Isak Žvegelj has always been comfortable with water.
In August 2014, Žvegelj posted an “Unbelievable Water Balloon Life hack” on his YouTube channel. Three years later, he posted about swimming in “The Biggest Pool Ever.” This summer, he is rowing at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Žvegelj, despite his apparent aquatic talent, was eliminated from medal contention in men’s single sculls rowing in the quarterfinals stage, and later ended the competition in 22nd. Žvegelj, a rising Penn senior and member of the Red and Blue’s heavyweight rowing team, is representing Slovenia at the games.
Žvegelj faced an uphill battle during his quarterfinal. Competing in a six-person race and needing a finish in the top three to remain in medal contention, he was faced with the daunting task of outperforming some of the world’s best competitors in this event.
These competitors include the Netherlands’ Simon van Dorp, who won this year’s World Rowing Cup II and had the fastest time among all his competitors in the preliminary heats, Greece’s Stefanos Ntouskos, who won the gold medal in this event at the 2020 Tokyo Games, and Croatia’s Damir Martin, a former world champion who has won three Olympic medals and placed second in this year’s World Rowing Cup III.
Žvegelj eventually finished fifth in the race with a time of 7:06.42. Van Dorp, the winner of the race, finished in 6:49.96, while Martin finished in 6:53.55 and Ntouskos in 6:56.68. As a result of his fifth-place finish, Žvegelj participated in the C/D semifinals.
In a comment on Instagram posted in Slovenian in response to a post on a fan account about the result, Žvegelj wrote, “I will keep on fighting.”
Žvegelj later finished fourth of the six competitors in his semifinal with a time of 7:09.41, consigning him to participate in Final D. He finished roughly 13 seconds after American Jacob Plihal, who won the semifinal race, and nine seconds after Paraguayan Javier Insfran, who finished third to claim the final available spot in Final C.
Žvegelj ultimately finished fourth in Final D, thereby placing 22nd in the event. He finished in a time of 6:59:46, his best time in any race throughout his Olympic journey.
Žvegelj previously finished fourth in his preliminary heat with a time of 7:01.23, narrowly missing out on progressing directly to the event’s quarterfinals by less than three-tenths of a second. This result sent him to participate in the event’s repechages, which provide competitors with a second chance to qualify for the quarterfinals.
He rebounded, however, to emerge victorious from his repechage in 7:06.90, thereby qualifying him for quarterfinals.
In a 2022 interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian, Žvegelj praised his Penn teammates for helping him adapt to the United States after moving from Slovenia.
“Rowing helped me adjust,” Žvegelj said. “The team of 40 guys has a really strong bond [and] that really just gets me right into the core of the culture. I recognize that the period when I'm here, the four-year period of studying [at Penn], is a unique opportunity, so I'm really taking that as a privilege to be here.”
In the same interview, Žvegelj said that he is not counting out the possibility of competing in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. At the time, he may not have realized that his Olympic dream would arrive four years sooner.
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