ATHLETE OF THE MONTH

Henrik Stephansen (January 2011)

11 January 2011

Here we are in the thick of indoor rowing season and what a better way to highlight it than by profiling Henrik Stephansen. The Dane has broken more indoor rowing World Records for 17 year olds, 18 year olds and the open lightweight men (three times!). He is the only lightweight man to go under six minutes for the 2000m test and all that is just part of his training to go fast on the water. Stephansen is World Rowing’s Athlete of the Month and he tells us about his background in rowing and what makes him tick on ‘that’ machine.

World Rowing:  Tell us a bit about your background in rowing. Is it in the family?
Henrik Stephansen: I started rowing in August 2000. By that time I was sailing a wayfarer as a Sea Scout. I wanted to do a more physically active sport and some of the scouts were at the rowing club so it was natural for me to start rowing. For the first couple of years I wasn’t racing but rowed tours in larger (traditional) boats. 
My older sister rowed but stopped a couple of years before I started and my mother started two years after me.

The rest of the story here: www.worldrowing.com