Oliver Zeidler: "I don't need to be ashamed of my tears"

Created: 12/25/2021Updated: 12/25/2021, 10:34 AM

From: Dieter Priglmeir

For a promotional campaign, Zeitler swapped boats with Olympic champion Max Lemke and got into a kayak (picture above).

Both crossed the finish line without capsizing.

© Imago

Oliver Zeidler talks about the Olympics, the difficult time afterwards and failures in the association.

Schwaig

- for years he had worked towards this one week.

Oliver Zeidler drove the entire rowing competition to the ground, defended his European title, won the overall World Cup and went to Tokyo as world champion.

An Olympic medal - the Schwaiger never made a secret of the fact that this is his big goal.

The greater the shock when he missed the final in the troubled waters of the Sea Forest Waterway.

Five months later, Oliver Zeider has come to terms with the biggest disappointment in his sporting life so far and set the next goals for himself.

We spoke to the 26 year old.

Mr. Zeidler, how does a rowing family celebrate Christmas?

Will the boat stay in the hut?

We celebrate Christmas very traditionally in the family.

A few weeks ago I was with my grandfather and my sister in the Dachau hinterland, where we cut a big tree.

It will be decorated, and in the evening there will be presents in the family.

Family - that means your sisters Marie and Lea, their parents and grandparents.

Exactly - this is our budget.

How many bad carbohydrates does the competitive athlete indulge in this Christmas season?

I have been relatively cautious for the past few weeks.

Although: When the cookies were fresh, I already ate.

But I don't count any other carbohydrates either - especially not at Christmas.

Is there a traditional meal at Hauser Zeidler?

Fondue I think.

Or is that New Year's Eve?

Honestly, I don't even know that now.

What gifts will be under the tree?

I used to have a long wish list, but I'm getting to an age where it becomes difficult to make a wish.

Last year the Playstation 5 was on many wish lists.

Not at my place.

But do you already like to gamble?

Yes, and I'll get myself a console again, but not until I've finished my training.

I also know how quickly and how easily you can be distracted by it, then learning is neglected again.

What are you gambling?

Rowing?

No, I don't even know if it exists.

More like Fifa or car races.

Back to Christmas ...

As for the gifts, I really like to be surprised this year.

You would have liked to have given yourself the biggest present this year with an Olympic medal.

How are you doing now?

Now good again.

I have new sporting goals.

That was a difficult time after Tokyo, I think I did pretty well.

My environment helped me a lot so that I didn't fall into a hole, because then I was at work and also knew how to do something with time.

Are you back to work?

I continue to work 24 hours a week for a tax consultancy company.

How were the first weeks after Tokyo?

That was tough - especially because I was actually in top shape. You then keep thinking to yourself what could have been done better. Then you will also find points where you might have gotten a tenth or two out. You then try to find solutions so that it doesn't happen again. In this case it was extremely tough, because I would have been optimally prepared on the day of the final, although I couldn't do any follow-up work after the semifinals because my head was completely gone. I just couldn't understand it and kept saying to myself: What a bummer, now I've missed the final. But with the performance that I then showed in the B final, a medal would have been possible. This “would have” - you think about it a lot, or you wake up with these very thoughts.It helps to talk to people about it and to do other things than rowing so that you get distracted and don't go completely crazy.

How helpful was the environment there?

Very helpful, especially my father.

As my coach in Tokyo, he saw everything.

It was important that someone from my family was there.

Due to the corona restrictions, we had to do without spectators.

Friends couldn't be there to catch you either.

I was really looking forward to spending time with friends in Munich again after Tokyo.

We had to isolate ourselves before the games because of the pandemic and were constantly in training.

It was just nice to meet people again who made it clear to you that what you have achieved in the past few years is a huge achievement.

For whom you are a hero, even if you don't bring a medal.

Were there any disappointments?

There wasn't.

My close circle of friends continues to stick with me.

The media wasn't that nice.

Everyone wanted an interview after my B final.

It was not easy.

After the race you are physically not up to par, and mentally I have been in poor shape since the semifinals.

And of course there are very emotional statements that shouldn't weigh every word on the gold scales.

Not everything was politically correct there.

But what some media did out of it bothered me a lot.

My situation was not taken into account at all.

What was not politically correct?

I said the conditions helped the Olympic champion.

And that was referred to as a "hard reckoning with the winner" and talked about a lack of respect.

Bullshit!

I then congratulated my Greek colleague and paid my respects to everyone I raced against.

You are already thinking about how to deal with the media.

You described the race and the reactions of your colleagues very emotionally.

Do you regret the tears that flowed in front of the camera?

That was just the situation, that's how I felt.

I don't need to be ashamed of my tears.

I don't regret anything.

Defeat is said to make you stronger, do you feel that too?

So far, at least in my career, it has always been like that.

One draws conclusions from defeats in particular, because one is forced to deal with it and to do better in the future.

I hope that will be the case again.

That would be the positive out of it.

But of course, at the moment the disappointment prevails.

That will change when there are successes again, which I believe will not be long in coming.

Did you do anything wrong in Tokyo?

Or to put it another way: would you do something differently now?

Certainly not in preparation.

But I would take a look at the route beforehand and row on it if possible so that you don't drive completely into the blue.

In Tokyo, you were only allowed to go on it five days beforehand, only to realize: This is very different from any other route in the world.

I'll do it differently in Paris and maybe complete a training camp there a year beforehand to check the conditions and the water.

The next goal for Oliver Zeidler is the European Championships in Munich in August 2022.

In addition to the rowing world champion, the German gymnastics champion Sarah Voss, the Olympic javelin champion Thomas Röhler, Bavaria's Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann and the Munich sports mayor Verena Dietl are promoting this.

© Imago

But in Tokyo it was this wave that slowed you down. You're never immune to that.

Yes, it was bad luck. But I could have brought one or two percent more in the semifinals if I had known the water better. Then you will deal more confidently yourself with a situation that you have never faced in the entire season. There was a lot of talk about the heat before the competitions. I had adjusted to the climatic conditions. But the problem was simply the IOC's decision to postpone the races. After the quarter-finals, there was only a three-day break. Everyone was amazed, because there wasn't a bit of a wave. Instead, we had to go out in the worst possible muddy weather. And what came out? There wasn't a single race where everything went smoothly. People crawled around everywhere and medal winners capsized. It had nothing to do with the Olympics and takes people awaywho have worked for five years to have the chance to show what they can do.

And she got it too.

When was the first time you got back on the boat after Tokyo?

I took a month and a half off.

And then forcibly another month because of an elbow injury.

Will the family duo continue?

Her father Heino had left that open after Tokyo.

My father will remain a coach. He's one of the most successful coaches in the association, and we don't have anyone with comparable one-off experience. I found it very commendable that he would have been willing to take the consequences and give other people the chance to take over. But nobody came there. I would have wished for something like that from other coaches who are not so successful. I am happy that we remain a team. How exactly it will continue cannot be said yet. Talks with the association are difficult because the results from the competitive sport analysis are still missing and the budgets are not yet known. It would be important that we can work even more professionally, especially from 2023 we have to pull out all the stops - also when it comes to nutrition and physiotherapy.

The rowing association would like to centralize competitive sport. You are not a friend of it.

If you want to centralize, you have to create an atmosphere in which all athletes feel comfortable, with the best opportunities and coaches. But our centers are not well equipped. Unfortunately, the potential for competitive sports coaches has decreased enormously in recent years. We almost scratch the insignificance in the medal table. The athletes pull consistently, but the coaches don't. They are then simply pushed from one area to the next. I don't think there's much going on there, so I'll stick to my opinion that centralization doesn't make sense for me personally. I am in favor of training in the place where you feel comfortable in winter. When the teams are formed after the eliminations and ergotests, you can still train together.Last year, the Ratzeburg Lake was frozen over from the pre-Christmas period to January. The boys were barracked for five weeks without getting out. There was the mood in the basement. As I said, when our bases are so unattractive, no young athletes are drawn to them either.

Let's come to a funny moment: your competition in the Olympic lake.

The race with canoe Olympic champion Max Lemke.

They had swapped boats.

(laughs) Yes, surprisingly Max did very well.

But it was also very important to me not to fall into the water.

The Olympic lake is full of ducks - and their legacies.

The fun race was a promotional campaign for the European Championships.

That will be the highlight in 2022. Eleven sports in Munich, beach volleyball at Königsplatz, athletics in the Olympic Stadium, climbing - I'll see a lot there when I'm not at the start myself.

That will have a bit of the flair of Olympia.

Are you annoyed that the Tokyo semi-finals overshadow a season in which you otherwise won almost everything?

The picture is of course clouded by the Olympic result.

Otherwise it was almost a perfect season.

But the Olympics have their own rules.

You only understand that when you experience it firsthand.

Hopefully it will be better next time.

Then it will also be an Olympia with spectators and without restrictions.

Yes, I hope that it will be the great coming together of the world again.

Where people come from all over the world to experience the Olympics.

I hope that it will come back that way and that we won't have to experience something like that in Tokyo again.

I am very confident about that.