AFTER A WHIRLWIND couple of weeks, Eimear Lambe’s life is slowly beginning to return to some sort of normality.
In July Lambe became an Olympic medalist, taking bronze in the women’s coxless fours at the Tokyo Games alongside teammates Aifric Keogh, Fiona Murtagh and Emily Hegarty.
What followed has been quite the rollercoaster, starting with a colourful homecoming through the streets of Stoneybatter and culminating in an apperance on last week’s Late Late Show.
Yet even with so much going on around her, Lambe is conscious of taking a step back from the mayhem and appreciating the magnitude of the team’s achievement.
“It’s kind of hard. You’re coming off such a high from the Olympics, and you have such momentum and there is such a build-up, naturally there is going to be a lull straight after,” Lambe says.
“I think it’s really important to take the time to kind of breathe and take in what you’ve done and what you’ve achieved.”
She does, however, also understand that any elite athlete needs to be keeping one eye on the challenges that lie ahead.
With the Tokyo Olympics having been delayed by a year, the Paris Games are now just three years away. Lambe, 24, is trying to push any thoughts about Paris to the back of her head for now, but winning bronze this summer has also fuelled a desire to go back for more.
“I feel like the outcome is more than I ever dreamed of, getting an Olympic medal,” she continues.
On the day I don’t think we performed our best and that’s probably something that doesn’t sit well with us. We know ourselves that we did probably underperform, especially in the first half of the race, so going forward we (will try) set that right and try and have a perfect race. We want to be contending for gold and silver but obviously that didn’t happen, so yeah, the priority is go and see if we can right it a little bit.
“Usually the year after an Olympics there is kind of a lull in sport, the standard would naturally just drop internationally, so I think everyone knows that because the last cycle was five years and was longer than any of us thought we were going to be committing to, we all had plans for after the Olympics.
“I think we all respect that each of us have their own goals now for this next year, and people are probably going to slightly go separate ways. A few of the girls are going to do Masters, Emily is going to go back to college, and I’m going to try my hand a little bit in the working world for a while.”
Lambe, from Cabra, intends to hold off on moving back down to the National Rowing Centre for now, and says any plans for the team’s future will have to be a four-way conversation.
“Going forward we will have to try think of ways we can train and trial together and get back training.
“I’m lucky, Aifric will be in Dublin so I’ll be able to train with her here and try do some of the trials along the way. But then obviously if we want to go to Paris we need to be back down in Cork by next year for the qualifying year.
“That said, there are no guarantee it will be us four again – the whole thing is going to open up again, there is going to be strong girls coming up from Junior, U23 coming into the mix. Some girls will retire probably…
“I’m not making any definite decisions yet (about trying to go to Paris). It’s definitely on the cards.
“I’m just happy at the moment being in Dublin. I’m from Dublin but had to move to Cork for the last few years so I’m just going to stay here, definitely keep rowing – the reason I row is because I love the sport, it was never really about the end goals for me. That was a motivating factor but rowing as a sport is such a commitment that if you don’t really love the day to day, it isn’t sustainable.
“So I’m going to keep rowing here, train with Aifric, keep my foot in the door, keep doing the trials, and then when the time comes I’ll make the decision and yeah, Paris could definitely be on the cards.”
European Week of Sport is a week-long celebration of sport which promotes physical activity in people of all ages, background, or fitness levels. For more information and to find an event near you, go to www.sportireland.ie/
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
