Seasoned Drysdale pulls hard towards Tokyo
Thirty-nine-year-old confident of making Olympics — but will have to beat in-form Kiwi rival Manson first
rowers head to Europe on June 14 so they have around 14 tough weeks’ work ahead until the second World Cup regatta in Linz, Austria in late June.
This year’s worlds is one thing, but Drysdale is adamant his sights remain on making a fifth Olympics. He was in the fifth-placed four at Athens in 2004 with Eric Murray, Carl Meyer and Donald Leach. A gallant bronze at Beijing followed, when battling debilitating illness; and then came the gold-gold of the last two Games.
So why not walk away? After all, he’d depart with a glittering career as one of the alltime greats. He’s heard the line more than once and his response is something the true greats would appreciate: why should I stop if I still enjoy it? He points to a range of sports people, including New Zealand’s remarkable Ironman Cameron Brown — New Zealand Ironman winner two years ago at 44 — and tennis legend Roger Federer as examples of athletes who haven’t felt governed by some invisible voice saying “enough”.
“It’s a fair enough thing to say but I’m not scared of failure. A lot of people said that to me after London — ‘maybe you’re done, over the hill, why not give up when you’re ahead?’. But as long as I think I can be better than I am, or have been, I’m going to continue in this sport. I’ll just put my best foot forward and [even] if the result is not there in Tokyo, it’s a positive on my legacy, not a negative. I don’t want to be sitting on the couch watching Tokyo and thinking ‘I could have been there’.”
He cited Norwegian rowing legend Olaf Tufte as an inspiration. He won bronze in Rio in the double scull “and he’s a couple of years older than me. That was certainly inspiring. Brown and Federer, all those things show it is possible.”
Drysdale said his relationship with Manson was fine.
“It’s the New Zealand rowing system. It’s all about competition. We’re going for the same spot, but both trying to push the level. Robbie is in absolutely fantastic form and that has made the times I’m doing look even more ordinary than they possibly are.
“That’s why I’m still confident. I know what I can usually do and how much I can improve between this time of year and the world cups and championships. I’m very upbeat about that.”
Drysdale sees benefits both ways, in terms of how one can help extract the best from each other.
“I know if I can beat Robbie, I can beat anyone in the world; and if I get back up to my speed and he can knock me over, he’s in a very good spot to go on and win at the world champs.”
If things go wrong for Drysdale this year, he knows hard thinking will be needed.
“Tokyo is still two-and-a-half years away. It’s certainly not panic stations and the great thing about rowing is the harder you work, the faster you get. It just requires a bit of patience, which I’m not very good at,” he laughed.