Education
He attended a school for the deaf until he obtained a primitive hearing aid at the age of 12, allowing him to attend a regular school.
He attended a school for the deaf until he obtained a primitive hearing aid at the age of 12, allowing him to attend a regular school.
Jaanson had to overcome a particularly challenging childhood, brought on by a severe case of pneumonia at the age of 2. Doctors gave antibiotics which saved him, but which also left him almost completely deaf. Still, being a loner, he struggled with fitting in.
At Tartu University, when a coach introduced him to rowing, he took to it passionately, in fact so passionately that he left the University to focus on rowing.
He wears hearing aids on a regular basis and was also seen wearing them during his rowing competitions. Jaanson is among four athletes to compete in rowing at six Olympics, with Romanian Elisabeta Oleniuc Lipă in 2004, Canadian Lesley Thompson (cox) in 2008, and Australian James Tomkins.
On 18 November 2010, Jaanson announced ending his career. 1988 Seoul – 8th Single sculls
1992 Barcelona – 5th Single sculls
1996 Atlanta – 18th Single sculls
2000 Sydney – 6th Single sculls
2004 Athens – Single sculls
2008 Beijing – Double sculls (with Tõnu Endrekson)
1989 Bled, Yugoslavia – Single sculls
1990 Tasmania, Australia – Single sculls
1991 Vienna, Austria – 12th Single sculls
1995 Tampere, Finland – Single sculls
1997 Aiguebelette, France – 13th Single sculls
1998 Cologne, Germany – 14th Single sculls
1999 Saint Catharines, Canada – 7th Single sculls
2001 Luzerne, Switzerland – 7th Single sculls
2003 Milan, Italy – 7th Single sculls
2005 Gifu, Japan – Quadruple sculls (with Andrei Jämsä, Tõnu Endrekson and Leonid Gulov)
2007 Munich, Germany – Double sculls (with Tõnu Endrekson)
2008 Marathon, Greece – Quadruple Sculls (with Tõnu Endrekson, Andrei Jämsä and Allar Raja)
Overall wins
Single sculls: 1990, 1995
Quadruple sculls: 2005
Double sculls: 2007.
13th Riigikogu; 12th Riigikogu]
He is a member of the Saskatchewan Pärnu rowing club located in Pärnu. He is also a member of the Estonian parliament, the Riigikogu for the Reform Party.