PAUL O’DONOVAN SAYS only time will tell whether Rowing Ireland has learned from the mistakes of the past and can ensure young athletes do not endure the toxic experiences reported by some internationals in recent years.
O’Donovan has addressed for the first time the controversy that blew up last year with an exposé into the period when rowing became Ireland’s most successful Olympic sport.
“Niall O’Carroll has taken over as new High Performance Director, he’s done a bit of work in the past few months on athletes’ charters and he’s preparing some documents on that,” said the double Olympic gold medallist.
“Also, trying to rewrite the selection documents and a few different things, which time will tell if it will hold up to some of the challenges that do come with elite-level sporting people striving to be the best.
“But they seem to be making an effort, and I believe there’s a review as well that they’re trying to undertake. Hopefully for the young people coming up, they won’t have to experience what some others have had to experience.
“Probably the people down there would be able to speak for it now. I haven’t really trained at the Rowing Centre since almost two years ago.”
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O’Donovan’s brother Gary, with whom he won Olympic silver in Rio, featured prominently in Paul Kimmage’s Sunday Independent investigation into the high-performance programme that was described at an Oireachtas hearing in January as operating like a ‘cult’ and causing severe physical and mental health impacts on some athletes.
The siblings wrote to Rowing Ireland in 2017 expressing concerns about the behaviour of then-performance director Antonio Maurogiovanni.
“Antonio came in initially and we stated we weren’t very happy with his behaviour towards us,” Paul explained yesterday. “In fairness, he left us off then in a kind of a lightweight training group. We were more or less able to do our own thing over most of the years. It kind of suited us.
“I was away a good bit and when I was there, we went on a lot of separate training camps to the other heavyweight group. We had separate athletes’ representatives between the lightweight and heavyweight groups.”
Fintan McCarthy, his gold medal winning lightweight team-mate, received flak for describing the criticism as ‘very heavy on a certain perspective’.
McCarthy has remained a feature of the programme in his bid to pursue openweight success, but O’Donovan hasn’t rowed competitively since last summer as he has focused on research work and teaching as a doctor in the Mater Hospital.
“Everyone’s experience is different. Fintan’s made mention of his,” said O’Donovan. “I’ve been, for the last two years anyway, basically not at the training centre at all and even in the lead up to Paris, most of my years were spent training on my own.
“So I didn’t have the same experience that other people had. I wouldn’t say it was a total surprise that athletes were experiencing that. But what I experienced was not the same as what some others experienced.
“But it is very unfortunate. No one wants anyone to have experiences like that in any sport, or not even just sport, just in any aspect of their life.”
O’Donovan has not raced competitively since last summer as he balances rowing with his medical career. He is currently involved in research and teaching at the Mater Hospital and begins more full-time clinical work at St Vincent’s next month.
The 32-year-old does not expect to return to competition until next spring as he builds towards a possible bid for LA ’28, where he would also compete in the openweight ranks.
However, the fire still burns. “Yeah, I’d like to win more, certainly,” he said. “I don’t think anyone wouldn’t.
“But I can appreciate it is hard, it won’t be easy, and there are no guarantees. You kind of know things might not work out, and I’m happy enough to try anyway, even if they don’t. I’ll still try to do my best.”
The ‘High-Performance Breakfast, Powered by Irish Dairy’ programme will provide a nutritious dairy-based breakfast to Ireland’s elite athletes ahead of the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles. Double Olympic champion and three-time Olympic medallist rower Paul O’Donovan was among the athletes attending Sport Ireland Institute on the Sport Ireland Campus in Blanchardstown for the launch event.
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'Hopefully for the young people coming up, they won't have to experience what others had to experience'
PAUL O’DONOVAN SAYS only time will tell whether Rowing Ireland has learned from the mistakes of the past and can ensure young athletes do not endure the toxic experiences reported by some internationals in recent years.
O’Donovan has addressed for the first time the controversy that blew up last year with an exposé into the period when rowing became Ireland’s most successful Olympic sport.
“Niall O’Carroll has taken over as new High Performance Director, he’s done a bit of work in the past few months on athletes’ charters and he’s preparing some documents on that,” said the double Olympic gold medallist.
“Also, trying to rewrite the selection documents and a few different things, which time will tell if it will hold up to some of the challenges that do come with elite-level sporting people striving to be the best.
“But they seem to be making an effort, and I believe there’s a review as well that they’re trying to undertake. Hopefully for the young people coming up, they won’t have to experience what some others have had to experience.
“Probably the people down there would be able to speak for it now. I haven’t really trained at the Rowing Centre since almost two years ago.”
O’Donovan’s brother Gary, with whom he won Olympic silver in Rio, featured prominently in Paul Kimmage’s Sunday Independent investigation into the high-performance programme that was described at an Oireachtas hearing in January as operating like a ‘cult’ and causing severe physical and mental health impacts on some athletes.
The siblings wrote to Rowing Ireland in 2017 expressing concerns about the behaviour of then-performance director Antonio Maurogiovanni.
“Antonio came in initially and we stated we weren’t very happy with his behaviour towards us,” Paul explained yesterday. “In fairness, he left us off then in a kind of a lightweight training group. We were more or less able to do our own thing over most of the years. It kind of suited us.
“I was away a good bit and when I was there, we went on a lot of separate training camps to the other heavyweight group. We had separate athletes’ representatives between the lightweight and heavyweight groups.”
Fintan McCarthy, his gold medal winning lightweight team-mate, received flak for describing the criticism as ‘very heavy on a certain perspective’.
McCarthy has remained a feature of the programme in his bid to pursue openweight success, but O’Donovan hasn’t rowed competitively since last summer as he has focused on research work and teaching as a doctor in the Mater Hospital.
“Everyone’s experience is different. Fintan’s made mention of his,” said O’Donovan. “I’ve been, for the last two years anyway, basically not at the training centre at all and even in the lead up to Paris, most of my years were spent training on my own.
“So I didn’t have the same experience that other people had. I wouldn’t say it was a total surprise that athletes were experiencing that. But what I experienced was not the same as what some others experienced.
“But it is very unfortunate. No one wants anyone to have experiences like that in any sport, or not even just sport, just in any aspect of their life.”
O’Donovan has not raced competitively since last summer as he balances rowing with his medical career. He is currently involved in research and teaching at the Mater Hospital and begins more full-time clinical work at St Vincent’s next month.
The 32-year-old does not expect to return to competition until next spring as he builds towards a possible bid for LA ’28, where he would also compete in the openweight ranks.
However, the fire still burns. “Yeah, I’d like to win more, certainly,” he said. “I don’t think anyone wouldn’t.
“But I can appreciate it is hard, it won’t be easy, and there are no guarantees. You kind of know things might not work out, and I’m happy enough to try anyway, even if they don’t. I’ll still try to do my best.”
The ‘High-Performance Breakfast, Powered by Irish Dairy’ programme will provide a nutritious dairy-based breakfast to Ireland’s elite athletes ahead of the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles. Double Olympic champion and three-time Olympic medallist rower Paul O’Donovan was among the athletes attending Sport Ireland Institute on the Sport Ireland Campus in Blanchardstown for the launch event.
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