Despite an unbeaten record since the Athens Olympic Games, Belarus' twice rowing champion Ekaterina Karsten's husband still hopes his wife can complete a hat-trick in Beijing.
Ekaterina Karsten, silver medalist in women's single sculls in 2004 Athens Olympic Games, losing to Germany's Katrin Rutschow-Stomporowski. But after that, she has kept an unbeaten record, winning all world-class regattas she participated in.
"We are a small team, we have a coach, a doctor, and I, you may say I'm a small manager," said Wilfried Karsten, husband of Ekaterina. "I'm responsible for organizing small things. If you are a family, your wife has to concentrate on the sport, then there must be somebody who is responsible for family life, for the daughter."
The couple got married 11 years ago and have a 10-year-old daughter.
"Our daughter goes to school in Germany and that's why my wife spends most of the training time in Germany," he said. "But if there are regattas in Belarus, we also go back. Now my daughter is in Belarus with her grandmother. But the school begins in Germany in August 11 and she will soon have to go back to Germany."
When talking about Beijing's conditions, Wilfried said: "I think Ekaterina has yet been used to the weather here. If you are in Europe, it's not so hot. Everybody reacts on that another way. I hope she will have no problems. "
"In 2005 world championships in Gifu of Japan, it was nearly the same. " Wilfried recalled.
On how to get to know each other, Wilfried recalled, with big smiles.
"I was a businessman in transportation. When I went to Belarus for the first time on a business tour, I got to know a friend, who was the national coach of Belarus' men's rowing team. We stayed in contact and after two or three years, he phoned me and told me he had problems in Germany. He needed help transporting the boats. I organized him a car. Then I had to go to Belarus to get the money back. I had to wait some weeks for the money. There I met my wife."
Beijing will be Ekaterina's fifth time to compete in the Olympics. In the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, she was in the women's quadruples and won a bronze medal. In Atlanta, she won a gold in the women's single sculls, representing Belarus for the first time after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Four years later, she retained the title in Sydney. But in Athens, she failed to defend the title.
"The problem was, after 2000, her former coach wanted her to compete both in singles and doubles. In 2002 and 2003, she also competed in two events of singles and quadruples. But she didn't win any golds," said Wilfried.
"We changed the coach, and I thought she was ready to get the gold in Athens. But in her head, she was not ready. Three days before the final in Athens, she told me she could not beat Katrin Rutschow-Stomporowski. And I knew in this way she would not win the gold. Because for three years before the Athens Games, she had not won any gold, she didn't believe in herself. But after the Games, she hasn't lost any race.
"But you have to be careful not to go the other side. If you are too sure, you can make big mistakes. This time, I hope she's really mentally ready," he added.
(Xinhua News Agency August 4, 2008)