20 June 2024

By Göran R Buckhorn

Norwegian sculler Kjetil Borch is bound to the Paris Olympics after all, and so are siblings Thea and Martin Helseth.

On 23 May, HTBS wrote that Kjetil Borch of Norway failed to qualify in the single sculls for the Olympic Games in Paris after placing 4th in the A Final at the last qualification regatta in Lucerne in May.

However, good news comes from Norway that Borch, 34, is going to compete in the double sculls in Paris together with 29-year-old Martin Helseth, who rowed in the Norwegian quadruple sculls in Tokyo. This is going to be Helseth second and Borch’s fourth Olympics.

On his Instagram account, Kjetil Borch thanked fellow Norwegian rowers Kristoffer Brun and Oscar Helvig “for qualifying all the heavyweight men boats for this Olympics. I’ll buy you two bottles of champagne on Champs-Élysées, you crazy bastards..,” he wrote.

Martin is not the only one of the Helseth family who is racing for Olympic medals this summer. Martin’s younger sister, Thea, and Inger Seim Kavlie have also qualified for Paris. Norwegian media report that Thea and Inger are medal contenders in the women’s double sculls.