JOHANNESEN Torben

General
ROWING BROTHERS
He first competed in the men's eight at senior level at the 2015 World Cup event in Varese, Italy, where Germany entered two men's eight boats. His older brother Eric was part of the first German eight that finished second, while he was part of the second German eight that finished sixth in the same race. He next featured in the men's eight at the European championships in 2017, but Eric had taken a break from international competition following the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, meaning the two brothers did not get a chance to compete together in the same eight boat at senior level. Eric returned to competition in 2018 in the men's pair, but in 2019 failed to gain a recall to the men's eight. "I am disappointed as I would have loved to have pursued the dream of rowing together with Eric at the [2020] Olympics." (deutschlandachter.de, 12 Feb 2016; abendblatt.de, 24 Aug 2019)

STREAK ENDED
After finishing second behind Great Britain at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, the German men's eight boat won gold in every World Cup, European championship and world championship final it entered in 2017 and 2018, as well as gold at the European championships in 2019 and at the second World Cup event in 2019 in Poznan, Poland. The boat's winning streak was ended at the third World Cup event in 2019 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, where Germany finished second behind Great Britain. He says this was an important learning experience for the team. "We were all extremely frustrated and in a very bad mood because we don't train for defeats. Nobody is happy about a defeat. We were mainly annoyed at how clearly we lost. But it was an important experience. If you always win, at some point you will be in a position where you think you don't have to change anything. Luckily, we were able to put that defeat behind us fairly quickly, and move forward together as a team to find out what we had to do to row better." (abendblatt.de, 24 Aug 2019)