Oliver Zeidler

Oliver Zeidler (; born 24 July 1996) is a German rower and former swimmer. He is the reigning Olympic and world champion in the men's single sculls, which he first won at the 2019 World Rowing Championships and defended in 2022 and 2023. He is the 2023 World Games champion in indoor rowing in the open men's 2000 m class.

Family Zeidler was born in 1996. He was born into a rowing family, with grandfather Hans-Johann Färber a double-Olympic medallist (gold in 1972 and bronze in 1976, both in the coxed four boat class). His grandfather trains his sister Marie (born 1999) who has won medals at 2016 and 2017 World Rowing Junior Championships. Oliver Zeidler is trained by his father, Heino Zeidler, himself a former junior world champion rower and a senior representative rower for Germany in the 1990s. The Zeidlers live in Erding. His aunt, Judith Zeidler, is an Olympic gold and bronze medallist in rowing and his aunt is married to double-Olympian Matthias Ungemach.

Swimming Zeidler measures . At the 2015 German year championships in Berlin, he won gold in the 100 metres freestyle event for the year 1996 competition, silver for the same performance in the open category (years 1994 to 1996), and bronze in the 200 metres freestyle. He ended his competitive swimming career in February 2017. Less than a year later, Zeidler won the open men's 2000 m class in indoor rowing at the 2017 World Games in Wrocław, Poland. The previous month, Zeidler had come third at the German under-23 championships in single scull. At the World Rowing Cup III race, Zeidler won silver, again beaten by Manson. But more importantly, fellow German Naske came sixth in that race meaning that Zeidler was then selected as the German single sculling representative for the 2018 World Rowing Championships. He made the A-final at the 2018 World Championships but finished in overall sixth place.

2019 would be Zeidler's break-out year as a single-sculler. He took gold at the European Championships in Lucerne and at the 2019 World Rowing Championships in Ottensheim he won all three of his preliminary races and then in the A final contested one of the closest and toughest world class sculling events witnessed. remained unbeaten at all three World Cups and crowned himself World Champion again in Belgrade. This performance also owned him the Men's Rower of the year award 2023 and the qualification for his second Olympics.

In 2024, Zeidler kicked off the Olympic racing season with a win at the World Rowing Cup held in Varese, Italy, on 14 April. At the end of April 2024, Zeidler won gold in the European Rowing Championships in Szeged, Hungary. In July, he won a fourth Diamond Sculls at Henley. At the 2024 Summer Olympics Zeidler placed first in his heat, quarterfinal and semifinal, in which he achieved an Olympic best time of 6:35.77. He went on to win the final, beating reigning Olympic Champion Stefanos Ntouskos.