EVERY CRUSHING DEFEAT in sport makes subsequent success taste all the sweeter.
Both Claire Lambe and Sinead Jennings — who will represent Ireland at next month’s Rio Olympics in the women’s lightweight double sculls in rowing – are no strangers to either outcome
At 39, and with World Rowing Championships medals to her name including a 2001 gold, Jennings has had an exemplary career in her sport. The one thing missing, however, has been an appearance at the Olympic Games — that is, until she competes in Rio next month.
26-year-old Lambe may not have the same level of experience as her colleague but she too is acutely aware of the pain of failure, and what it takes to overcome it.
The UCD engineering graduate suffered heartbreak four years ago when, despite countless sacrifices and hours of hard training, Lambe’s bid to reach the London 2012 Olympics ended in failure, as the youngster’s boat was pulled owing to weight management issues just prior to her final qualification attempt.
Consequently, when Lambe qualified for Rio, the relief was palpable, and she could at last savour a well-earned success.
There was so much emotion coming into it and you had to bottle it up and really just go through the process. I cried for hours just from relief after finally qualifying for the Olympics. It was a strange emotion really.”
Meanwhile, Jennings’ rise to Rio would have seemed unlikely four years ago. Fatigued by failing to qualify for the Olympics and keen to focus on her work and family life, the seasoned Irish sports star, who is also a doctor and mother of three, effectively retired from sport.
Yet in a situation akin to the improbable plot of a Rocky movie, Jennings ultimately decided to make a comeback and launch an audacious bid for Rio. As she points out, perhaps even more so than ever, there was so much at stake.
I really have to give my husband (Irish Olympic rower Sam Lynch) some credit for that. When we missed out on London, we always had plans to have more children and he said we should have another now, so that if something happens in the future, you’ll be able to go for Rio.
“I suppose I was hesitant initially and I’d done it so many other times and made sacrifices and not made it. So I thought: ‘What if I give up work and put my heart and soul into this and make all the sacrifices in terms of my time and family and I don’t make it.’
“He told me you just have to go for it and put yourself in a position where you are fit enough and strong enough. Then, if someone comes along, you can cash in on it, and that’s exactly what myself and Claire have done.”
Sanita Puspure, who previously competed at London 2012, will also represent Ireland at the Rio Olympics. PA Archive / Press Association Images
PA Archive / Press Association Images / Press Association Images
Jennings and Lambe, along with the rest of the rowers that will be competing in the Olympics — Sanita Pušpure in the women’s single sculls and Gary and Paul O’Donovan in the men’s lightweight double sculls — are currently coming towards the end of a three-week training camp in Banyoles in the north of Spain.
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With conditions in Rio expected to be in the mid-20 degrees, the Irish rowers needed somewhere warm to acclimatise and they certain succeeded in choosing a suitable spot.
The first days we had out here were the hottest that we had. It was 34-36 degrees. The first few sessions were horrendously difficult. We were absolutely pumping sweat, it was dripping off our face and our hands and it was even hard to grip your oars.
“But we’ve really gotten used to it. Even today it was 32 degrees but I was like: ‘Jesus, it’s a bit nippy.’ We’re definitely acclimatising to it. It’s definitely not as hard as it was the first couple of days.”
With highly fancied countries such as the Netherlands and New Zealand among the favourites in Rio, Ireland are coming into the event as one of the less feared teams.
Yet the duo are quietly optimistic that they have the potential to surprise a few people.
Our personal goal as a crew is to deliver the best performance that we possibly can. I do believe that that would bring us into the final — if not into the medals box,” says Jennings.
Lambe agrees: “It’s a tough call who’s going to make the final and for that reason, I don’t see why we can’t be one of them. And from there, why not get a medal?”
Such positive thinking has not come easy to Lambe, who says she worked hard on reversing her previous negative outlook.
I was still quite young and quite timid and scared (prior to London 2012), whereas now I’m much more confident. I’m up for racing, looking forward to it and really enjoying it as well.
“I’ve learned so much over the past year about being confident and giving it your all in training so that you know going into races that you’re going to perform to the best of your ability anyway… It feels completely different and it is completely different to where I was four years ago. I could hardly even compare them really.”
Rowers practice for the 2015 World Rowing Junior Championships on Rodrigo de Freitas lake in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The head of the governing body of world rowing last year said he would ask for viral testing at the rowing venue for the 2016 Rio Olympics. The move came after an Associated Press investigation showed a serious health risk to Olympic athletes who will compete at water venues around Rio that were rife with human waste and sewage. AP / Press Association Images
AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images
Such positivity also extends to talk of Zika and unclean water which, according to some reports, contain high levels bacteria and viruses causing potential for infection.
“It doesn’t play on my mind at all,” she says. “I’ve been training for it for umpteen years and I feel like the media and maybe some of the countries that haven’t ever put in an Olympic bid, they’re trying to tarnish it.
They’re hosting the best Olympics that they can. Rio have been putting a lot into this and sacrificing other areas of development within the city to host an Olympics and I feel like anybody will create a story around these things when they probably are pretty minor.
“You’ve a higher chance of being in a car crash than of contracting (Zika) and even if you contract it, you have flu for a week and unless you are having a baby in the immediate aftermath, then it’s not going to affect you that much.
“I think the focus needs to be on performance and what the athletes are trying to do and commending Rio for trying to put on the best Olympics they can.”
Like Lambe, Jennings has also developed significantly over the last four years. Having been more accustomed to competing in the sport in singles, the Donegal native subsequently allowed herself to sacrifice a degree of control and place her faith in a young and relatively inexperienced counterpart.
It’s something I did struggle with over the years — being in control of everything to having to trust somebody else,” she admits. “But I feel lucky to be teamed up with Claire and we have very similar philosophies in terms of how we want to row and to train.
“Claire is extremely dedicated in her recovery, her nutrition — everything she does, she does it so well. It’s very easy to trust her. Even when we’re out rowing and we decide on a race plan. If we decide to go out hard, I know she’s behind me the whole way. That’s something very special that I don’t think too many doubles have.”
Dublin-born Lambe is similarly appreciative of what her partner brings to the team.
“If I’m struggling mentally, I just voice that straight to her and she’ll be able to help me out and hopefully vice versa. We’re kind of our own sports psychologists in that sense, and (our coach) Don McLachlan as well would have a very good philosophy in getting us mentally prepared for everything without too much pressure.”
Yet as far as Jennings is concerned, the biggest challenge is not a sporting one.
We’ve been in training camp now for over two weeks and I’m finding it frustrating being away from Sam and the girls. Luckily, I have Claire here to pull me through. But I know we are coming to the end of an important journey.
“Myself and Sam have booked a family holiday for straight after (Rio) so it will be good to be able to look forward to that.”
So in one sense, Jennings is probably looking forward to the end of the Olympic madness, though Lambe is dreading it.
I’m kind of scared of it being over. I’ve enjoyed it so much. I’m afraid there will be quite a bit of a void when it’s done.
Yet the lack of money in rowing seemingly makes the prospect of widespread cheating significantly less likely to occur. There is consequently a nobility to the sport that, by modern-day standards, is both refreshing and rare.
As Jennings puts it: “In rowing, we’re not doing it for the publicity or any money we’re going to get. We’re doing it for the love of the sport and the drive to succeed.”
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'I cried for hours after finally qualifying for the Olympics'
EVERY CRUSHING DEFEAT in sport makes subsequent success taste all the sweeter.
Both Claire Lambe and Sinead Jennings — who will represent Ireland at next month’s Rio Olympics in the women’s lightweight double sculls in rowing – are no strangers to either outcome
At 39, and with World Rowing Championships medals to her name including a 2001 gold, Jennings has had an exemplary career in her sport. The one thing missing, however, has been an appearance at the Olympic Games — that is, until she competes in Rio next month.
26-year-old Lambe may not have the same level of experience as her colleague but she too is acutely aware of the pain of failure, and what it takes to overcome it.
The UCD engineering graduate suffered heartbreak four years ago when, despite countless sacrifices and hours of hard training, Lambe’s bid to reach the London 2012 Olympics ended in failure, as the youngster’s boat was pulled owing to weight management issues just prior to her final qualification attempt.
Consequently, when Lambe qualified for Rio, the relief was palpable, and she could at last savour a well-earned success.
Meanwhile, Jennings’ rise to Rio would have seemed unlikely four years ago. Fatigued by failing to qualify for the Olympics and keen to focus on her work and family life, the seasoned Irish sports star, who is also a doctor and mother of three, effectively retired from sport.
Yet in a situation akin to the improbable plot of a Rocky movie, Jennings ultimately decided to make a comeback and launch an audacious bid for Rio. As she points out, perhaps even more so than ever, there was so much at stake.
“I suppose I was hesitant initially and I’d done it so many other times and made sacrifices and not made it. So I thought: ‘What if I give up work and put my heart and soul into this and make all the sacrifices in terms of my time and family and I don’t make it.’
“He told me you just have to go for it and put yourself in a position where you are fit enough and strong enough. Then, if someone comes along, you can cash in on it, and that’s exactly what myself and Claire have done.”
Jennings and Lambe, along with the rest of the rowers that will be competing in the Olympics — Sanita Pušpure in the women’s single sculls and Gary and Paul O’Donovan in the men’s lightweight double sculls — are currently coming towards the end of a three-week training camp in Banyoles in the north of Spain.
With conditions in Rio expected to be in the mid-20 degrees, the Irish rowers needed somewhere warm to acclimatise and they certain succeeded in choosing a suitable spot.
“But we’ve really gotten used to it. Even today it was 32 degrees but I was like: ‘Jesus, it’s a bit nippy.’ We’re definitely acclimatising to it. It’s definitely not as hard as it was the first couple of days.”
With highly fancied countries such as the Netherlands and New Zealand among the favourites in Rio, Ireland are coming into the event as one of the less feared teams.
Yet the duo are quietly optimistic that they have the potential to surprise a few people.
Lambe agrees: “It’s a tough call who’s going to make the final and for that reason, I don’t see why we can’t be one of them. And from there, why not get a medal?”
Such positive thinking has not come easy to Lambe, who says she worked hard on reversing her previous negative outlook.
“I’ve learned so much over the past year about being confident and giving it your all in training so that you know going into races that you’re going to perform to the best of your ability anyway… It feels completely different and it is completely different to where I was four years ago. I could hardly even compare them really.”
Such positivity also extends to talk of Zika and unclean water which, according to some reports, contain high levels bacteria and viruses causing potential for infection.
“It doesn’t play on my mind at all,” she says. “I’ve been training for it for umpteen years and I feel like the media and maybe some of the countries that haven’t ever put in an Olympic bid, they’re trying to tarnish it.
“You’ve a higher chance of being in a car crash than of contracting (Zika) and even if you contract it, you have flu for a week and unless you are having a baby in the immediate aftermath, then it’s not going to affect you that much.
“I think the focus needs to be on performance and what the athletes are trying to do and commending Rio for trying to put on the best Olympics they can.”
Like Lambe, Jennings has also developed significantly over the last four years. Having been more accustomed to competing in the sport in singles, the Donegal native subsequently allowed herself to sacrifice a degree of control and place her faith in a young and relatively inexperienced counterpart.
“Claire is extremely dedicated in her recovery, her nutrition — everything she does, she does it so well. It’s very easy to trust her. Even when we’re out rowing and we decide on a race plan. If we decide to go out hard, I know she’s behind me the whole way. That’s something very special that I don’t think too many doubles have.”
Dublin-born Lambe is similarly appreciative of what her partner brings to the team.
“If I’m struggling mentally, I just voice that straight to her and she’ll be able to help me out and hopefully vice versa. We’re kind of our own sports psychologists in that sense, and (our coach) Don McLachlan as well would have a very good philosophy in getting us mentally prepared for everything without too much pressure.”
Yet as far as Jennings is concerned, the biggest challenge is not a sporting one.
“Myself and Sam have booked a family holiday for straight after (Rio) so it will be good to be able to look forward to that.”
So in one sense, Jennings is probably looking forward to the end of the Olympic madness, though Lambe is dreading it.
“I don’t want it to end. It’s been amazing.”
On a darker note, more so than any other Olympics, the 2016 event has been heavily tarnished amid the biggest doping scandal in the sport’s history.
Yet the lack of money in rowing seemingly makes the prospect of widespread cheating significantly less likely to occur. There is consequently a nobility to the sport that, by modern-day standards, is both refreshing and rare.
As Jennings puts it: “In rowing, we’re not doing it for the publicity or any money we’re going to get. We’re doing it for the love of the sport and the drive to succeed.”
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