SINKOVIC Martin

General
DISCIPLINE CHANGE
After the 2016 Olympic Games he and his brother decided to switch from double sculls to the pair. "We didn't make this decision overnight. Of course, we called into question all our past and future achievements, but we decided that it's time for a change. We are aware that in a way it means we are starting from scratch, we have to train hard and there are many challenges ahead of us. We are going to the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo to write Croatian and rowing history. If we manage we will be the first rowing crew who changed discipline and earned the European, world and Olympic title in two different boats." (net.hr, 16 Nov 2016)

HISTORIC ROW
In the semifinal of the 2014 World Championships in Amsterdam, Netherlands, he and his older brother Valent became the first double sculls crew to break the six-minute mark, finishing in a time of 5:59.720. "When I saw that time I thought, 'Oh my god, what's this?'. We maybe thought about going under six minutes in some crazy dreams but not in reality. Nobody believed it was possible to go under six minutes, but we showed that if you want it nothing is impossible. We did it and got the respect of the rowing world." (worldrowing.com, 01 Aug 2015; hrsport.net, 30 Aug 2014)

FAMILY AFFAIR
He believes he has an advantage in having his older brother Valent as his teammate. "We have known each other for a long time so we can say some things without offence. To be honest we tell each other everything and because we are brothers we know that the other one will get over it. We are tough on each other but after five minutes we give each other a hug. When we were kids we used to fight for trivial reasons. You are always more tolerant of your brother than of others, so it's great." (vecernji.hr, 09 Sep 2015; WorldRowingFISA, 20 Jun 2015; dnevnik.hr, 14 May 2015)

The gold medal he and his brother Valent won in the double sculls at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro was Croatia's first Olympic gold medal in rowing. (SportsDeskOnline, 01 May 2020)

In 2014 he and his brother Valent became the first Croatian rowers to win more than two gold medals at the world championship by claiming their third world title. They went on to become the first Croatian rowers to win four [2015], five [2018] and six [2019] total world championship gold medals. (SportsDeskOnline, 01 May 2020)