2009 Thomas Keller Medallist
It is particularly fitting that Kathrin Boron, this year’s winner of the Thomas Keller medal,
won her first world title at Bled in 1989, the last championship that Thomi attended.
Thomi would have seen the 19-year-old win the first of her eight World Championship
titles there. But for an ankle injury, Thomi would have also seen Boron win her first
Olympic gold in Seoul. But not even Thomas Keller could have guessed the impact this
remarkable woman would have on the sport.
When Boron first walked through the doors of
the Dynamo, Potsdam’s rowing academy, in the
autumn of 1983, even the world’s top women’s
coaches in East Germany could not have foreseen
the impact that this tough 13-year-old athlete
would have amongst her team-mates and
competitors. Her achievements alone between
1989 and 2008 – including four consecutive
Olympic titles – command the utmost respect.
But Boron’s impact went far beyond this.
Her daughter, Cora, was no stranger to regattas
or training camps. Grainger admits that seeing
how Boron coped sent out a powerful message:
“She’s amazing and has shown other women
who compete in the sport just what it’s possible
to achieve.”
As one of Boron’s competitors for her final race
in Beijing, Great Britain’s Katherine Grainger said:
“It’s not just the medals that make the role-model,
it’s the whole package.” That ‘package’ meant
Boron could not only perform consistently at a
world-beating level in different boat classes but
that she managed to do all this while keeping her
job in Potsdam and becoming a mother in 2002.
The 2004 Olympic women’s single’s champion,
KatrinRutschow-Stomporowski, rates Boron’s
victory in 2004 as one of Boron’s greatest,
particularly as it came after the birth of Cora.
“I think Kathrin had to be really strong that year
to come back after she had taken a year out of
the sport,” says Rutschow-Stomporowski.
Rutschow-Stomporowski first partnered with
Boron in the German quad for the Atlanta
Olympics, where Boron took her second Olympic
title. Rutschow-Stomporowski recalls the
incredible standards Boron set for each and >
