August 2025: Varvara Lykomitrou

This month’s Rower of the Month is still only 18 years old, and has been racing internationally for two years, but she stands out after two outstanding performances at the 2025 World Rowing Under 23 and Under 19 Championships. Varvara Lykomitrou won gold for Greece in the women’s double sculls at the under 23 event, and followed up two weeks later with under 19 gold in the women’s single sculls, adding to her under 19 European title.

How did you get into rowing?

I was never really into sports, I was more on the gymnastic side – I did ballet, gymnastics, all that stuff. But my dad [Vasilios Lykomitros] was a rower, he went to the Olympics in Seoul, and my brother [Apostolos] was also a rower. I went to watch him at Plovdiv in 2021 in the under 19 championships, and I remember watching the racing and I was literally at the edge of my seat, I got goosebumps watching each race. I just looked over to my dad and said ‘I really, really want to do this’.

I really really liked it. I think I love the competition, it was something new to me, getting to race against people. Also having a team, going to boats, and really connecting with people. Just going out on the water was really therapeutic for me. It was nice from the start.

Your first international event for Greece was the 2024 European Rowing Under 19 Championships – what was that like as an experience?

I was really happy to get selected to race. The previous year I tried but I didn’t get selected. I was super excited, super anxious as well, because I was racing with a girl who had won silver the previous year [Gavriela Lioliou]. I had super high hopes, I wanted to make everyone proud.

To be honest the Europeans and the Worlds are such a high competition that I felt I had in the back of my mind that I could start, and every boat would go off and I would still be still, waiting. I was going for a medal higher than what my teammate had last year, and I knew I would do everything to make that happens, so I was like, whatever happens, you have to be first in every race.

What has the summer been like for you? You’ve won three gold medals – which are you most proud of?

All of them were really exciting. The first one was unexpected, the second one even more. The under 23s was incredible. It was a very big surprise to me to win gold. I did not expect to be winning gold.

The Under 19 World Championships were my favourite part. When the year started I said to myself and to my coach that I would do everything to qualify in the single and have a chance to get a medal there. I just admire everyone who goes into the single, it’s such a technical boat. I waited for that race and for that competition all year. Every training was for that moment.

What was it like racing the double at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships with Dimitra Kontou?

It was a real learning experience. Every time I went into the water she taught me something new. We had a good teamwork, we worked really well. I think I realised that under 23s are quite different from the under 19 category. Everybody has such experience that you can’t really have a plan for the race, you have to start really fast and keep going until the end. I’m really happy that we had trust in each other and she trusted me. She has an Olympic medal, so it was an honour racing with her. I tried my best to give her what she really wanted, and she really wanted that gold.

Greek rowing seems to be in a pretty good place right now. What is it like to be part of that success?

We are a very small team but we are super competitive. We maybe don’t have the height that every other country has, we don’t have the strength or the build but we really want it. We will do everything to get it. We are very competitive as a team.

Our rowing programme is super-tough so competition, toughness, resilience, it’s everything. We’re in a training camp most of the year, we’re not at our homes, we’re training every day, and I think you have to really want it to be able to do that.

You’ve just started at Yale University – why did you pick Yale, and how has the beginning of the first semester been?

I was talking to a few universities. The biggest difference was probably in the team spirit as a whole. Every girl here is so connected and we really want everybody to do well. Just coming here and seeing that, having people to work out with, you’re happy for their success and they’re happy for yours. Also being able to train with such good coaches. And the classes have a mix of everything.

I have Christina Bourmpou and Aikaterini Gkogkou here who are really good rowers that also competed at international level. They’ve been really helpful even before me arriving here, they were also a part of me making that decision. I hope to create an even stronger bond with them.

Longer-term, what would you like to achieve in rowing?

I really hope to be able to race with the national team with my coach Gianni Postiglione, he’s incredible. I have the Olympics as a goal, as far as it may be, as difficult as it may be.

I’m usually not the kind of person to take small steps, I look very far ahead in time. I really want to be able to keep up my level here in university. I’ll see this summer if everything goes well. Maybe if things go well I’ll take a gap year and work with the national team to try. It’s a completely different category and I would be competing with people with much more experience than me. It would be super exciting and such an honour. Even trying for it will be amazing.

Where’s your favourite place to row?

I would say it’s a small place in Greece close to my hometown called Giannitsa. We went there with my club and I rowed there for the first time in my brother’s single, which is a 100kg boat. My first experiences in rowing were there – training for trials, doing 30km as a start of training.

It’s such a beautiful place filled with trees, so calm. Being able to row in a quiet space with birds and nature around you is the best feeling.

What’s on the erg playlist?

I have old rock songs. I have Queen, I have Bon Jovi, I have so many. I have Led Zeppelin, I have The Clash, I have Dire Straits of course, a little Michael Jackson. I also have Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West – I have a bit of everything, to be honest. I want to be hyped, I’m not the kind of person who throws on some sad music.

Who has inspired you so far in your life or rowing career?

In my life my parents and my brother. I look up to them. My dad has taught me so much about rowing, the way to handle the mental part, the physical part. He’s been there through everything. I do everything for him and for my mom as well. My brother has inspired me as an athlete.

Everybody has been a part of my journey and I look up to each and everyone of them.

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

To embrace the pain and not be afraid of it. This advice made a big change in the way I view things. I had my downfall moments, times when I felt so weak, periods where I felt ‘this is it, I’m in such a bad condition that I won’t be able to continue’. That’s where I realised that the pain, the tiredness, it’s all going to come, it’s inevitable, and you can escape it. You have to pass through it – don’t go around, embrace the pain, accept it and it’s going to pass. You’re going to come out even stronger and probably with a medal like I did.