Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
MUM OF A KIND
the end of the Olympics. I am away for less time than I expected.
“We have spent an abnormal amount of time together during lockdown. I try to impart all my fun and all my love and all my energy on to them. Then I can take this chance to work on rowing.”
Identified by an Olympic talent programme because of her 5ft 10ins height, Helen only took up the sport in 2008. But she struck gold with Heather Stanning in the coxless pairs in London just four years later. Then they became the first British female rowers to successfully defend an Olympic title when they won gold at Rio in 2016.
She has also won a hat-trick of world titles, two with Heather and one with Polly, of Edinburgh.
Now with Polly, who also returned to the sport after a two-year absence in 2018, she believes her fight is for equality as much as glory.
“This was not just about getting on the team, but what getting on the team represents,” said Helen. “I genuinely thought it was an impossible mission but I always had this day in my sights. I’m really proud it’s here.
“I hope that other women rowers will think there are no barriers for them to get back into the sport. Coming back from having children gives you an appreciation and respect for what your body can do.”
She has a lot to thank her trusty rowing machine back home for too. While juggling nappies, sleep times and breastfeeding, it was her only option to keep fit. When the twins napped, she rowed for as long as she could.
She recalled: “Then I guess slowly as I started training, I started to think, ‘I wonder if it is possible? To go back, just to be the first woman to do it’.
The delay of the Games due to Covid last year left Helen with a “strange look in her eye”, said Steve.
“She hadn’t been in a boat since the Rio final and I thought ‘oh no, here we go’.” He describes her intense year-long training – often around the kids’ naps – and her comeback as a “stupendous achievement”.
He added: “She is the most extraordinary role model to the kids.”
A tropical storm in the Philippine Sea was last night threatening chaos at what are already being described as the hottest Games in history. There are fears it may be typhoon strength by the time it reaches Japan on Monday. Temperatures in Tokyo this week have hit 31C.