Photograph: Werner Schmidt

Monday, December 16, 2013

Lassi Karonen Quits

No Rio for Swede Lassi Karonen.

News media in Sweden announced today that 37-year-old sculling star Lassi Karonen will hang up his sculls and not try to qualify for the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016. In an interview for a Swedish sport radio programme, Karonen said that he has no motivation to get back to rowing on an elite level.

Karonen was only half a second behind Olympic bronze medallist Alan Campbell in the London Games last year. After the 2012 Games, Karonen took a break from elite rowing, but said he would come back to qualify for the Games in Rio.

'I have tried to get back training this autumn to aim for the next Olympic Games, but it has not worked out the way I wanted. It has been too hard and my motivation has disappeared, so I have decided to do something else instead', Lassi Karonen said.

At the 2008 Beijing Games, Karonen took a sixth place in the single sculls and in 2010, he took a silver medal in the single at the European Championships.

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