AHEAD of the Curve
Many people thought the Paris Olympics might come too soon for Eve McMahon. The 19-year-old Howth sailor had other ideas...
THERE has been a buzz around Eve McMahon in sailing circles since even before she started collecting world and European youth titles.
Despite the potential she has displayed in the past couple of years — which even saw her shortlisted for RTÉ’s Young Sportsperson of the Year award — many believed that this year’s Olympic Games might come a little too soon for her.
However, McMahon never thought like that. While others suggested that Los Angeles in 2028 would be when we see the talented Howth native follow the path set by Annalise Murphy, she was hunting for a spot in Paris, which she achieved at the recent world championships in Argentina.
‘It is huge to qualify, a massive weight off my shoulders,’ the 19year-old pointed out this week.
‘A lot of people were saying that Eve wouldn’t be going for Paris, that I would be aiming towards LA. But in the back of my mind, I was always hunting for the Paris spot, especially when I could see there was a possibility of it, so I put in a lot of hard work and I am just glad all that hard work has paid off.’
McMahon may still be young, but she has been keeping company with some of the best sailors in her discipline (the women’s single-handed event) for a few years now.
Before the Tokyo Olympics, she was part of a training group with Murphy and Anne-Marie Rindom, the eventual gold medalist from Denmark.
And now as she prepares for her Olympic debut, McMahon will be training with Rindom and the Danish team in the waters off Marseille, where the Olympic sailing regatta is taking place. Ireland are one of six nations who are using it as a base, and linking in with Denmark, who are the most successful Olympic sailing nation, seems like a promising development.
In the sport of sailing, local knowledge matters. Before Murphy claimed her emotional silver medal in Rio in 2016, she had spent more than 100 days in the waters around Guanabara Bay, learning all the different courses that the sea there could take.
And McMahon will now be similarly schooled in how the Mediterranean behaves off the coast of Marseille, the various water conditions and the consistent wind. It will allow her to plan her tactics and strategy, accordingly.
And apart from anything else, the French port city is a cool place to hang out.
‘We train in Marseille with the Danish team. There is a huge geographical land effect but it is something we are quite used to now, because we have trained there a lot,’ she says. ‘It is nice weather as well, sometimes it is very, very hot but it is glamour sailing out there and the land effect is something that I am used to now.’
McMahon got into sailing by following her older brothers Jamie and Ewan down to Howth Yacht Club for their summer courses. And from there, it just took off. Ewan is also hoping to make the Olympics in the men’s singlehanded event and the pair bounce off each other as they travel around the globe for competition.
McMahon’s schedule ahead of the Olympics is pretty much set. There are European and world under-21 titles which she has to defend as well as a European championship. And through it all, she is going to juggle college work, as she is currently studying for a commerce degree in UCD.
She has yet to sit down with the college and figure out what Olympic qualification and preparation for the games will mean for her studies this year, but she enjoys how worrying about college can be a distraction from her sport.
‘I am in UCD in the Ad Astra programme, and I am enjoying the balance between academic and sport. We haven’t quite figured out the programme yet, we are still sorting out the best possible way to prioritise the Olympics. But they have had Olympic athletes before, so they are well rehearsed in it. For me, college is a great way to switch off and not be thinking completely about sport.’
And it is clearly working for Eve McMahon, given how far she has come in such a short space of time. We might be hearing more about this talented young sailor from Howth in the weeks and months ahead.
“We train in Marseille with the Danish team”