The following year, still only 19, he was promoted to the German senior squad as C-2 partner for the more experienced Christian Gille.

At Wylenzek's first Olympics in Athens, he and Gille won a surprise gold in the C-2 1000 m event.

In 2005 Gille and Wylenzek completely dominated the C-2 event, showing that their Athens victory was no fluke.

Gille and Wylenzek lost out to Stefan Holtz and Robert Nuck in the German C-2 500 m trial and were therefore unable to defend their European and world titles over that distance.

Wylenzek was philosophical as they lost their other titles too, coming away with just two silver medals at the major championships (European C-2 1000 m and world C-2 200 m).