Janis Rodmanis

Janis Rodmanis was born in Germany to Latvian/German parents. The family emigrated to Chile in 1949, where he grew up in the city Valdivia and soon started rowing with the sports club Deportivo Phoenix Valdivia. From 1964-72 he won three Chilean National Championships in both single and double sculls.

In December 1972 he was honoured by the Chilean reporters’ association as the best Chilean sportsman of the year in rowing. For the Olympic Games in München he qualified second at the South American Rowing Championships 1972 in Melilla, Uruguay, behind the reigning world champion Alberto Demiddi.

Three years after the 1972 Olympics, Janis Rodmanis returned to Germany, earned his PhD in agricultural sciences and then worked for a large German chemical company. He remained connected to rowing in FISA Masters regattas until 2017 as a member of RTHC Bayer Leverkusen.