RAUHE Ronald

General
AGE NO LIMIT
He will be age 38 during the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, and is confident he can still compete with the best. "My passion and the motivation are the reasons that, contrary to all the forecasts of coaches and sports scientists, I am still developing as an athlete, and despite being old I am still among the fastest. It also makes me proud when young athletes look up to me and ask for advice. I am now the stand-in father for many. It is difficult to stop racing, especially since I am in good health and my family is behind me. I'm not quite done yet. I have another challenge that I want to achieve by winning gold in Tokyo. I torture myself every day in training, which I still enjoy. But it's not so much the medals that appeal to me nowadays, it is the challenge. As soon as I no longer meet my own standards, I will stop. I'm not getting into any boat to be the third best and to be pulled along. After the Games in Tokyo, I'll be okay with myself, then I'll stop racing. I am really looking forward to what comes after sport." (welt.de, 25 Aug 2019; taz.de, Jul 01, 2019)

RETIREMENT POST-PONED
He had originally intended to retire after the 2017 season, but the announcement that the K4 would be raced over 500m at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo caused him to reconsider. "The change in the [2020] Olympic programme was a decisive factor. I haven't regretted postponing the end of my career. The K4 over 500 meters is the hardest thing I've ever done in my career. A full sprint over a minute and a half. It's brutal." (tagesspiegel.de, 16 Apr 2019; welt.de, 24 Aug 2018)

If he competes at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo he will equal France and United States of America paddler Philippe Boccara's record of six Olympic appearances in canoe sprint for a male paddler, as well as equal German women's paddler Birgit Fischer's record of six appearances at the Olympic Games for a German sprint canoeist. (SportsDeskOnline, 12 Feb 2020)

When he competed at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro he became the first German male sprint canoeist to compete at five Olympic Games. (SportsDeskOnline, 12 Feb 2020)

At the 2019 World Championships in Szeged, Hungary, he won his 16th world championship gold medal, which is the most world titles for a German male canoe sprinter. He is also tied with Russian Ivan Shtyl, who also won his 16th world title in 2019, for the most canoe sprint world championship gold medals by a male paddler from any nation. (SportsDeskOnline, 12 Feb 2020)