Even world champions have to take care of life after their career

Martin and Valent Sinković are passionate athletes. The brothers have been internationally successful rowers already for 20 years. With team work, endurance, and a lot of personal commitment they won six gold medals in six world championships – and did so in three different disciplines. This kind of success in rowing has still not been replicated. 

From pure fun to passion

The two Croatians got into rowing through their older brother. At the beginning, the sport was simply a welcome possibility to spend lots of time together. "In the first years we never thought about becoming professional rowers, we trained because it was a lot of fun from the start", explains Martin. The fun slowly turned into real passion. The more Martin and Valent trained, the better they became. "When we realized that we were capable of above-average performance, we became ambitious. We began to dream of the Olympic Games and world championships and commit to achieving these goals", says Valentin.

A role model – not just for young people

With many international successes, the Sinković brothers also became more famous. In this role model function, they want to inspire particularly young people to develop an active and healthy lifestyle. "We are happy to see that the number of rowers and the number of people interested in the sport is continually increasing in Croatia", says Valent. "We are very honored that we have become sports idols for some people. However, this also comes with a great deal of responsibility. For this reason, it is important to us that we always lead by example – not only in sports, but also in other areas of life."

Preparation for life after sports

But the careers of top athletes also come to an end at some point – Valent and Martin understood this early on. "In Croatia it is very tough to live off one's pension. So it was clear to us years ago that we would have to become active ourselves.” The brothers have been satisfied OVB customers for 10 years. Their personal financial consultant ensures that they will be taken care of when they are older. "In my opinion, people don't think about their future enough. OVB tries to raise awareness for retirement planning and financial topics so that as many people as possible in Croatia and elsewhere in Europe begin to think about their financial security."