A rower of the world: Thomas Keller Medal winner Mahe Drysdale

Who can forget Mahe Drysdale’s stroke-for-stroke race to the line in Rio against Damir Martin? Or watching Drysdale being stretchered off at the end of his Beijing Olympic final? Or replacing Marcel Hacker’s World Best Time in the single with his own? Or helping put together the ‘Great 8’ of the best single scullers in the world?

Now one of the greats of our sport has another accomplishment to add to his list, the 2022 Thomas Keller Medal.

There’s no doubt that Drysdale is extremely well-placed for winning the rowing world’s most prestigious award. The medal is awarded for an outstanding career in rowing and exemplary sportsmanship.

His kickstart to an international career began when he watched fellow New Zealander Rob Waddell cross the line in first at the 2000 Olympic Games. He was rowing and studying at the University of Auckland. Two years after Waddell’s Olympic gold, Drysdale was on the New Zealand team and racing in the men’s four. Two years after that he competed at the Athens Olympics finishing fifth in the four.

Moving to the single Drysdale suffered a major setback when he was hit by a water skier while rowing and severely injured his back. He was able to return to rowing within a couple of weeks and went on to win his first World Champion title later that year in the single. This was the beginning of Drysdale’s dominating years in the single which saw him win five World Championship titles and three Olympic medals, two of them gold. There’s also a very large number of World Cup and World Championship medals of every colour.

Drysdale also made a point of competing in regattas around the world and following the World Rowing Championships he would regularly go on a circuit taking in a season of head racing. He was a regular at the Head of the Charles in the United States, Henley Royal Regatta in Great Britain, the Dutch Holland Beker regatta, the Silverskiff in Italy, Switzerland’s Basel Head and New Zealand’s Billy Webb Challenge and many, many more.

Throughout his remarkable training and racing regime Drysdale built friendships and helped unite the single scullers into a group that was fiercely competitive on the water and great friends off the water.

“What I’m most proud of is the friendships developed through rowing,” Drysdale said after receiving the award. “To go to the World Champs this year and race in the tribute to Ondrej Synek. To get those guys together that have been my biggest competitors but also my biggest friends through my whole rowing career is special.

“It’s pretty special when you can go and visit Europe and you can stay in your friends homes and just enjoy each others company knowing all the tough times you’ve been through on the water and now you’ve got that friendship that’s been developed.”

There are numerous stories of Drysdale training and travelling with his rowing rivals and friends. Just after winning gold at the London Olympics, Drysdale was hiking with fellow Olympians Australia’s Kim Brennan, Sweden’s Lassi Karonen and his then partner, now wife Juliette Drysdale (nee Haigh). They made news by helping to rescue an injured tourist.

Drysdale was regularly in the news through his career including his lead up to the Beijing Olympics when Rob Waddell challenged him for the Olympic spot in the men’s single. Waddell and Drysdale had New Zealanders on the edge of their seats as they competed in a best of three series of single sculling races. Drysdale won two of the three to get the singles spot with Waddell ending up in New Zealand’s double sculls.

He was also in the news more than once for cycling accidents Drysdale was known to use cycling as cross training for rowing and he always travelled with a bike. One crash was with a truck in Korea leading up to the 2013 World Rowing Championships. Another was a collision with a car in Germany as he prepared for the London Olympics.

After winning gold in an epic battle with Damir Martin of Croatia at the Rio Olympics, Drysdale continued in the single but the swapped to the quadruple sculls for the 2018 world Rowing Championships. As the New Zealand team began their preparation for the Tokyo Olympics, Drysdale joined fellow Olympic Champion Hamish Bond in his country’s eight. They just missed out on qualifying the boat for Tokyo at the 2019 World Champs. That turned out to be Drysdale’s last international race.

He retired in 2021 before the delayed Tokyo Olympics.

Drysdale was awarded the Thomas Keller Medal remotely and posted on social media;

“I’m humbled to be recognised alongside some of the legends of World Rowing with the Thomas Keller award. This is the highest honour in the sport of Rowing and very proud to be awarded it.

“Thank you to all those that were part of the journey and helped me achieve the success that I did. I was on the water alone, but it’s absolutely true there was a village of people on the land that enabled me to perform. Without them I couldn’t have achieved all I have.”