Norman Bröckl

Who is Norman Bröckl?

Norman Bröckl is a German sprint canoer who has competed since 2003. He won a bronze medal in the K-4 1000 m event on his 22nd birthday at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Bröckl enjoyed great success as a junior. At the 2003 Junior World Championships in Komatsu, Japan he won a K-2 1000 m gold medal and the K-1 500 m silver medal, behind Portugal's Emanuel Silva. In 2004 he dominated the Junior European Championships, winning three gold medals.

He was promoted to Germany's senior K-4 crew in 2005. His senior debut, at the European championships in Poznań, went badly - Bröckl has admitted that he "froze" - and the German crew finished outside the medals in both the 500 m and 1000 m races. They did take the 200 m bronze medal on the last day of the championships, but the German coaches decided that Bröckl was not yet ready for the responsibility of leading the crew from the bow-seat in the longer distance races. He therefore switched seats with the more experienced Lutz Altepost for the 1000 m races at the world championships in Zagreb, Croatia. This time there were no nerves and Germany won the K-4 1000 m gold medal. In the 200 m final, with Bröckl leading, they picked up a silver medal.