Richard Schmidt rowed for Ruderverein Treviris 1921 in Trier, Germany. At the junior level, he won two medals at the World Rowing Junior Championships in 2004 and 2005. In 2007, he rowed in the men's World Rowing U23 Championships in Glasgow in the coxless four together with Sebastian Schmidt, Fokke Beckman and Kristof Wilke in which they won a gold medal. During Autumn of 2007, the team managed to take home second place at the European Rowing Championships in Poznań after taking a long break from the sport. In 2008, Schmidt rowed with Fokke Beckman at the World Cup opener in Munich in the coxless pair and at the end of the season was nominated to row for the German eight in the U23 World Championship, in which the team placed fourth. During this time, the positioning of the German eight boat was reorganised prior to the 2008 Olympic Games, Schmidt was nominated as a substitute for Beijing. He then moved on to the semi-finals with Marco Neumann, Gregor Hauffe, and :de:Urs Käufer|Urs Käufer in the coxless four as Filip Adamski and :de:Toni Seifert|Toni Seifert were ill. The newly composed team had surprisingly reached the finale, however, Neumann was then replaced with Jochen Urban. The boat finished in 6th place. In the new Olympic cycle, the coxless four formed the core of the newly founded German eight, with which Schmidt won his first international title at the 2009 World Rowing Championships. In 2010, he rowed in the champion coxless pair for the first time with Kristof Wilke. The German eight in which he firmly established himself as a rower, rowed in the European Championships in September and then the World Championships in November. With Schmidt on board, the German team won their third consecutive title at the 2011 World Championships. At the 2012 Olympics in London, the favoured German eight won the gold medal with a boat consisting of Filip Adamski, :de:Andreas Kuffner|Andreas Kuffner, Eric Johannesen, Maximilian Reinelt, Richard Schmidt, Lukas Müller, Florian Mennigen, Kristof Wilke and coxswainMartin Sauer. After the success at the Olympics, Richard Schmidt continued his career in rowing and remained a fixed part of the German eight who are now noted as strong, permanent rivals against the British Rowing team. During the years 2013 to 2015, the German team was able to win gold each year consecutively at the European Rowing Championships. In the World Championship finals, for the last three years the eight from the United Kingdom was faster and took three gold medals, the German eight placed second each year. So the German eight with Schmidt on board, therefore, won three consecutive silver medals.
