Fame certainly doesn't float low-key ace Brennan’s boat
KIM Brennan will have millions of eyes upon her when she rows for gold for Australia tonight (11.45pm AEST) but she would be just as content if no one was watching.
The words “star’’ and “low profile’’ rarely go in the same sentence but they somehow do with Australia’s outstanding rower who is one half of what has been called “the Bledisloe Cup in a boat’’ showdown at Lagoa tonight.
Brennan, unbeaten in two years before losing her way in bumpy conditions in her first heat row earlier in the week, takes on brilliant, but enigmatic Kiwi Emma Twigg.
The New Zealander was formerly Brennan’s conqueror but has a mysterious presence tonight because she recently took a year off so her form lines are as blurred as a Kiwi stayer in a Melbourne Cup.
Brennan’s face will be everywhere tomorrow if she wins but if she returned to the boat shed and there was not a microphone to meet her there would be no complaints.
“I don’t enjoy the spotlight,’’ said Brennan, also a lawyer who graduated with honours.
“I am not doing this to be famous.”
Perhaps she gets this trait from her father Max who played 188 games of AFL for Essendon, St Kilda and Footscray as forward or ruckman without his daughter initially realising the magnitude of the achievement.
“The first time I had a proper understanding of what dad achieved I was doing a project at school called family album,” Brennan recalled.
“I was doing mine on dad and I went back through and found all the articles I could find on dad. It was a real eyeopener that this mate who will take me down the park and have a kick had actually been an incredible player but you would never pick it from how humble and understated he is. It made me very proud.”