No Double For Old Men

Paris, France

3 minute read
Words Row360
Photography Benedict Tufnell
Published 29.07.24

Croatia’s Sinkovic brothers, now aged 34 and 36, are legends in rowing. Initially part of a superb Croatian men’s quad, they split up after silver in London 2012 and went into the double, where they claimed Rio gold before switching to the pair for Tokyo. 2022 and 2023 were spent back in favoured double, giving them a fourth place and a silver medal at the worlds, then they switched again this year, making the Loncaric twins, sweep rowers who had qualified the Croatian M2-, take up sculling.

On the second day of racing, the Row360 caught up with Martin and Valent Sinkovic after winning their heats.

How does it feel to be back at the Olympics in a pair, after declaring that you’d never be back at the Olympics in a pair?

Martin Sinkovic (MS): Never say never again. So that’s it, it’s nice. It’s a good feeling the last two, three weeks, we had a really good feeling in the boat so we did a really good training camp and have confidence at this Olympics. It’s beautiful in the Olympics, it’s always special, always much different than the world championships. Definitely we are enjoying it and hope it will stay like that until the finals.

How did the decision to go back into the pair happen?

Valent Sinkovic (VS): We weren’t that happy with two years spent in the double after the Tokyo Olympics. We think as we get older we lack a little bit of explosiveness and power, and then we talk maybe back to the pair. Pair you can do without the explosiveness I think, but double it’s hard to do it. You can see maybe today we don’t have that powerful start as before, but we said we just need to go and try to do our best in the middle, find the rhythm, and I think it was very powerful in middle of the race, so we’re happy about that.

MS: Definitely, we improved our technique a lot, that’s what we expected and what we hoped to do. We are happy how the boat is going and can’t wait for the semi-final and final.

Do you row a pair as well now, or maybe better, than you did in Tokyo?

VS: We feel we’re rowing at least the same. It’s hard to say but we have good speed and we have confidence. And we got some tips from Drew Ginn and Eric Murray so that was helpful.

What kind of tips?

VS: I won’t say, they’re really good tips, very helpful! Thanks, for sure.

MS: It was nice, they sent us a message ‘if we can help, just tell us’. And we asked their help. I think it would be very stupid not to ask for help, that kind of rowers. We feel good in the boat.

VS: They know how to row the pair, and they help us a lot. We’ll see, can’t wait for the semis and the final. Especially with GB, they are definitely the favourites here.

Did you see the finish of [heat 1]? A four-way photofinish between many of their rivals

MS: No, we heard about it. If Switzerland miss the direct place, that tells you a lot.

VS: And I think this kind of races in the semis and final, but that’s good for rowing. I expect for sure they will be faster, the Swiss can really do it.