13 July 2023

By Göran R Buckhorn

In December last year, World Rowing announced that the winner of the 2022 Thomas Keller Medal, the sport of rowing’s most prestigious award, was Mahé Drysdale of New Zealand. World Rowing said in a statement in December:

Mahé Drysdale is the winner of rowing’s most prestigious award, the Thomas Keller Medal. This comes following a career that spanned two Olympic Gold medals in the Men’s Single Sculls (London 2012, Rio 2016) and a Bronze medal in 2008. He also holds eight World Championship medals in this boat class, five of which are gold, and he is also a six-time winner of the Diamond Challenge Sculls at Henley Royal Regatta. A true legend of the sport, Drysdale competed earlier this year in the “Grand Finale” race at the 2022 World Rowing Championships to honour his friend and long-time competitor Ondřej Synek of the Czech Republic.

Drysdale received the award from the hands of Dominik Keller, Thomas Keller’s son, at a ceremony during the Lucerne Regatta this past weekend. At the ceremony was also Drysdale’s wife, Juliette (née Haigh) and their three children. Juliette Drysdale is a retired Olympic rower and three-time world champion in the sport.

At the ceremony in Lucerne was also the 2021 winner of the Thomas Keller Medal, Olaf Tufte of Norway. Tufte wrote on his Instagram account on Sunday that he was honoured to attend the event when his friend Mahé Drysdale, “one of the world best rowers of all time, was awarded the Thomas Keller Medal.”

Tufte continued to write that he and Drysdale have “fought on the water to be the toughest, but on land we have been good friends […] You are an amazing performer, but even more amazing as a person. You are so deserving of this award. You have developed our sport for the better and contributed to all the athletes around you [are] feeling like family.

“Thank you so much for being you. And thank you for allowing me to be your friend, and for being allowed to get to know your wonderful family.”

Here is a short World Rowing video from the event.