DIEKMANN Maike

Date of Birth: 19 Jul 1994

Age: 27

Gender: Female

Olympic Scholarship

Height (m/ft): 1.75/5'8''

Place of birth: OTJIWARONGO

Birth Country:

Namibia

Place of residence : SOUTH AFRICA

Events and Medals
Records
Schedule
Bio
General Interest
Milestones

Events and Medals

Discipline	Event	Rank	Medal
Rowing	Women's Single Sculls	18

Schedule

Start Time	Location	Event	Status
	Sea Forest Waterway	Women's Single Sculls Heat 5 #11	Finished
	Sea Forest Waterway	Women's Single Sculls Quarterfinal 4 #66	Finished
	Sea Forest Waterway	Women's Single Sculls Semifinal C/D 1 #79	Finished
	Sea Forest Waterway	Women's Single Sculls Final C #123	Finished

Biographical Information

Highlights

World Championships

Year	Location	1x
2019	Linz, AUT	16
2018	Plovdiv, BUL	16

African Championships

Year	Location	1x
2019	Tunis, TUN	1
2017	Tunis, TUN	2

Rank	Event	Year	Location	Result
6	Single Sculls	2021	Sabaudia, ITA	7:42.92
9	Single Sculls	2019	Rotterdam, NED	8:26.53
19	Single Sculls	2018	Lucerne, SUI	8:02.45

World Championships Under 23

Year	Location	1x
2016	Rotterdam, NED	22

Legend
DNF - Did Not Finish, DNS - Did Not Start, EXC - Excluded

Occupation:

Geology - Rhodes University, Grahamstown, RSA

Languages spoken:

Tuks Rowing [South Africa]

Grant Dodds [club]

Other sports:

She represented Namibia in inline hockey at the 2013 World Championships in Irvine, CA, United States of America. (namibian.com.na, 25 Oct 2019)

She began rowing in 2014 at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. (namibian.com.na, 25 Oct 2019)

She competed in athletics at national youth level and represented Namibia in inline hockey before discovering rowing at Rhodes University. "They have a sport expo at Rhodes each year where the various codes have their stalls and try and recruit new people. I remember walking past the rowing stall, but I thought I would never try it out because it looked so intimidating. But then I thought, 'Why not, I've never done this, it's just for fun', so I joined them. We only had two training sessions, it was chaotic and no one knew what they were doing, but we won by far and at that moment, I realised, 'Oh my gosh, this is such a cool sport' and I thought this could turn into something. That feeling of winning and the adrenaline rush made me realise that I really missed the competitive side of sport." (namibian.com.na, 25 Oct 2019)

"I train twice, sometimes three times a day, around 24 hours a week and I do around 180 to 200 kilometres." (nbc.na, 10 Oct 2019)

Her family, and coach Chris Holliday. (namibian.com.na, 25 Oct 2019; fisu.net, 14 Apr 2018)

Philosophy:

"If you have a big goal in life, it will feel out of reach for so long, but you must just keep on going. A lot of people will doubt you, but it's the passion, it's the heart, and it's the hard, hard work. Nothing comes easy, but if you put in the hard work luck will always be on your side on your journey." (namibian.com.na, 25 Oct 2019)

General Interest

General
BASED IN SOUTH AFRICA
After missing out on her goal of competing at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, she relocated to South Africa and in 2018 she joined Tuks Rowing Club under coach Grant Dodds. "[Failing at the 2016 Olympic Games qualifying event] was the first time I realised, 'Wow there's a chance for me to actually go to the Olympics.' I have a new coach, he [Dodds] is amazing, he has been helping me a lot on the technical side so my speed has gone up and it's much faster and I'm rowing a much better technical stroke." (namibian.com.na, 25 Oct 2019; nbc.na, 10 Oct 2019)

FULL-TIME FOR TOKYO
She considered continuing to study after completing a bachelor's degree in geology from Rhodes University in 2017 but, having been offered an athlete scholarship from the Namibian National Olympic Committee, she decided to train full-time for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. "I was contemplating continuing with a master's degree in Germany, but it would have been very hard to combine that with rowing so I decided to take a break from studies, to put all my effort into rowing. Even if I didn't reach my goal, I would know that I had tried my best and luckily my family was very supportive. I'm not working, so I'm focusing 100% on my training. It's a full-time job so I won't be able to do this without the support from the National Olympic Committee." (namibian.com.na, 25 Oct 2019; nbc.na, 10 Oct 2019)

LATE BLOOMER
She began rowing while studying at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. "Sometimes I think about how other good rowers have been rowing for a much longer time than I have, but that just makes me push myself harder in training and focus more on becoming a better rower every day. I would definitely be further in my rowing career if I started in school, but I have also seen how rowing from an early age has driven a lot of people away from the sport, as it's a tough sport that demands a lot of time and energy from you. I personally don't think I would still be rowing if I started in my early school days. Therefore I am very happy to have learned this sport at a later stage." (fisu.net, 14 Apr 2018)

Social Media

Legend

:: Gold Medal Event
:: Silver Medal Event
:: Bronze Medal Event

Timing and scoring provided by OMEGA. Results powered by Atos