19 Facts About Olaf Tufte

Olaf Tufte is a seven-time Olympian, and as a single sculler he was twice the Olympic champion and twice the world champion.

Olaf Tufte quickly displayed an aptitude for the sport and one year later, in 1994, he debuted internationally for Norway, rowing a single scull at the 1994 Junior World Rowing Championships.

Olaf Tufte rowed in the men's coxless four which finished in overall eighth place.

Olaf Tufte moved back into sculling boats in 1997 and rowed in the Norwegian quad at the 1997 World Rowing Championships in Aiguebelette for an overall thirteenth finish.

Olaf Tufte secured a seat in men's coxless four in 1998, rowing at two World Rowing Cups and then at the 1998 World Rowing Championships where they made the A final and placed sixth.

In 1999 Olaf Tufte moved into a double scull with Fredrik Bekken and commenced their 2000 Olympics campaign.

Olaf Tufte rowed on without a break after Sydney 2000, taking to a single scull.

Olaf Tufte finished on the podium at all four World Rowing Cups of 2001 and then won his first world championship title with a gold medal row at the 2001 World Rowing Championships in Lucerne.

Olaf Tufte then won silver medals at three World Rowing Cups of 2002 and brought home a bronze medal from the 2002 World Rowing Championships in Spain.

Olaf Tufte was fourth at the World Rowing Cup I, second at WRC II, then won gold at WRC III in the June before heading to the 2004 Athens Olympics, where in the men's single scull he beat the Estonian Jueri Jaanson to win his first Olympic gold medal.

Olaf Tufte carried on relentlessly into 2005 racing at three World Rowing Cups before finishing in second place at the 2005 World Championships in Gifu, Japan for a silver medal behind New Zealand's Mahe Drysdale who was at that point commencing his own world-class dominant run.

Olaf Tufte won his heat and his quarter-final, finished second in his semi but brought it home in the final beating out Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic and relegating Drysdale to a bronze position.

Between Athens and Beijing, Olaf Tufte's performance had not yielded gold in world championships, but he was viewed as an athlete who rose to the big occasion and he was awarded with the title "number one male rower of 2009" in the 2010 FOCUS issue of FISA's World Rowing Magazine.

Olaf Tufte was unsuccessful in defending his Olympic title missing the A final and finishing with an overall ninth ranking.

Olaf Tufte returned to the elite level in the single scull but found himself outside the top placings in the 2014 international season.

Olaf Tufte lifted in 2015 and at that year's World Championships managed a fourth place behind his old rivals Synek, Drysdale and the Lithuanian Mindaugas Griskonis.

Olaf Tufte's career was reborn in 2016 when he paired up with his Horten Roklubb clubmate, the world champion Kjetil Borch in a double scull.

In 2018 Olaf Tufte moved back into the quad scull where his career had started.

Olaf Tufte secured a seat as stroke of the Norwegian quad and they rowed at World Rowing Cups and European Championships through 2018 and 2019.