Ondřej Synek

Ondřej Synek

Synek in 2012
Personal information
Born	(1982-10-13) 13 October 1982 Stará Boleslav
Sport
Sport	Rowing
Medal record Men's rowing Representing Czech Republic Olympic Games 2008 Beijing Single sculls 2012 London Single sculls 2016 Rio de Janeiro Single sculls World Championships 2010 Karapiro Single sculls 2013 Chungju Single sculls 2014 Amsterdam Single sculls 2015 Aiguebelette Single sculls 2017 Sarasota Single sculls 2007 Munich Single sculls 2011 Bled Single sculls 2018 Plovdiv Single sculls 2003 Milan Double sculls 2005 Gifu Single sculls 2006 Eton Single sculls 2009 Poznań Single sculls European Championships 2007 Poznań Eight 2010 Montemor-O-Velho Single sculls 2013 Seville Single sculls 2014 Belgrade Single sculls 2017 Račice Single sculls 2015 Poznań Single sculls 2016 Brandenburg Single sculls

Ondřej Synek (Czech pronunciation: [ˈondr̝ɛj ˈsɪnɛk]; born 13 October 1982 in Stará Boleslav) is a Czech former rower. He is a five-time World Champion in Single Sculls, winning in 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017. He won Olympic silver medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and 2012 Summer Olympics in London. In Beijing he came in as the chief rival of Mahé Drysdale, but despite Drysdale coming down with a painful stomach flu and falling in the final stages of the final to bronze, he was upset for the gold by defending Olympic Champion Olaf Tufte, who Synek had regularly been beating the previous couple years. In London he was jointly favored for gold with Drysdale after trading gold and silver at the previous two World Championships, but fell short to Drysdale in the final.

In Rio after having won 3 straight World Championships since London, he came in as the clear favorite and had a stated desire to badly want the Olympic Gold. However, he had narrowly missed in both Beijing and London. His quest for Olympic gold failed for a third consecutive time in Rio as he took bronze in the single sculls behind both Drysdale and the surprising Damir Martin. As a five-time World Champion in single sculls, and with a total of 13 World and Olympic single scull medals, he is by far the most successful single sculler in history to not win an Olympic Gold. He confirmed after his Rio defeat to want to take a likely final attempt at the elusive Olympic gold medal in Tokyo 2020, but in June 2021 he announced on his Facebook page that he will not be going to Tokyo. In September 2021 Synek announced his retirement.