25 June 2026

By Göran R Buckhorn

On 4 June 1976, two lanky boys in their teens showed up at Malmö Roddklubb in Malmö, Sweden, saying that they wanted to row. The boys, Kenneth and Thomas, who had been friends since first grade, were put in the Brita, a 31-year-old, half-outrigged double sculls gig named after the daughter of the club president in 1945. Their 5 km-long inaugural outing around the Malmö Canal, got them infatuated with their new sport.

They quickly became successful juniors. Kenneth won four Swedish Junior Championship titles and Thomas three, while both also collected several silver medals. In 1980, they became Nordic Junior Champions in the coxed four and represented Sweden at the Junior World Championships in Hazewinkel, Belgium.

Both have competed at Henley, though not at the same regatta. Kenneth raced in The Queen Mother Challenge Cup at the 1990 Henley Royal while Thomas competed in the Henley Masters in 2015.

While Thomas stayed in Malmö – except for a short stint in Oslo where he didn’t row – Kenneth moved to Stockholm and joined Stockholms Roddförening and became Swedish Champion in their colours in the coxless four in 1989.

Kenneth now lives in Jönköping; he’s the President of Jönköpings Roddsällskap – which is 277 km (172 miles) from Malmö, so he and Thomas consistently row together with other members of Malmö and Jönköping rowing clubs.

Now both being parents and grandparents, neither of them has given up the sport they fell in love with half a century ago. They have competed at numerous masters regattas around the world. Kenneth has raced the demanding Düsseldorf Rhine Marathon eight times, and Thomas has done it four times. Both have taken part in several World Rowing Masters Regattas. In 2025 Thomas added two major international titles to his résumé by winning gold medals in the mixed double sculls at both the Euro Masters Regatta and the World Rowing Masters Regatta.

Thomas’s wife, Marie Barge, has graced HTBS pages with articles and beautiful photographs from many of the masters regattas where her husband has competed – everything from Sarasota-Bradenton in Florida, USA, and Roodeplaat Dam in Tshwane, South Africa, to Brandenburg an der Havel in Germany and Bled in Slovenia.

On Saturday, 6 June, a warm and sunny day, Kenneth and Thomas gathered at Malmö Roddklubb for a 50-year celebratory row on the Malmö Canal.

“We started rowing together when we were young. Today we’re a little older and perhaps a little wiser, but apparently neither of us has learned how to quit,” Kenneth jokingly told HTBS.

Thomas added: “Rowing is a fantastic sport because you can enjoy it throughout your whole life. Some of my closest friendships began when I first took up rowing, and perhaps the best part is that, even today, the sport continues to bring warm friendships and genuinely lovely people into my life.”