The single scull is the most demanding of all rowing events.
With no team-mates to lean on, no camaraderie
to drag your body through
the gruelling training sessions,
and nobody to blame when things go wrong,
the event is as much about mental endurance
as it is about elite athletic ability.
The men's single scull line-up for the 2012 Olympic Games
featured some of the most gifted and revered scullers
of all time.
Men like two-time Olympic gold medallist
Olaf Tufte,
five-time world champion Mahe Drysdale,
and former world champion
and Olympic medallist Ondřej Synek,
to name but three.
And the rest of the field was strong, too.
Famous names from the world of sculling
who had made unimaginable sacrifices
to represent their country
on the biggest stage of all.
The Olympic Games was the culmination
of their life's work.
But there was one unfamiliar face on Dorney Lake.
Hamadou Issaka, a gardener and swimming pool attendant
from the landlocked
and unusually dry nation of Niger,
had first stepped into a boat
just three months prior to the 2012 Games.
Niger didn't have much Olympic Games pedigree.
The country had won just one medal in its history,
and had never sent a sculler to the Games.
Despite capsizing on his first attempt,
he had shown an aptitude for the single scull,
and quickly secured the Niger national title.
At the age of 35,
it was a late entry into the world of sculling
for Issaka, and the IOC stepped in to offer him a wild card,
which meant guaranteed qualification
to the Olympic Games.
Niger, a country that is 80% desert,
and which once had no rowing clubs,
no rowing lakes and no rowing boats,
suddenly had an Olympic sculler.
It had all the makings of a Cinderella story.
Standing 1 metre 69 centimetres tall,
Issaka was David in a field of Goliaths.
The stage was set for one of
the greatest Olympic stories ever told.
But there was a problem.
Issaka was slow.
Really slow.
Staggeringly slow.
The single scull event is contested over 2,000 metres.
Weather and water conditions play a big role
in what constitutes a good finishing time,
but to be in medal contention in the men's event,
you'll need to complete the race in under seven minutes.
Issaka's first attempt took 8 minutes and 25 seconds,
1 minute and 36 seconds behind the winner,
Mahe Drysdale.
His second attempt saw him finish
in 8 minutes and 39 seconds,
1 minute and 39 seconds behind leader Mindaugas Griskonis.
Issaka-mania peaked during his third run,
which produced an eye-watering time
of 9 minutes and 7 seconds.
And a return to form in his final attempt
saw him once again break the nine-minute barrier,
clocking in at 8 minutes 53 seconds.
Issaka had gone into the games
with doubters pointing fingers at him.
Five-time rowing gold medallist Sir Steve Redgrave
had questioned whether
he should be allowed to compete at all.
But the public disagreed.
Issaka was adored by the crowd at Dorney Lake,
and he became an international media sensation.
The record books will tell you
that Mahe Drysdale won the gold medal,
but if you ask anyone who was there,
they'll tell you that the story
of the 2012 single sculls competition
was written by Hamadou Djibo Issaka.
The Sculling Sloth, aka Issaka the Otter,
proved to the world
that you don't need to be an elite athlete...
or a good athlete...or even much of an athlete at all...
to seal your legend at the Olympic Games.