The talented Michal Plocek

Plocek started rowing when he was just ten years old when a rowing coach spotted him playing ice hockey. He made the Czech junior national team as a 17-year-old racing to a B-final spot in the men’s single sculls. The following year he became the junior World Champion.

In 2012, Plocek moved into the Czech senior squad, taking the opportunity to race the single internationally when the country’s top single sculler, Ondrej Synek, was not racing. He continued his career racing the under-23 men’s double sculls, finishing with silver in 2013. He came back into the single the following year and scored gold at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships.

The 2016 season was a big year for Plocek. He moved into the double with Matyas Klang in an attempt to qualify for the Rio Olympic Games. They missed out on Rio qualification by just half a second. Plocek went back into the single for the rest of the season scoring a fourth place at World Rowing Cup III and then finishing the season with bronze at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships.

Plocek was focused on going to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and had said if Synek was still in the single, then he would attempt to compete for his country in a double.

Plocek was World Rowing’s Rising Star in October and in his interview he stated, “I like the single sculls because it is my own world where I can do what I want and success is only my success.”