Oliver Zeidler became the Olympic Champion 2024 in Paris in Single Sculls and was also named Sportsman of the Year 2024 by sports journalists.
Oliver Zeidler is a three-time world champion in single sculls, a three-time European champion, and a multiple World Cup winner. He holds a Master of Laws degree specializing in tax sciences.
Olli Zeidler’s Olympic dream was dormant from a young age. Born on July 24, 1996, he reached a height of 2.03 m by age 18. He weighs 105 kg and wears size 48 shoes. In his youth, he was not interested in rowing but focused on freestyle swimming. In 2014, he became the German champion in freestyle swimming, and in 2016, he won the German championship with the 4 x 200 meter relay team, yet he did not qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. After his swimming career ended abruptly, Olli sought a new athletic challenge and quickly adapted to rowing in a single scull.
Oliver Zeidler Lecture topics
- Sport and Business: what we can learn from sport
Subjects include ambition, determination, focus, team spirit, organization, managing pressure and competition, understanding one’s body and its limits, and self-confidence. Each topic is supported by personal experiences from both sports and professional life. The lectures also address and discuss the audience’s experiences and challenges (previous topics covered: everyday work life, entrepreneurship, motivation, individual and team sports, etc.).
- Dealing with stress: Success instead of despair
Topics include stress and pressure situations, handling and consequences of a “wrong” mindset, and fostering a positive attitude. Discussions cover why and for what purpose one acts, positive versus negative stress, and personal examples with potential solutions (such as extreme situations like important races and expectations). The individual mindset and situation are key, with participant experiences taken into account.
- Time management: Achieving more in the same amount of time
Subjects include scheduling, improving process efficiency, establishing routines, prioritizing the “3 areas of life,” motivation, leisure time, and examples from Olli’s daily life (weekly planning, routines, and priorities). Personal tips are provided for the audience and workshop participants.
- Fitness and work: more productive, focused and creative through sporting balance
Topics include sport as a form of balance, stress reduction, time for oneself, building resilience, maintaining health during office work, movement, flexibility, well-being, neuroathletics, and examples from Olli’s daily routine. Exercises for in-between moments are also shared.
His family background was ideal for rowing. His grandfather, Hans-Johann Färber, won a gold medal for Germany in the Lake Constance four in 1972. His father, Heino, was a junior world champion, and his sister, Judith, earned two Olympic medals in Seoul and Barcelona. Oliver Zeidler joined the Donau-Ruder-Club Ingolstadt in 2017 and has been competing for the Frankfurt rowing club Germania since 2022.
Olli Zeidler said, “Getting to know your own limits, pushing them, constantly improving. That’s why I fell in love with this tough rowing business.”
Olli Zeidler already had a strong physical foundation from swimming. He trained intensively not only on the water but also on the ergometer in his parents’ basement. He achieved his first international successes in 2017 and finished the 2018 season with an outstanding winning streak. Sports experts and journalists view this as the beginning of a German rowing success story. Indeed, Oliver Zeidler won his first world championship title in September 2019. After the coronavirus hiatus, he continued his winning streak by securing his second and third world championship titles in men’s single sculls in 2022 and 2023.
Oliver Zeidler is crafting a unique story—one that only sport can tell and that rarely occurs.
Oliver Zeidler’s professional career began in 2015 with an apprenticeship as a tax clerk at Deloitte in Munich. He pursued his bachelor’s degree while still in training. From 2017, he balanced working at Deloitte, studying, and rowing simultaneously. Olli Zeidler ensured this triple commitment continued beyond 2019, when he completed his Bachelor’s degree with an LL.B. in Accounting & Taxation. In 2020, he began his Master’s studies at the University of Münster and graduated in 2021 with an LL.M. in Taxation.
Oliver Zeidler is known as the world’s fastest tax expert in a rowing boat and often describes himself as a “hobby athlete at the top of the world.”
