Iztok ÄŒop

Iztok Čop ( born June 17, 1972 in Kranj ) is a Slovenian rower. With one Olympic gold and silver medals and two bronze medals he is the most successful Olympic athletes of Slovenia since independence.

1985 Čop began in Bled with the rowing. He had the first international success in 1989 and 1990 as a junior world champion in pairs without coxswain together with Denis Zvegelj. At the World Championships in 1991, the two made ​​their debut in the adult class and were at first runner-up behind Steven Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent. At the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992, Slovenia adopted for the first time in the Olympic Summer Games and won two bronze medals, the first Olympic medals for Slovenia. The first bronze medal won the coxless pairs with Čop and Zvegelj, the second medal followed shortly thereafter in the coxless four. 1993 received Čop and Zvegelj again bronze at the World Cup.

Then Čop moved by the belt for rowing Rowing Skull. In his first World Cup participation in a CoP in 1994 right off the bat of third parties. In 1995 he won in Tampere his first world title in one. At the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta Čop was his favorite role can not be fair and was only fourth. In 1997 and 1998 he won at the World Championships also only the fourth place. The years 1996 to 1998 are the only years 1991-2007, in which Čop the highlight of the season did not win any medal.

1999 rose Čop from the one in the double sculls at, in this class of boat he was with Luka Spik almost unbeatable for two years. The two won the 1999 World Cup title and the 2000 Olympics they came for the first Olympic gold medal for Slovenia at all. Over the next three years Čop rowed again in the One and won a medal every year. At the 2004 Olympic Games Luka Spik and Iztok Čop came back to together, but surprisingly lost against the French Sébastien Vieilledent and Adrien Hardy. 2005 Spik and Čop competed at the World Championships in two boat classes, the day after winning the double sculls erruderten the two silver in the quadruple sculls. After 2006, the two won silver at the World Rowing Championships 2007 in Munich gold again.

Čop continued his career in the quadruple sculls and again from 2011 continued in the double sculls. Five years after his last World Cup medal and twenty years after his first Olympic medal he won at the Olympic Games in London with Luka Spik again a bronze medal.

In addition to its own rowing career Iztok Čop is now also a regatta organizer. In Ljubljana, he organized a sprint competition, the Čop Challenger. Čop is married and has two daughters.

International success

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