Helen Glover
“This is almost like going back to being me again and the athlete I always was”
Mother, national treasure and set to be four-time Olympian – one comeback was not enough for Helen Glover, so she did it twice.
“This is almost like going back to being me again and the athlete I always was,” said the 37-year-old mum-of-three.
The Penzance rowing powerhouse gave birth to son Logan in 2018 and twins Kit and Willow in 2020 but returned to the Olympic stage a year later in time for Tokyo 2020.
The double Olympic champion placed fourth alongside Polly Swann in the women’s pair final but is gunning for another gold by the time Paris 2024 rolls around.
Glover has relished the challenge of heading up a formidable women’s four squad ahead of Paris 2024 and feels her motherhood ‘superpowers’ are paying dividends.
“She’s still there, she still exists, the person I was in 2012 and 2016,” she said. “I’ve now added this amazing facet to my life.
“The power of the mind is amazing but the power of motherhood gives you so much adrenaline and hormones, all these amazing superpowers go through your veins in that period of your life.
“A lot of the questions that were asked of me in Tokyo year have not been asked because I’ve answered those questions for myself and the wider world of sport.”
Glover romped to her first Olympic gold with pairs partner Heather Stanning at London 2012, becoming the first British female rowers to secure an Olympic title.
The duo successfully defended their crown four years later in Rio and in search of a third, Glover will row alongside Esme Booth, Samantha Redgrave and Rebecca Shorten in the four, who secured European gold in April.
Glover never doubted for a second her physical capabilities to bounce back from giving birth but blames attitudes of old for not believing she could balance both.
“If I was to look back on 2012 and see myself doing an interview about Paris I would’ve never believed it,” she said.
“I didn’t see my career lasting this long, not for any physical reasons but almost for a societal reason.
“It was always the way that you have a career, then there’s a line in the sand, then you have your family.”
With a father who played for rugby’s Barbarians, Glover’s sporting background left her destined for to follow in successful footsteps from an early age.
She grew up in Penzance and spend her youth coast running middle distances on the track for both Cornwall and England, as well as playing for England's satellite hockey squad.
After studying for a PGCE in Plymouth with an aim to become a PE teacher, Glover earned a place on British Rowing team’s START programme after being identified as a high potential rower. The rest is indeed history.
“As I was leaving [university] it was four years before the London Olympics. I applied to Sporting Giants, was tested and told I’d make a good rower – that’s how the sport found me,” she said.
“I’d never had an opportunity like this or committed to anything fully. I put my head down as it felt like a last chance.
“It might sound strange, to be told by someone I’ve never met before that I’d be good at a sport I’d never done before.”
With husband and biggest supporter Steve Backshall by her side, the only people Glover wants to prove herself to are her children. ‘Deadly’ 60 presenter, environmentalist and explorer Backshall watched Glover from the stands in 2016 as she raced to gold with Christ the Redeemer looking down on her.
In 2012, Glover and Stanning inspired a generation but in 2024, she hopes to light a flame closer to home and show her children that it can be done.
She can do so thanks to the support of The National Lottery, who have invested £89.2 million in the sport of rowing since 1997 to allow role models like Glover to commit solely to the sport.
“Steve saw the benefit of the kids being along for this journey,” she said. “Imagining seeing our kids in the stands and watching me race was a big motivator for him.
“I could feel in some aspects that this is about rowing and not about me as a mum but it’s really important to have these conversations and shout it from the rooftops.
“It’s not saying that Olympians are a very different type of person, I’m very disorganised, I have many imperfect days.
“This comeback has come with very few certainties, so to be able to get a medal in the summer would be worth it for all the times I doubted the journey and wondered, ‘should I do this?’.”
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