Thorsten Engelmann

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Thorsten Engelmann (born July 20, 1981 in Berlin) is a German rower. Engelmann started rowing at age 9 because his father was the President of a rowing club in Berlin. He continued training while earning his pre-diploma in economics at school, and he has recently been part of the German national squad.

Engelmann became world champion in the the eight in 2006, won the silver medal in the 2002 and 2007 World Championships, and won bronze twice, in 2001 and 2005. He placed fourth in the Summer Olympic Games in 2004. Engelmann is also a former World U23 champion from 2000 and was the overall world cup winner in 2001–2003 and 2005. In 2005, Engelmann won the Henley Grand. He also rowed for the Cambridge University in the 2006 Boat Race (losing against Oxford). He competed as a member of the winning Cambridge Crew in the 2007 Boat Race, where he has weighed in at 110.8 kg, the heaviest rower ever to compete in the contest.

In July 2007 the Boat Race organising committee refused to award Engelmann his blue, as he did not complete his academic course and instead returned to the German national rowing team to prepare for the Beijing Olympics.^[1] It was reported that Oxford asked for the 2007 race to be awarded to them, or declared void, as Engelmann was so important to the crew and appeared not to have been a genuine student.^[2]