Olympic rower says ‘birthdays are for women and children’

Samuel Loch will turn 40 years old on Monday but the big life event for the Australian Olympian rower isn’t something he’s going to take time celebrating.

The two-time bronze medalist at the World Rowing Championships took a controversial stance on birthdays, saying they were for “women and children.”

“My outlook is largely that birthdays are for women and children and that merely surviving another lap around the sun is not necessarily a reason for celebration,” Loch wrote on Instagram in response to a fan who asked how he was going to celebrate, according to news.au.com.

“However my wife made a good point a few years back that birthdays are an opportunity for the people that love you to celebrate you. That softened my position a little.”

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He is married to Frances Abbott, the daughter of former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

Loch added that turning 40 appealed to him more because he liked “round numbers.”

He represented Australia in the 2008 Beijing Games as the country finished sixth in the men’s eight crew. He was also with the team in 2012 in London, where the team also finished in sixth place.

He won a bronze medal in the 2010 and 2011 World Championships with Australia and finished in second place at the World Indoor Rowing Championships in 2015. He set two indoor rowing world records in 2016 and another for the most meters rowed in one minute in 2017.