7 January 2025

By Göran R Buckhorn

HTBS received an email from David Mahony, who is based in Adelaide and is an accredited rowing umpire with Rowing South Australia. David writes that “The Weekend Australian had an article on 4/5 January 2025 listing 150 Olympic medallists, from across all sports and all countries, who passed away in 2024.” David continues,

I noted two things:
– how many of them were rowers, as shown in the attached list.
– they were all of a good age, and I hope they had interesting and productive lives after their Olympic (and other rowing) achievements.

David wraps up his email: “I think it is great to recognise these athletes across the sport globally, and not just on a country basis.”

HTBS agrees. Here is the list of Olympic rowing medallists who died in 2024:

Antanas Bagdonavičius, (age) 85
Lithuania, silver medal 1960 (coxed pair), bronze medal 1968 (eight) – representing Soviet Union

Peter Bolliger, 86
Switzerland, bronze medal 1968 (coxed four)

Yevgeniy Brago, 95
Soviet Union, silver medal 1952 (eight)

Giancarlo Crosta, 90
Italy, silver medal 1960 (coxless four)

Gösta Eriksson, 93
Sweden, silver medal 1956 (coxed four)

Vladimir Eshinov, 75
Soviet Union, Olympic champion 1976 (coxed four)

Rüdiger Henning, 80
West Germany, Olympic champion 1968 (eight)

Vyacheslav Ivanov, 86
Soviet Union, Olympic champion 1956, 1960 and 1964 (single sculls)

John James**, 87
Great Britain, silver medal 1964 (coxless four)

Rolf Larcher, 89
Switzerland, bronze medal 1960 (double sculls)

Hans Lenk, 89
West Germany, Olympic champion 1960 (eight) – representing United Team of Germany

Garth Manton, 94
Australia, bronze medal 1956 (eight)

Richard McClure, 89
Canada, silver medal 1956 (eight)

Theo Mittet*, 83
USA, bronze medal 1964 (coxless four)

Hadriaan van Nes, 82
The Netherlands, silver medal 1968 (coxed pair)

Ecaterina Oancia, 70
Romania, (cox) Olympic champion 1984 (quadruple sculls), silver medal 1988 (eight) and bronze medal 1988 (coxed four)

Zdeněk Pecka, 69
Czechoslovakia, bronze medal 1976 (quadruple sculls) and bronze medal 1980 (double sculls)

Wolfgang Plottke, 83
West Germany, bronze medal 1972 (coxless four)

Pavel Svojanovský, 80
Czechoslovakia, silver medal 1972 (coxed pair), bronze medal 1976 (coxed pair)

Editor’s notes:
*Preparing this article on 5 January, I was reached by the sad news that Theo “Ted” Mittet passed away on 27 December, age 83. On 7 September 2024, he published an article on HTBS. To read more about Theo’s life, please go here.
**David Biddulph reported on 7 January that British rower John James also passed away in 2024. Read more here.
Update: Olympic historian Hilary Evans contacted HTBS saying that 35 Olympic rowers died in 2024.