TOP OF HIS GAME
Remarkable O’Donovan deserves to take his place among the elite names in Irish sport...
AWARD season can stir a strange fervour not always in keeping with festive sentiment. This year, the absence of Paul O’Donovan from the shortlist for RTÉ’s sports personality of the year proved a contentious one (and in the interests of transparency, it should be noted that this correspondent is a member of the judging panel for the RTÉ award).
The fact he was nominated in the team section drew some but not all of the heat from the discussion.
There are always rows and the odd cry of ‘shame!’ around these events, and they usually settle along partisan lines: advocates for a particular sport can be quick to mobilise if they feel their woman or man is not getting due recognition.
What was interesting about the O’Donovan example was that the initial impression that he had been ignored found traction so quickly.
The rowing constituency in this country is not a large one, but what it showed is that his talent and status are now understood and appreciated by landlubbers, too.
He is, simply, an Irishman who is a star in a global sport, a homegrown, home-trained phenomenon considered a great in countries and cultures with richer and more decorated histories.
What he did in the lightweight doubles with Fintan McCarthy on July 28 franked his status within the sport as the best pound-forpound rower on the planet. But it also meant an instant upgrade on his ranking in Irish sport.
As with end-of-year awards, talk about who is the greatest leaves some cold. They dismiss it as frivolous and pointless, because of the difficulty in measuring an athlete from one sport against one from another.
The second part of the point has merit, but the plain fact is that much of the glory of sport is not measurable.
Much of it cannot be based on empirical evidence that translates equally across all sports, taking into account conditions, team-mates, and the strength of the competing field, but that doesn’t lessen the enthusiasm for the debate.
In the same way that those who used to roll their eyes about the fascination with Saipan, those left cold by rankings and lists do seem to be missing out on one of the joys of sport: deciding who is the best.
Paul O’Donovan’s claim on being seen as Ireland’s mightiest sportsperson was enhanced by what happened in Tokyo – but that was merely the culmination of a startlingly successful career.
He is a two-time Olympic medalist, gold in the lightweight doubles with Fintan McCarthy this year, silver in Rio in 2016 with his brother Gary.
He has been a world champion in four consecutive years, in the single sculls in 2016 and 2017, and in the doubles with his brother in 2018, and with McCarthy in 2019.
Then there are the two European golds, both in the doubles, one this year with McCarthy, one in 2016 with Gary, as well as silvers in the doubles in 2017 and 2018.
Paul O’Donovan wins on the international stage, in a sport that makes brutal physical demands of its athletes, with a consistency that is unmatched in Irish sport.
There are other compelling contenders for the designation of Ireland’s greatest, with Sonia O’Sullivan, Roy Keane, Katie Taylor and Rory McIlroy among the most obvious.
But that a rower is now justifiably ranked in that company is in itself remarkable, and in part testament to a high-performance rowing culture that has accelerated in the past decade.
The women’s four struck for a brilliant bronze in Tokyo too, of course, and the medals earned by Irish athletes in the sport came after an Olympic cycle that many of those involved agreed was merciless.
Under director Antonio Maurogiovanni, the Irish high performance system demanded standards that even some veterans of the sport thought unsustainable.
Instead, the Olympics ended with Ireland competing at rowing’s elite end, as Irish crews have done at European and world championships for years now.
What happened in Tokyo was simply the maintenance of a standard that has dazzled in less rarefied settings for years.
One of the inevitable stories in the build-up to Tokyo was the break-up of the O’Donovan brothers. Trials are held before every major competition, sometimes months in advance and over a series of weeks, to determine what rowers should make the boat.
Paul and Gary O’Donovan had for years been Ireland’s two in the lightweight doubles, but by 2019 Fintan McCarthy, their friend and Skibbereen club-mate, was training and competing at a standard that was putting Gary O’Donovan under huge pressure. Eventually, his form told, the partnership that took silver in Rio was broken up, and everyone accepted the tough but incontestable truth without rancour. Gary O’Donovan travelled to Tokyo as the reserve for the boat, ready to step in if injury or illness took out one of his brother or McCarthy.
He wasn’t required; his younger brother mused during one interview after their gold-medal race that Gary probably didn’t get to see the race. Because of rigorous Covid-19 protocols, athletes were required to leave Japan as soon as their race was run and once it was clear Gary wouldn’t be needed, it was time to go home. That was one manifestation of the hardness that is an important part of a winning story.
Paul O’Donovan offered another insight into it with an interview he gave at Ireland’s Olympic preview day. The questioning inevitably alighted on his brother, the end of their partnership in the boat, and what its possible effects might be.
‘I do like trying to win races, so if I can have a faster combination, then naturally you’re probably going to be a bit happier to be in that and have a better chance of winning gold medals,’ he reasoned. It was as obvious as that. Everyone involved understood the arrangement. Winning mattered. The Irish won.
The Southern Star, the west Cork newspaper that has brilliantly charted the O’Donovans specifically but the wider Skibbereen rowing phenomenon more generally in great detail, published a story at the start of October about the Cork Athletics Cross-Country championships.
Thirty-eight took part in the novice men’s race. Paul O’Donovan, running in the colours of the Leevale club, came 16th, completing the six-kilometre course in a time of 22 minutes 47 seconds.
It was an indication of the breadth of his athletic talent, and the fitness levels that provided the base for what happened in Tokyo.
He won’t turn 28 until April, and there is at least one more Olympics left in him.
By Paris in 2024, he could stand alone in Irish sport. As it is, he stands among the very best.
‘HE RANKS IN THE COMPANY OF O’SULLIVAN, KEANE AND McILROY’