Paris 2024: Viral sensation Paul O'Donovan is back to defend his rowing Olympic gold for Ireland

Remember the Irish rower from Rio 2016 who went viral with his hilarious comments during media interviews?

Paul O'Donovan described his performance when winning silver in the men's lightweight double sculls, with his brother Gary, as "close your eyes and pull like a dog".

He then went on to describe the tactics employed by the pair as: “It isn’t too complex really. A-to-B as fast as you can go."

The departure from the norm in athlete interviews, combined with a strong Cork accent that can be difficult to understand, endeared sports fans to the crew.

So yes, that Paul O'Donovan.

But the lackadaisical way he goes about his sport belies the steel required to claim Olympic gold, which he secured alongside Fintan McCarthy, at Tokyo 2020.

And now they're back, at the Olympic Games Paris 2024, and with a title defence very much on course having won their semi-final at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium in the fastest time, of 6:21.88, on Wednesday, 31 July. They race in the final on 2 August.

The playful vibe of O'Donovan emerged again afterwards, telling Ireland's RTÉ Sport: "That was a big, big upset, so it was.

"The Swiss are No. 2 ranked, way above us, fastest time of the heat, so we're happy to be able to put out that performance."

O'Donovan is referencing their relatively lowly ranking coming into this Olympic Games due to a challenging, injury-hit season.

"If you look at the seeding list, we're way down on it this time," said the six-time world champion. "I can't even count how many names were above us. Maybe that's the lack of my counting abilities, I forgot my abacus.

"The pressure is on everyone else here, we're just here to enjoy ourselves, do the best we can and take a few of the big scalps, all going well."

• Olympic rowing schedule at Paris 2024

Paul O'Donovan back to defend title at Paris 2024

The effort put into training every day perhaps indicates things aren't quite as whimsical as they sound.

The pair spend so much time together their communication is almost telepathic, said O'Donovan in an interview with Rowing Ireland weeks before the Games began in France.

"It's not quite telepathic but I think the best way to describe it is that we've done so many races, spent a lot of time together and talked about what we should do in different situations and races at various times," O'Donovan explained.

"So we kind of have the same ideas about how to get the most out of ourselves that we can both look around and assess the situation in the race, run it through the algorithm in our heads and arrive at the same conclusion without having to communicate with each other."

Besides, the pair don't want to break the peace of the location in which they train at Skibbereen Rowing Club in West Cork. The rolling hills the background to the metronomic training of the twosome.

"It's just so enjoyable with all the nature around us and the calmness, quietness of being out in the lake and we're just able to work away and enjoy it all and do the thing we love. It's just such a nice feeling when the boat is going well, which of course we have all of the time, every single stroke that we take," said the 30-year-old, grinning broadly.

Of course, the notorious weather provides its challenges but it could come in handy for the pair.

"We get loads of the harder stuff thrown at us where it's windy, wet, cold, raining and stuff, so we get probably more of that than any other country in the world. When the weather is in any way not perfect, we often find that we're almost best prepared for it from all the crews, so we almost relish a bit of adverse weather," he said.

Just as well, with Paris providing just that in their first heats.

"There's a headwind, sure, in the race, but when we do our training it seems to be a headwind in every direction so we're used to it. We like those kind of conditions," said the qualified doctor.

And how confident does he feel in terms of their chances of defending their Olympic title?

True to form, O'Donovan doesn't give a standard answer.

"Not confident at all," he said, big smile firmly in place.