For Karsten Forsterling, selection for the 2012 Olympic Team was the realisation of years of hard work and devastating near-misses. After missing out on the men’s eight crew for Athens in 2004, Forsterling travelled to Beijing as the reserve in 2008 and almost filled in for an ailing Drew Ginn but never actually took to the course.
Forsterling took a year off after the Beijing Games, returning to rowing in 2010. He then switched from sweep to sculls and was the only new member of the quad sculls crew which set the world’s best time of 5:36.20 in the heats at the 2008 Games (replacing Brendan Long).
Building up for the London Games in the quad sculls, Fosterling won his first gold medal from eight World Championship campaigns in 2011. He lined up with his World Championship teammates Chris Morgan, James McRae and Daniel Noonan on his Olympic debut in London. The team finished second in the semi-finals to book a spot in the medal race. Sitting in fourth at the midway point of the final, the Aussie crew finished strong to claim the bronze medal with Germany winning gold and Croatia taking home the silver.
Forsterling has been out of the ARTeam since 2012 but makes a return in 2015 in the Men’s Quadruple Scull alongside David Crawshay, David Watts and Cameron Girdlestone. The crew went on to win silver at the 2015 World Rowing Championships in Aiguebelette, France. In 2016, Forsterling was once again named in the Men’s Quadruple Sculls.