Ante Kušurin (born 9 June 1983) is a Croatian rower, who specialized in the

double scull A double scull, also abbreviated as a 2x, is a rowing boat used in the sport of competitive rowing. It is designed for two persons who propel the boat by sculling with two oars each, one in each hand. Racing boats (often called "shells") ar ...

event. He is a two-time medalist at the World Junior Rowing Championships and also a member of the

Oxford Blue A blue is an award of sporting colours earned by athletes at some universities and schools for competition at the highest level. The awarding of blues began at University of Oxford, Oxford and University of Cambridge, Cambridge universities in Eng ...

Rowing career

Kusurin started out his sporting career as a basketball player, until he encouraged by his friends to try out for rowing at the age of fourteen. He won two medals for the double sculls at the World Junior Rowing Championships, and also, attained multiple top-ten finishes at the World Under-23 Regatta and at the World Rowing Cup series. Realizing that he needed funding and a full-time career, Kusurin applied for a full scholarship and took up a business degree in finance at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

. While attending college, he discovered competitive rowing and power training, and suddenly became a full-fledged member of the Washington Huskies Rowing Club. He also served as the captain of the rowing team, and captured numerous gold medals for his collegiate crew at the Pac-10 Rowing Championships, the Windermere Cup, and the San Diego Crew Classic. Although he played for the Washington Huskies during his collegiate career, Kusurin continued to row in his national senior squad annually. After graduating from the University of Washington in 2007, Kusurin attended the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

Saïd Business School Saïd Business School (Oxford Saïd or SBS) is the business school of the University of Oxford. The school is a provider of management education. Business and management classes started at Oxford in 1965 when the Centre of Management Studies, ...

, where he became a member of the

Oxford University Boat Club Oxford University Boat Club (OUBC) is the Rowing (sport), rowing club for the University of Oxford, England, located on the River Thames at Oxford. The club was founded in 1829. The prime constitutional aim of OUBC is to beat Cambridge Univers ...

. He participated twice in

The Boat Race The Boat Race is an annual set of rowing races between the Cambridge University Boat Club and the Oxford University Boat Club, traditionally rowed between open-weight eights on the River Thames in London, England. It is also known as the U ...

, in

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

and

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

, along with top-class rowers including Great Britain's Colin Smith and New Zealand's

George Bridgewater George Spencer Bridgewater (born 18 January 1983) is a former New Zealand rower who competed in the pair at international level with Nathan Twaddle. The pair began representing New Zealand together in 2004 and won bronze medals at the 2008 Summ ...

, an Olympic bronze medalist in the coxless pair.

Olympics

Kusurin represented

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, where he and his partner Mario Vekić competed for the men's double sculls. The pair directly qualified for the semi-final A/B rounds, after finishing second in the heats, with a time of 6:27.38. Shortly before the rowing competition, Kusurin and Vekic were involved in a bus accident, which killed three Chinese nationals and injured several Australian delegates and their coach Dragutin Milinkovic. While their coach was rushed to a nearby hospital around Beijing, the pair went off to the competition and rowed strongly for a fourth-place finish in the semi-final round, with a fastest possible time of 6:24.89. Few hours later, Kusurin and Vekic missed out of the final B round, and automatically finished in twelfth overall position. The

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based i ...

(IOC) and the

International Rowing Federation World Rowing, also known as the World Rowing Federation (officially FISA; ), is the international governing body for rowing. Its current president is Jean-Christophe Rolland who succeeded Denis Oswald at a ceremony held in Lucerne in July 2 ...

(FISA) had also rejected an appeal sent by the

Croatian Olympic Committee The Croatian Olympic Committee (, HOO) is the non-profit organization representing Croatian athletes in the International Olympic Committee. The COC organizes Croatia's representatives at the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. It also organizes the ...

(HOO) to include the pair as a seventh scull in the final race.

References

External links

* * * *
Profile – Washington Huskies
(archived)

(archived) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kusurin, Ante 1983 births Living people Croatian male rowers Olympic rowers for Croatia Rowers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Nova Gradiška Oxford University Boat Club rowers Alumni of Kellogg College, Oxford Alumni of Saïd Business School 21st-century Croatian sportsmen