Ronald Rauhe (born 3 October 1981) is a German

sprint canoeist Canoe sprint is a water sport in which athletes race in specially designed sprint canoes or sprint kayaks on calm water over a short distance. Prior to November 2008, canoe sprint was known as flatwater racing. The term is still in use today ...

who has competed since 1997. Competing in six

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, he won a complete set of medals in the K-2 500 m event (gold:

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, silver:

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, bronze:

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). Rauhe has won 16

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gold medals, the most by a male kayaker; now with 26 World medals, in 2011 he exceeded the 20 of his compatriot, Torsten Gutsche.

Early career

Rauhe was selected for the 1997 World Junior Championships in

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, Finland at the age of just fifteen years nine months. Competing against paddlers up to three years older he won two medals – gold in the K-4 500 m and silver in the K-1 500 m, an unprecedented achievement for a fifteen-year-old. After winning three more gold medals at the next edition of the world junior championships in

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, Croatia, in 1999 he stepped up to the senior German national team.

Senior career

At the age of seventeen, he enjoyed immediate success, taking the bronze medal in the men's K-1 200 m World Championship final the same year. Since 2000, the Rauhe/Wieskötter partnership has enjoyed unrivalled success, winning the major K-2 500 m race from 2001 to 2007 (six world titles and the

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gold). The pair have also won eight straight European championships over 500 m (2000–2008; there was no championship in 2003). Rauhe also dominated the K-1 200 m individual sprint, winning three consecutive golds in both the world and European championships before losing out to Spain's Carlos Pérez in 2005. If Rauhe's rivals hoped this marked the beginning of a decline in the German's fortunes they were to be disappointed. In 2006 Rauhe was back on top form and won more titles than ever before. At the European Championships in Račice, Czech Republic he won three gold medals, retaining his K-2 500 m title, regaining the K-1 200 m crown from Pérez and winning the K-2 200 m for the first time in his career. These three victories were repeated at the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

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, Hungary. Rauhe's dominance was best illustrated by his victory in the K-2 200 m final in a race that was scheduled just twenty minutes after his K-1 final (and against a field of rested opponents none of whom had competed in the earlier race). At the

in his home country Germany in 2007, he and his partner Tim Wieskötter won again the K-2 500 m and came second in the K-2 200 m. On the national level, he has won 50 national titles at the German Championships. His 50th title was the 500 m in the K-1 on 2 May 2009 in Duisburg. In June 2015, he competed in the inaugural European Games, for

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

canoe sprint Canoe sprint is a water sport in which athletes race in specially designed sprint canoes or sprint kayaks on calm water over a short distance. Prior to November 2008, canoe sprint was known as flatwater racing. The term is still in use today ...

, more specifically, Men's K-2 200m with Tom Liebscher. He earned a silver medal. At the

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, he won the bronze medal in the K-1 200 metres event, recording the same time (to a thousandth of a second) as

Saúl Craviotto Saúl Craviotto Rivero (born 3 November 1984) is a Spanish police officer and sprint kayaker who has been racing since the mid-2000s. He has won six Olympic medals: a gold medal (with Carlos Pérez) in the K-2 500 m event at the 2008 Summer ...

– wiping out the memory of his greatest competitive disappointment, finishing last in the final heat of this event four years previously at the London Olympics.

References

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External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rauhe, Ronald 1981 births Living people Canoeists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Canoeists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Canoeists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Canoeists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Canoeists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Canoeists at the 2020 Summer Olympics German male canoeists Olympic canoeists for Germany Olympic gold medalists for Germany Olympic silver medalists for Germany Olympic bronze medalists for Germany Canoeists from Berlin Olympic medalists in canoeing ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships medalists in kayak Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics European Games medalists in canoeing Canoeists at the 2015 European Games European Games silver medalists for Germany Canoeists at the 2019 European Games 21st-century German sportsmen 20th-century German sportsmen