Stephan Freischem – father of Mia Freischem (Cambridge) and Lilli Freischem (Oxford), speaking at the start outside Thames Rowing Club in Putney.
He resides in Cologne, Germany and works as a patent attorney.
Split allegiance today … actually on the one side it’s calming, because we know one of our daughters will win. On the other side, it’s just amazing.
The sisters’ race is all over the media in Germany. It’s in Der Spiegel – the magazines and newspapers are full of it. I’ve never seen that before. The German people are interested in the Boat Races as an English tradition, but the country usually doesn’t pay that much attention. It is very exciting to see how the sisters’ news boosts the news about the Boat Race.
It wasn’t a sacrifice [to support his daughters]. We have always tried to raise independent kids, interested kids. And we did not think that we would be so successful. They are interested, they are competitive, and they are nice people. So we are in heaven, actually. We didn’t expect to be so successful.
