MOTHER OF ALL RESPECT FROM GLOVER

SUPERMUM Helen Glover paid tribute to fellow golden girl Dame Laura Kenny after Team GB’s greatest female Olympian hung up her bike, saying: “I see myself in every mum competing.”

Four months before the Paris 2024 Games, Kenny announced her retirement from cycling, bringing down the curtain on a glittering career laden with five Olympic golds.

Now rowing legend Glover (above), bidding to compete in her fourth Games, is our standard-bearer for the sporting motherhood.

She will be 38 by the time Paris comes round, and with three children aged five or under, nobody is better-qualified to separate the pressures of athletic endurance from family life.

Glover, who got the party started at London 2012 by winning Team GB’s first gold with Heather Standing in the women’s coxless pairs, has only respect for Kenny’s decision.

She said: “Every time you hear of a mum’s reasons for going to work, or stepping back from it, you have to respect them because there’s no right or wrong answer.

“When Laura (circle) made her announcement, I thought of everything she’s done in her career, everything she’s done as a mum, and I knew she was making the right decision for her.

“I absolutely see myself in Laura, and I see myself in every single mum who is out there competing because I know the stresses and the strains that go with it.

“But I also know how far we can push the boundaries to show our kids what is possible.”

Helen Glover was speaking as an ambassador for Aldi, official partners of Team GB & ParalympicsGB, supporting all athletes through to Paris 2024.