Helen Glover to compete in Europe, aims for Tokyo 2020
DOUBLE Olympic champion Helen Glover says she is “chuffed” to have been selected to compete in the upcoming European Rowing Championships, just three months after returning to the sport.
Next month’s competition in Italy will be the first time the 34-year-old has raced internationally since winning her second gold medal in the pairs at the 2016 Rio Olympics and having her three children.
Selection is also a crucial step towards her target of competing at the rescheduled Tokyo Games this summer and becoming the first woman in British rowing history to compete at an Olympics as a mother.
“I’m really chuffed. I think that I’ve been talking and thinking about making Tokyo and I kind of forgot that first comes the European Championships and actually selection for this is important,” Glover told Sky Sports News.
“Going out and representing Great Britain again after five years will be something that I’m just really excited by.”
Glover will be racing in the
Women’s Pair with Olympic silver medallist, Polly Swann.
Juggling the demands of being an elite athlete and a mother is not easy, Glover admits, but it is something that might give her the edge to get to Tokyo.
“I’m tired, but I think that it’s just this perpetual level of tiredness that I’ve now come to accept.”
❐ UK Sport is to pump up to £2.4m into six Olympic and two Paralympic sports to help improve athletes’ chances of representing
their country.
Handball, volleyball, water polo, wrestling, softball, artistic swimming, sitting volleyball and goalball will all benefit from the newly-launched National Squads Support Fund.
“The National Squads Support Fund is a key part of our new investment approach and demonstrates our commitment to a wider group of sports and athletes in our Olympic and Paralympic high-performance community,” UK Sport chief executive Sally Munday said.