Paris, but beat the Dutch in the final – what was the secret in that race?

We won the final because of the semifinal. We had the best semifinal of our life. We had an issue – nobody else knows about this problem – Andrei had a defect with his seat. I remember that halfway through the race I felt that Andrei was not there with me. I knew that something was wrong, not physically, not mentally, something else is wrong, so we started to push.

I don’t think about the problems, I don’t think about nothing in the race, I know only that if I’m able to push myself forward everything is possible. I accepted what happened in that race. We pushed ourselves, we pushed and pushed and pushed until the last stroke.

After this semifinal I told Andrei that if with this bad semifinal we made the final, with our problems in the boat, in the final we destroy them. I told him at the start in the final we have to start faster, to push every stroke like it will be the last one, so we’ll see in the last 500 what is happening. We know what we’re capable of in the last 500 metres.

Of course during the year I studied a lot the Netherlands crew, I studied a lot the Irish crew. I knew that the Netherlands would be coming the second 1000 metres, so my goal was to not respond to them, to let them attack us. That was where we won the final. When the Netherlands attacked us we just kept our rhythm. In the last 500 metres, when we had a finish, they didn’t. There was the difference.

Mentality is the main factor I think. When you have everything here in your mind, when your dreams are smiling, they have no chance.

It’s history for Romania, it’s history for me. It’s something that some years ago I wasn’t dreaming about. Now I know that nothing is impossible.

What has life been like since Paris?

That medal is only a confirmation that my life is beautiful. I love every day of my life, because it’s a chance for me to be better. I wasn’t a winner all the time, but when I understood what it means to be a winner, I’m every day a winner, because every day in my life I become better.

I love to say to the youngsters yesterday is history, tomorrow is mystery, and today is present. That is the best gift of our life. I’m enjoying every day.

What do you think makes Romanian rowing so successful?

Because of the training camp. We live in the training camp, our training camp is our second home. We stay in the training camp 10 months of 12, every single year.

Sometimes for our mental health this is not very well, but we understand what we have to do. We choose to do this, to row and win. If we choose this we shouldn’t complain. We train a lot every day, we keep a strict programme.

We have to still work a lot on our mentality and I’m sure in the future Romanians will be faster and will be stronger than this cycle.

What’s your favourite session?

All the sessions are difficult in their different ways. I have one training that I love: four times 1000 metres, max. When I have good times in the 1000m it gives me motivation and the confidence that I can be the best in the world.

I like also the ergo machine because I can improve my technique, my mentality, my condition, but rowing is on the water.

What’s on your erg playlist?

I’m listening to a lot of kinds of music, but mostly on my playlist what I’ve got is hip hop, because it’s motivational music.

Most of the time I don’t listen to anything, I listen just to my thoughts. I prefer to feel what I’m doing in the gym, to feel when I work the muscles, to feel when the ergo machine makes me tired, to feel everything in my body. In my opinion music helps you to make your training easier, and after you finish you don’t understand too much because your mind wasn’t there 100 per cent.

Where’s your favourite place to race?

I like Lucerne. I like Switzerland in general really. There I’ve had a lot of times a lot of races where I’ve found myself. It’s a good lake, it’s a nice place to row.

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

Every athlete in the world has to understand that it’s important to enjoy every day of your life, to enjoy every session of your training and to try to understand what you have to do to become better, to become a man, become a human with soul in their heart, to be empathetic. Once you’re enjoying everything you do, you cannot fail. But also they have to understand that losing is the best way to understand what you have to change to win.

And to be patient, because if you are patient your results will come. I had a long career, I was behind all the time. I knew it in my mind, I knew it always that my day, my year, would be the one when I needed it the most. The confirmation was the 2024 European regatta, the Olympic gold medal was my confirmation. These are the rewards for my patience.

I’m happy to be part of the rowing family because it’s the most beautiful family in the world. Rowing makes you stronger, rowing makes you a man, rowing shows you that without work you would be nothing.