Richard Schmidt (rower)
Richard Schmidt (born 23 May 1987) is a German former representative sweep-oar rower. He is a six time world champion, a four time Olympian, an Olympic gold & silver medallist and held a seat in the German senior men's eight — the Deutschlandachter — constantly from 2009 to 2021. He rowed at seven when the Deutschlandachter at the 2017 World Rowing Cup II set a world's best time of 5.18.68, which was still the standing world mark as of 2021. He was in the German crew when it won the gold medal in the men's eight competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, he rowed in Germany's men's eight which won the silver medal and again he rowed in the German men's eight at Tokyo 2021 and won his second Olympic silver medal. Representative rowing career Schmidt's club rowing was from Ruderverein Treviris 1921 in Trier, Germany. His international representative debut was at the junior level, when he won consecutive medals in the German coxless four at the World Rowing Junior Championships in 2004 and 2005. In 2007, he raced at the World Rowing U23 Championships in Glasgow in a coxless four with Sebastian Schmidt, Fokke Beckmann and Kristof Wilke where they won a gold medal. In Autumn 2007, that crew finished in second place at the European Rowing Championships in Poznań after taking a long break from the sport. In 2008, Schmidt rowed with Beckmann at the World Cup opener in Munich in the coxless pair and at the end of the season was selected in the German eight for the U23 World Championships, where they placed fourth. During this time, the seating of the German men's eight was reorganised prior to the 2008 Olympic Games, Schmidt was selected as a travelling reserve for Beijing. He raced in the semi-finals with Marco Neumann, Gregor Hauffe, and Urs Käufer in the coxless four as Filip Adamski and Toni Seifert were ill. The newly composed team had surprisingly reached the final, however Neumann was then replaced with Jochen Urban. The boat finished in sixth place. In the new Olympiad, the coxless four formed the core of the re-built German eight, in which Schmidt then won his first World Championship title at the 2009 World Rowing Championships. In 2010 at the World Rowing Cup I he rowed in a coxless pair with Kristof Wilke but within a month he secured his seat in the German eight rowing in the European Championships in September and then at World Championships where they defended their World Championship title. With Schmidt solid in the five seat, the German crew won their third consecutive title at the 2011 World Championships. At the 2012 Olympics in London, the favoured German eight won the gold medal with a crew consisting of Filip Adamski, Andreas Kuffner, Eric Johannesen, Maximilian Reinelt, Richard Schmidt, Lukas Müller, Florian Mennigen, Kristof Wilke and coxswain Martin Sauer. After his first Olympic success, Richard Schmidt rowed