It was my day: Iranian sculler Malaei qualifies for A/B semifinal

Nazanin Malaei, 29, started rowing when a recruiter came to her school almost fifteen years ago. Her journey has taken her to the national team and now, finally, to her first Olympic Games. In a sizzling quarterfinal on the Sea Forest Waterway Malaei qualified for the A/B semifinal, securing a spot that no other Iranian woman has: a guaranteed top 12 finish.

“My race was very hard. There was one rower from each continent, which was very nice,” Malaei says. “Before going to race I said one thing to myself, you don’t have anything to lose. You are coming here to show your best, so you go if you can. And if you can’t it’s no problem. And after starting, I just went. I could feel it. It was my day.”

Malaei’s performance is a first for Iran. But it has been a long, and sometimes difficult journey.

“After one year of rowing I went to the national team. The first day I was there, one of the coaches from Germany said to me, ‘you’re not good for rowing.’ He said it in front of all the athletes. He said I would be a coxswain because I am so small, that I can’t be successful in rowing,” Malaei says.

But with a glint in her eye she adds: “This speech from the coach was good for me. On that day, I said to myself, I will show him who I am. And now I am at the Olympics and I think he sees me.”

In 2012, Malaei was paired with her current coach and it worked. She credits him with her performance.

“I started with my coach and I think all the best results and records are because of this. I could stay with one coach, not changing every time,” she says. Even though it was sometimes challenging, Malaei managed to stay with the same coach.

“I believe that if one athlete wants to give the best result, she or he needs to stay on one line, with one coach,” Malaei says.

She has also been faced with limited training opportunities. There is only a one-kilometer standard course in Iran and her boat is more than twelve years old.

“Every time we are training on one kilometer on the water. My coach has us practice on the Concept2 Ergometer for the longer distances. This is the first time that I was racing 2000m on the water this year. So every time I got to 1000m I was a bit stressed about what was going to happen to me. After finishing my race I said, it’s god with me,” she says.

Beating all the odds, Malaei has truly showed her strength here in Tokyo. She progresses on to the A/B semifinal.

“I will try to give my best performance for the next race and we will see what happens. We have two days for recovery and I am ready for the next race. But the next race is very hard,” she says. “But all the time, I want to do my best, to give it my best.”