Ekaterina Karsten

Ekaterina Karsten (née Khadatovich, Хадатовіч; , Kaciaryna Karsten; ; born 2 June 1972) is a Belarusian rower, a seven-time Olympian and the first medalist from the Republic of Belarus, a two-time Olympic champion and six-time World Champion in the single scull.

Biography At the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, under her maiden name of Khadatovich, she competed in her first Olympic Games in the women's quadruple sculls as part of the Unified Team at the 1992 Summer Olympics due to the recent Dissolution of the Soviet Union, winning the bronze medal.

Khadatovich began to concentrate her career as a single sculler and by the start of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, she had established herself as a major contender for the women's Olympic single sculls. She claimed gold, winning the final in a time of 7:32.31.

She then won both World Championship gold medals in 1997 and 1999 and married a German, where she took the name Karsten. She competed at her third Olympic Games in 2000 in Sydney, where she won gold in the single sculls event by one hundredth of one second over Rumyana Neykova of Bulgaria.

In 2001, Karsten won the Princess Royal Challenge Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta, rowing for the Minsk City Club and defeating German Katrin Rutschow-Stomporowski in the final.

At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, she won a silver medal in the single sculls, and a bronze medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing in the same event.

She also won the World Championships in the single sculls in 1997, 1999, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2009, earned silver in 2002 and 2010, and bronze in 2001 and 2003. She won the European Championships in 2009 and 2010. She won the World Junior Championships in 1990.

She reached the final of the single sculls event at the 2012 Summer Olympics and made it to the semi-finals of the same event at the 2016 Summer Olympics.