Six surviving members of the original Great Eight reunited on the Holmestrandsfjorden before Olaf Tufte’s funeral in Horten on Friday, rowing once more for their friend and former crewmate.
Mourning Norway’s Olympic Legend Olaf Tufte
Later, rowers from Horten Roklubb, other clubs and the international racing community formed an oar guard as the funeral procession left Horten Church. The tribute came after Tufte died from acute cardiac arrest on 21 July. He was 50 years old.
Flags flew at half-mast in Horten before the nationally broadcast service. Tufte, a two-time Olympic single-sculls champion who raced at seven Games, had remained closely connected to his home club and the wider rowing community after his final Olympic appearance at Tokyo 2020.
Great Eight Back on the Water
Alan Campbell, Iztok Čop, Ondřej Synek, Mahé Drysdale, Tim Maeyens and Andre Vonarburg took part in the commemorative row. Marcel Hacker was the only surviving member of the original crew not present.
The Great Eight started out as an ambitious post-Beijing idea, put together by Campbell and his coach, Olympic silver medallist Bill Barry. All of its members had placed inside the top ten in the men’s single sculls at the 2008 Olympics.
By the end of their careers, the eight scullers held 16 Olympic medals between them. They were established rivals, accustomed to racing alone or in small national crews, but had only one week of training before winning the 2009 Eights Head of the River Race in London, UK on the Thames.
Čop said the crew’s quality came from the commitment of its members rather than any certainty that eight elite scullers would make a technically perfect sweep boat.
“I don’t believe that we were the best eight that fit in the boat,” Čop told Olympics.com. “But the professionalism you could sense from each one of us, that everybody gave 100 per cent for the team to work, it was a special gathering.”
The crew raced several times during 2009 and reunited for Synek’s testimonial in Prague in 2022. Campbell said their shared identity had outlasted the medals won in national colours.
“We stripped away our own individual country identities to come together as a team identity and to be one,” he said. “I don’t have my Olympic medal displayed. I don’t actually have any World Championship medals displayed anywhere. I only have a picture of the Great Eight.”
Tufte had been central to recruiting the crew and holding together its strong personalities. During one difficult training session, Campbell lost his temper as the boat struggled to find its rhythm. Tufte quietly began singing Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart”, growing louder until the crew started laughing.
“All the tension dropped, and after that session, we flew for the rest of it,” Campbell said.
Horten Raises Its Oars
Inside Horten Church, an oar rested on Tufte’s coffin beneath flowers from his immediate family. His work clothes and rowing kit were displayed nearby, alongside a chopping block and axe that reflected his life on the family farm.
His wife, Aina Tufte, spoke about their marriage, his humour and the security she found in their relationship.
“We often said: ‘You and me, always.’ And we meant it,” she said, according to VG’s report from the service. “We will never get over this, but we will get through it.”
Tore Øvrebø, the head of elite sport at Olympiatoppen, also addressed the congregation. Author Jo Nesbø read from his novel Police, while Bjarne Brøndbo and actor and singer Jannicke Kruse performed during the ceremony.
Near the end of the service, the congregation completed three shared rowing strokes. A drum marked the movement before the coffin was carried from the church by pallbearers including former international rowers Ramon di Clemente, Čop, Synek and Drysdale.
Outside, oars rose above the procession to create a guard leading away from the church. Tufte’s son drove a tractor in front of the funeral vehicle, carrying a sign that read Papa’s last journey.
The gathering included figures from Norwegian sport and public life, as well as rowers from several generations. Former para-rower Birgit Skarstein described the ceremony as beautiful, powerful and diverse, and said Tufte had always made time for people around him.
Horten Roklubb hosted a memorial gathering after the funeral. The club had also held a public tribute in the days following his death, when rowers completed a symbolic last outing before those on shore applauded.
Friendship Beyond the Finish Line
For Čop, competition strengthened rather than complicated his friendship with Tufte. The Slovenian four-time Olympic medallist said victories between friends produced celebrations long after racing had finished. Tufte later served as best man at his wedding.
The pair last met three weeks before Tufte’s death, sharing beers and discussing plans for the World Championships in Amsterdam in August.
“We were joking about meeting again for the Worlds in Amsterdam this August, since for the last World Championship in Amsterdam, Olaf was still racing,” says Čop. “We did some stupid things, and we said that it’s dangerous if we get together again, that we might prove that we didn’t smarten up in the last 13 years. That was the last joke we had before we went our own ways. I’m really glad that we had those couple of hours, because before we didn’t see each other for almost a year. That will stay in my memory forever.”
Campbell said Tufte’s demanding training example pushed his rivals to prepare more thoroughly. Work on the farm, including chopping wood, became part of the story of his strength, but Campbell placed greater weight on how Tufte treated other rowers.
“There’ll be a big focus on him as an Olympian, but it’s the way he made people feel that’s his true legacy,” Campbell said. “There is not a rower that has a bad word to say about him.”
Tufte is survived by Aina and their children, Herman and Mie Louise. Čop said maintaining the friendships formed through racing would offer a lasting way to remember him.
“I hope that we will manage to keep that connection so that we will start gathering on certain occasions,” he said. “That would be the greatest tribute to him.”
