Mads Rasmussen

Mads Rasmussen with the 2012 Olympic gold medal

Mads Reinholdt Rasmussen (* 24. November 1981 in Nykøbing ) is a Danish rower and Olympic champion in 2012 in lightweight - double sculls .

Athletic career

In 1998 and 1999, Rasmussen finished fifth at the Junior World Championships together with Lasse Bork . In 2001 he competed with Rasmus Quist for the first time , and at the 2001 World Rowing Championships the two took sixth place. The following year they won their first world championship medal with bronze in Seville . At their first Olympic start in Athens in 2004 , Quist and Rasmussen achieved fourth place, having previously won their first World Cup race in Poznan. In 2005 the two started on Dorney Lake in Eton in the lightweight single, Rasmussen won ahead of Quist. At the World Championships in Gifu , the two received silver behind the Hungarian double scull. Quist and Rasmussen rowed their first world title in 2006 on Dorney Lake in Eton. In 2007, the two Danes achieved four victories in the four most important races of the year: World Cup victories in Linz, Amsterdam and Lucerne as well as at the World Championships in Munich . In 2008, the two of them won only a second place in the World Cup in Poznan, at the Olympic Games in Beijing they received bronze behind the British and Greek boats.

After that, Rasmussen and Quist separated. In 2009 Rasmussen rowed in the lightweight single and won bronze in this boat class at the 2009 World Rowing Championships in Poznan, 2010 Rasmussen competed with Thomas Larsen in the double scull in the open weight class, without success. It wasn't until 2011 that Quist and Rasmussen found each other again in the lightweight double scull. After two third places in the World Cup, they finished fifth at the World Championships . In 2012, the two achieved fourth place and two third places in the World Cup. The 2012 Olympic Regatta was held on Lake Dorney in Eton, the regatta course on which Quist and Rasmussen achieved their double World Cup victory and won their first world title. In the 2012 Olympic final, the two Danes won just ahead of the 2008 British Olympic champions and 2010 and 2011 world champions, Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter . Four years later, Quist and Rasmussen were able to qualify again for the 2016 Olympic Games , in Rio de Janeiro they finished tenth.

Rasmussen is 1.83 meters tall and has a competition weight of around 69 kilograms. He rows for the Danske Studenters Roklub in Copenhagen.

Web links

• Mads Rasmussen in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Mads Rasmussen at Worldrowing.com ( FISA database )