Karin’s main sport – Rowing

I started to row when I was about 16 years of age. One of my friends used to row and her dad was also very involved in the local rowing club in Halmstad, Halmstad Gymnastik och Roddklubb. So, I decided to give it a go. I started of by rowing in a double scull with her dad then later on I started rowing with my friend. Soon after I also gave the single scull a go. I loved it! But, what a lot of people did not know, was that i was petrified of the deep water. I was so scared of falling in and so scared of the dark water. Luckily I did not fall in until a lot later on and by that stage I was ok with being “on” the water.

Here I am, very proud to be representing my country for the first time. Hmm, you can see it was in the 80′s, cant’ you?!

It did not take long until I was asked to represent my country Sweden. I was thrilled to be asked to go and compete for Sweden in Finland in 1985. I was so young and so in experienced and to be part of a team of very experienced sport people was amazing. I think I got the ‘taste’ for it then and decided to do my best to excel in the sport. In 1986 I was selected to represent Sweden in Single scull. The event was held in Cologne. I was still very new to the sport and did not have much experience. I don’t think I really realized was I was up for. Shortly after arriving at the rowing course a very tall and muscly – actually Huge – girl said “hi”. It was the tallest, biggest Chinese girl I had ever seen. I remember asking my coach who she was and when he told me she was one of the single scull girls that I was going to compete agains – then I truly felt like going straight back home. I thought, how can I ever beat that “monster”. Anyway, after overcoming, the fear of big competitors, I managed to do alright for a beginner in the end. I continued to row and represented Sweden numerous times around Europe in both single and lightweight double scull. I truly had a great time. During the summer 1990, me and another girl from Sweden was asked to represent Sweden in Luzern, Switzerland. This was a big selection race for the coming World Rowing Championships in Tasmania, Australia, later on that year. Me and my friend competed in the Lightweight Double scull. We did really well in all the heats and semi finals and ended up in the A-final. The A-final was very close. We ended up 4th, just a second after the 3rd, which was very irritating at the time, although, there were two German crews in the A-final which really meant we were amongst the top 3 best lightweight double in the world at the time. This is because Germany would only be able to send one of the good crews to the World Championships in Tasmania. So, we got selected to later on in that year represent Sweden in Tasmania, Australia. Below is the photo of the Swedish Rowing Team 1990. See if you can spot me…….I am the girl in the front on the right hand side.

Here are some of my rowing merits:

1990

- Third at the under 23 World Championships, Linz, Austria in the woman’s single scull event.

- Fourth at European Championships, Lucern, Switzerland in a woman’s lightweight double scull. – Second at the Scandinavian Championships, Oslo, Norway – Competed at the World Rowing Championships, Tasmania, Australia in the woman’s lightweight double scull.

1989

- Third at the under 23 World Championships Amsterdam, Holland in the woman’s lightweight double scull.

- Third at the Swedish Nationals in lightweight woman’s scull.

1988

- Second at the Swedish Nationals in the lightweight woman’s single scull.

1987

- Competed at the World Junior Rowing Championships in the woman’s single sculls event.

- Won the Swedish Junior Nationals, woman’s single scull.