2024 graduate and former Penn rower Isak Žvegelj is competing for Team Slovenia at this years' games.
Rising Penn senior and rower Isak Žvegelj, whose YouTube channel has over 4.7 million views and 10,000 subscribers, has not posted in over three years. His once-popular Lego machine builds, one of which has over a million views, now languish in the depths of his channel.
Žvegelj’s dedicated fans, however, may not be concerned about the relative inactivity of his YouTube account after his performance early this morning. Žvegelj, who was representing Slovenia in the Olympics men’s single sculls rowing competition, won his repechage and qualified for the quarterfinals of the competition.
Žvegelj, who needed a finish in the top two positions of Sunday’s five-person race to qualify for the quarterfinals and remain active in the competition, won the race with a time of 7:06.90 — edging out Paraguay’s Javier Insfran, who finished second at 7:08.29. While Žvegelj was in second place at all intervals of the 2000m race — the 500m, 1000m, and 1500m marks — he eventually passed Insfran to claim his victory.
Žvegelj, a member of the Red and Blue’s heavyweight rowing team, placed fourth in his preliminary heat on Saturday afternoon — coming within three-tenths of a second of qualifying for the quarterfinals in the event. He finished the race with a time of 7:01.23, with heat winner Mihai Chiruta — who represents Romania — finishing with a time of 6:51.51.
Lithuanian Giedrius Bieliauskas, who had a time of 7:00.96, edged out Žvegelj for the heat’s final spot in the quarterfinals. Žvegelj was then assigned to participate in the competition’s repechages this morning as a result of failing to finish in the first three in his heat.
The repechages, which consisted of three heats of five rowers, provided participants with a second chance to qualify for the quarterfinals should they finish in the first two positions. By winning the heat, Žvegelj qualified for the quarterfinals, which will occur on Tuesday morning.
He will compete against a talented field of competitors as he aims for a top-three finish in the race to progress to the A/B semifinals. His five opponents include Greece’s Stefanos Ntouskos, who won the gold medal in this event at the 2020 Tokyo Games, and the Netherlands’ Simon van Dorp, who won this year’s World Cup and had the fastest time among all his competitors in the preliminary heats.
Žvegelj told The Daily Pennsylvanian in 2022 that representing Slovenia on the international stage came with increased pressure.
“You were selected … to represent your country, and the results you get speak for the country as well,” Žvegelj said at the time. “It feels different than any smaller competition for sure, but I think it’s these types of competitions [that] is what makes a good athlete.”
Žvegelj, a first-time Olympian, finished in 12th at the 2023 World Cup. Earlier, in 2018, he placed fourth in the double sculls at the World Rowing Junior Championships. He was also on Team Slovenia for 2021’s Under-23 World Rowing Championships, eventually placing fourth in the C Final and competing against several Penn teammates.
Žvegelj’s father, Denis Žvegelj, represented Slovenia in rowing competition at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and 1996 Atlanta Olympics, winning a bronze medal in the former.
“My dad inspired me definitely towards [my rowing] journey,” Žvegelj said in 2022. “I've been in sports for most of my life … but the one I ended up sticking with was rowing.”
Žvegelj will continue on in Paris when he races in the quarterfinals on Tuesday to continue his hopes of Olympic glory.
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