Tufte and Karsten back on top

The top 10 female and male athletes for 2010 have seen Ekaterina Karsten-Khodotovitch of Belarus and Olaf Tufte of Norway remain on top. This is the second year in a row at number one for both Karsten and Tufte who race in the single scull.

Karsten’s long rowing career began two decades ago when she won the single as a junior rower. Since then she has notched up five Olympic medals, two of them gold and six World Championship titles. This record sets Karsten, 38, considerably ahead of all other women athletes giving her 29 points on the medals table, 19 points ahead of Mary Whipple of the United States who sits in second.

Whipple, 30, the coxswain for the US women’s eight crew, has been through two Olympic Games with the eight finishing second in 2004 and first in 2008. The Beijing medal was the first time that the US women’s eight had won gold at the Olympics in 24 years. Whipple has also picked up four World Championship titles from her spot in what she calls the ‘ninth seat’. She is one of two coxswains amongst the top 10 women for 2010 with Canada’s Lesley Thompson-Willie sitting in seventh.

Also included in the top 10 are four American rowers who have been an integral part of their country’s women’s eight. Susan Francia, Anna Goodale and Erin Cafaro are in third, fourth and fifth respectively with Elle Logan in ninth position.

The remainder of the top 10 for women is made up of British athletes. The multi-talented Katherine Grainger sits in sixth position having collected international medals in the single scull, double sculls, pair, quadruple sculls and eight.

Debbie Flood and Frances Houghton (GBR) round out the top 10. They both returned to rowing in 2010 after taking a two-year break following their silver medal at the Beijing Olympics. Flood and Houghton worked their way back into their country’s quadruple sculls and finished the season as World Champions.

Olaf Tufte knows how to get it right when it counts. He is not always in the medals at international regattas, but when it comes to the Olympic Games he doesn’t put a stroke wrong. With that method he has won Olympic gold twice and silver once. Tufte has also picked up two World Champion titles helping him to remain in the number one position on the top 10 table.

In second position is Slovenia’s rowing darling, Iztok Cop. Cop, 38, raced internationally just once in the 2010 season. He chose his rowing swan song to be in Slovenia at the first Rowing World Cup (in Bled). He also opted to race it with his good friend Tufte to show the friendships that form through rowing. Cop completed a career that made him the most successful international athlete in Slovenia.

The next four spots on the top 10 male rowers list are filled up with the remarkable Polish men’s quadruple sculls. Adam Korol, Marek Kolbowicz, Konrad Wasielewski and Michal Jelinski have dominated the quad since 2005 and finishing a fabulous run with an Olympic gold medal at the Beijing Olympics. The crew remain together with their sights now set firmly on the 2012 Olympic Games. Korol, Kolbowicz, Wasielewski and Jelinski are well on their way into the history books as one of the longest lasting unchanged crews.

Cop’s frequent partner throughout his career, Luka Spik, sits in seventh position putting a second Slovenian into the top 10. Spik, 31, partnered with Cop to win medals at the Sydney and Athens Olympics.

Alessio Sartori is the sole Italian in the top 10 and he sits in eighth position. Sartori’s long career goes back to racing on the junior national team in 1992. Now 34 years old, Sartori has picked up Olympic gold and bronze as well as three World Champion titles. Sartori finished his 2010 season racing at the European Championships.
France’s lightweight wonder, Jean-Christophe Bette comes in at number nine. Bette, 33, has an Olympic gold from Sydney and has also racked up five World Champion titles. Bette finished the 2010 season by winning the lightweight pair and now he plans to get back into his country’s lightweight four to contend the 2012 Olympics.

Kevin Light of Canada comes into the top 10 for the first time. At tenth spot Light returned for the 2010 season after a post-Olympic break following his gold medal in the men’s eight at Beijing.

To be eligible to appear as a Top 10 Male or Female rower, athletes had to have been active at elite international level in the current year by taking part at an Olympic Games, Final Olympic Qualification Regatta, World Rowing Championships or Rowing World Cup. All-Time Olympic and World Championship results have been taken into account with a weighting to favour Olympic medals three times higher than World Championship medals. World Championship medals in international boat classes are attributed half the value of a World Championship medal in an Olympic boat class.

See the list here.

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