Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
THE MUMMY RETURNS
Glover aims to be first rowing Olympian after having kids
SUPERMUM Helen Glover makes her comeback in a boat next week – with her heart set on a golden encore in Tokyo.
The double Olympic champion, 34, has been named in the Great Britain squad for the European Rowing Championships regatta in Italy, where she will race in the women’s pair with Polly Swann.
It will be Glover’s first race since she won gold in Rio for Team GB five years ago with Heather Stanning (above right).
And the mother-of-three – who decided to make her return after working out on a rowing machine to get fit following the birth of her twins – wants to become the first woman to make a British Olympic rowing team after having children.
Glover and Stanning also became Team GB’S first gold medallists at the London
2012 Games, pipping cyclist Sir
Bradley Wiggins to the top of the podium by four hours in the coxless pairs.
Now Glover is forging a new double act with Swann – an Olympic silver medallist in the women’s eight in Rio – and her return to the water in Varese will strike another blow for working mums.
Glover told British Rowing’s website:
“I’ve been back full-time for three months now and being selected for the Europeans is the first step on my mission to become the first woman in British rowing history to make an Olympic team after having children.
“I’m finding the journey exciting and extremely challenging, but I hope I can return from Varese with some success stories to share with the children.”
The sporting landscape is by no means littered with mothers who have reached the pinnacle after childbirth.
Evonne
Cawley and Kim Clijsters won tennis Grand Slams as mothers 29 years apart, Paula Radcliffe took the tape in back-to-back New York marathon races after the delivery of her daughter Isla and Dame Jessica Ennis-hill won world championship gold and Olympic silver in the heptathlon following her son Reggie’s birth in 2014.
Glover’s place in the pantheon is already assured by her feats in London and Rio. To add a third Olympic gold would elevate her to sporting greatness.
British
Rowing director of performance Brendan Purcell said: “It has been 20 months since we last competed at an international regatta and the whole squad cannot wait to get racing again.
“When we came home from the World Rowing Championships in September 2019 with 10 boats qualified for the Olympic Games and three boats qualified for the Paralympic Games, we had no idea of the challenges that would lie ahead.
“I’m incredibly proud of every single member of the GB rowing team, from the athletes to the coaching staff. They have worked tirelessly towards a time when we could safely compete again.”