Mother Glover is back with Tokyo Olympics dream
DOUBLE Olympic champion Helen Glover has come out of retirement in a quest to qualify for Tokyo and inspire her three children.
No woman has ever made a British Olympic rowing team after having children and Glover, who won coxless pairs gold in London and Rio, has been out of the sport at elite level for four years.
“It was something that was never on the cards, I hadn’t even considered coming back after Rio,” said Glover.
“Then when lockdown happened I started to do a bit of training.
“I’d just had twins, I was on the rowing machine and I saw my scores coming back and I thought ‘I wonder if this is possible?’”
Glover had kept herself fit in between giving birth to son Logan in 2018 and then twins Kit and Bo in 2020.
What she needed was a reason to come back.
She said: “The more I looked at my kids the more I thought to do this as a mum is really different, really hard.
“If I could be the first British woman to make a boat after having children, I feel that would be a really big step – an amazing challenge.”
Glover, 34, is married to TV explorer Steve Backshall and admits to having been inspired by heptathlete Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill and Paralympian cyclist and swimmer Dame Sarah Storey, who each won global medals after giving birth.
At London 2012, Glover made history alongside team-mate Heather Stanning as they became Britain’s first gold medallists.
The pair also won World and European titles before their second Olympic triumph in Rio.
The coronavirus pandemic saw the Games cancelled last summer and Glover said: “When the new year rang in for 2020 and we expected the Games to be going ahead in six months’ time, I was just about to have twins and was looking forward to watching the Olympics from my sofa.
“I was very much prepared to not be involved, and definitely at the realisation that Olympics and rowing wouldn’t be a part of my future.
“It’s not something I anticipated or expected – I still tell myself it’s not really happening.”