Irish inspirations want to replicate Kiwi success model
Watch out, New Zealand rowing – Ireland is out to be the sport’s next big superpower.
Rio Olympic silver medallists Paul and Gary O’Donovan are half of an Irish quartet who competed at this week’s New Zealand rowing championships at Lake Karapiro.
Their best results during their off-season training stint were bronze to Paul O’Donovan in the premier men’s single scull finals and bronze in the premier men’s four with Mark O’Donovan (no relation) and Shane O’Driscoll.
The brothers – who shot to worldwide fame after their silver in the lightweight men’s double sculls at the 2016 Olympics when interviewed afterwards, displaying their broad accents and quirky humour – are part of a growing rowing culture they’ve helped inspire in Ireland, and they see bigger things on the horizon.
But it’s performances on the water that matter more to the duo.
‘‘Hopefully following Rio we can try and develop from small beginnings like that and maybe in years to come see Irish rowing being a big competitive nation like New Zealand,’’ Gary said.
‘‘There’s no reason why Ireland can’t be as competitive as New Zealand. The interest is there with the public, then after Rio we’ve had such success with athletes other than ourselves – the lightweight pair [ O’Driscoll and Mark O’Donovan] won the European and world champs, Sanita [Puspure] our single sculler got fourth place at the world champs and our women’s lightweight single sculler got a silver at the Europeans
‘‘So the interest is there and the team is getting bigger – we’re pleased rowing is getting the publicity and awareness and hopefully in years to come we’ll see more youngsters coming through.’’
The brothers said despite their newly-earned fame after Rio, they ensured their lives didn’t change greatly.
‘‘With the rowing lifestyle, you don’t have much room to change your lifestyle much,’’ Gary said.
‘‘You still have to turn up to training twice a day, and we were both doing a bit of study after Rio so that kept us tied down and out of trouble, away from too many distractions.’’
Paul added: ‘‘It was a good thing to gain a profile, to put rowing on centre stage on radio and television and newspapers at home.
‘‘It gave the sport a big boost, and especially for youngsters at home.
‘‘Sometimes they feel a little uncomfortable in class if they’re asked what sport you do, because it’s such a minority sport. ‘Oh, I’m just a rower’ when everybody’s playing the Gaelic games.
‘‘Now all the little kids can proudly stand up and say ‘I’m a rower’ like Gary and Paul, or Mark and Shane now.
‘‘Hopefully in years to come we’ll see a return from that.’’
The brothers have taken on some ambassadorial roles, aiming to promote the government-funded sport.
‘‘It’s very similar to New Zealand, but with your success and tradition over the years I think you’re able to generate more high-profile sponsors,’’ Gary said.
‘‘Hopefully in years to come we’ll see that with Rowing Ireland.’’
The brothers had developed friendships with a number of Kiwi rowers at international regattas in recent years and decided to accept an invitation to come ‘down under’ and race and train in New Zealand while also doing some sightseeing before heading to Australia for a similar programme.