Unfinished Business /
After beating depression, former world champion and dual Olympian rower Eve Macfarlane is back at the top of the sport she loves, aiming for gold at Tokyo 2020.
New Zealand rower Eve Macfarlane is back on the water and aiming for the top
THE PAST FIVE YEARS HAVE BEEN A ROLLERCOASTER ride for former Cantabrian Eve Macfarlane. Meeting the bubbly 28-year-old today though, it’s hard to believe just how much has happened since she suffered undoubtedly the biggest knock of her remarkable career when she and crewmate Zoe Stevenson failed to make the double scull final at the Rio 2016 Olympics by an agonising five-hundredths of a second.
She’s battled depression, started a business building tiny homes in Raglan with partner Chris Morrison, and co-authored a book featuring stories of 20 young Kiwis who have built happy, healthy lives following depression.
Amid thoughts of quitting the sport altogether, she’s fought her way back to elite level with dreams of Olympic glory. And though the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to derail her plans, she continues to march on.
She’s now back training for her third Olympics with sights firmly set on a medal at Tokyo, named earlier this year as part of Rowing New Zealand’s 2021 women’s elite quad. ‘It’s been a crazy ride. I couldn’t have scripted it if I’d tried,’ says Eve. ‘I have experienced a lot, but I am so grateful for all the ups and downs. I have come out the other side, and I’ve realised I have learnt so much more about myself.’
Eve grew up on a sheep and beef farm at Parnassus,
North Canterbury. A sports-mad youngster, she had given most sports a crack by the time she’d started high school as a boarder at Rangi Ruru Girls’ School in Christchurch, excelling in netball, basketball, touch rugby, cross country running, volleyball and athletics. ‘I did anything I could get my hands on, really. I loved everything. It was ridiculous. I probably did too much. They were constantly tapping me on the shoulder to give rowing a try, but I was having too much fun doing everything else,’ recalls Eve.
At 16, it was a case of now or never. From the outset Eve was a natural. She not only possessed the obvious physical attributes to be a rower, including long arms and legs, incredible reach and strength, but she showed natural timing and rhythm. ‘I jumped in a boat, gave it a go and loved it from then on.’
And so began her meteoric rise from schoolgirl novice to Olympian. Under the watchful eye of Gary Hay, then coach of the Rangi Ruru squad, in her first year, Eve rowed in five events at the Aon Maadi Cup national secondary schools regatta for five gold medals, including the Under 18 trifecta of pair, four and eight.
Her performance earned her a spot in the women’s eight at the 2009 World Rowing Junior Championships in France, winning a silver medal. The following year she repeated her Aon Maadi Cup trifecta and was selected in the junior women’s coxless four, which went on to win gold at the World Rowing Junior Championships in the Czech Republic. ‘By that point I had quit all the other sports to give rowing the attention it deserved,’ says Eve.
At the end of 2010, she made the leap from the national junior squad into the senior squad. Though Eve had been a sweep (single oar) rower through school and juniors, she
suddenly found herself sculling after the selectors put her in the elite women’s quad sculls. While she initially found it a struggle to make the transition (from one oar to two), Eve took to her new role with her customary gusto. ‘Initially it was quite hard, but sculling feels more natural to me now,’ she explains.
On the back of a bronze medal at the World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia, the London Olympics beckoned. At 19, Eve was the youngest member of the New Zealand Olympic team. ‘As a junior I was just rolling with it and enjoying the moment and then I got asked to trial for the New Zealand team. I was the newbie, I really didn’t know what I was doing. There was no pressure and no expectation. I guess I was quite naive about the whole thing.’
Despite their youth, the quad went into the London Olympics as an outside chance of a medal, but the dream ended when they snapped an oar in the repechage, 300 m from the finish, ruling them out of the final. ‘It was pretty upsetting. It was my first major disappointment,’ says Eve.
After London, Eve moved into the elite women’s eight (single oar) before taking some time away from the sport in 2014. She made a stellar comeback the following year, forming an enviable team with Tauranga’s Zoe Stevenson in the women’s double sculls (two oars). The duo went through the season unbeaten, culminating in taking out the world championships, qualifying the boat for the Rio Olympics in the process.
With rowing being one of New Zealand’s big medal hopes at the Olympics, Eve carried the weight of expectation going into Rio, both externally and internally. As reigning world champions, they were expected to win gold. But in the semifinal they produced a subpar performance failing to even make the A Final. ‘It was bitterly disappointing,’ says Eve. ‘It was more devastating than London because I knew I’d just underperformed. I felt like I had let everyone down.’
Returning home to New Zealand, Eve took time out.
She initially enjoyed the freedom she had to do whatever she liked away from the rigours of rowing training, teaching yoga, surfing and having time to focus on her art.
Eve soon fell into a dark place though, struggling not only with the disappointment of Rio but also the transition from elite athlete back to normal life. Since leaving school, all she had known was rowing. She’d devoted so much energy to it. Now she found herself feeling tired all the time, was unmotivated, cried a lot and didn’t want to go outside or socialise.
‘I had this blankness about me,’ says Eve. ‘It really started to show when I didn’t even enjoy the things I love, like surfing. Exercise was the last thing I wanted to do. It was then that my family [suggested I] go to the doctor and have a checkup. I thought I’d just have a blood test and I’d be low in iron or something. The depression diagnosis took me by complete surprise. I’d heard about depression, but I didn’t actually know what it was,’ she says.
‘Having the tiny home [in Raglan] is literally like a holiday. It’s been a gamechanger for me. It’s that ability to switch on and switch off. ’