Double Olympic champion Helen Glover targets second Olympic comeback at Paris 2024
The London 2012 and Rio 2016 coxless pairs rowing champion, who retired after Rio but returned to finish fourth in the Tokyo 2020 final in 2021, is back in a boat – and targeting her fourth Olympic Games.
Rowing
Two-time Olympic rowing champion Helen Glover has announced that she will target a fourth Olympic appearance at Paris 2024 after coming out of retirement for a second time.
The Englishwoman originally retired after her second consecutive Olympic gold in 2016, getting married and forming her family before staging a surprise return in 2021.
After just six months of training, during which time she suffered a broken rib due to an iron deficiency from breastfeeding, she made the British Olympic team and competed in Tokyo before promptly retiring for a second time.
Now, the 36-year-old is back – again. Glover is staging her second comeback with an eye on making the British team for Paris 2024, where she could become the first mother-of-three to win an Olympic medal for Great Britain in any sport.
Speaking to The Guardian, Glover explained her motivation for returning a second time: "I want to be an elite athlete and a mum, not an elite athlete despite being a mum. […] I want to be the very best and I truly think I can be better than ever."
Glover, who with former partner Heather Stanning recorded a run of 39 races without a single defeat from 2011 through 2016, first retired after Rio 2016. However, during the Covid pandemic, she returned to training and made the Tokyo 2020 team despite just six months of training.
In Tokyo, alongside Polly Swann, Glover finished fourth in the coxless pairs final, with her three children — then three and twins aged one — becoming the first mother to represent Great Britain in rowing at the Olympic Games.
Helen Glover breaking a stigma
"There's a stigma around age, children and having a break. I believe I can be as good as I was in my 20s," Glover told the BBC about her latest comeback. "If I didn't have the kids then I wouldn't be as motivated. Being a mum makes me a better rower, and being a rower makes me a better mum."
Unlike her first comeback, which was driven by a want to regain fitness in lockdown after giving birth, Glover has been giving her all to her latest return to the sport.
In November, she won the women's single sculls at the first round of British open trials for the national squad, before winning the coxless pair race at the second round of open trials in February alongside Rebecca Shorten.
Reacting to her results, she told The Guardian: "I'm pleasantly surprised but, even though I've had those huge chunks of time off and children in-between, the muscle memory kicks in. I'm getting good scores and good results again. I keep surprising myself."
If she makes the British team for Paris 2024, she will be 38 at the Games. Despite her age, Glover is targeting a return to the podium.
"I think that's a realistic target and I would not want to come back empty-handed. […] I think it can be done and I've every reason to believe I'll be better than I have ever been."
Her children, too, will be cheering her on. Her oldest will be six and her twins four – old enough to know what she is doing.
"The twins are the biggest cheerleaders," she told the BBC. "They're there cheering and shouting 'go Mummy!'
"They'll always be the most important thing to me now."