GOING FOR GOLD IN LAND OF RISING SON IRELAND’S STARS TO ROW WITH THE FLOW
Hopes of medals on the water are high but Ulsterman Doyle says they are managing expectation
THEY are the golden couple of Team GB’S blazing saddles – with 10 Olympic titles between them.
For the first time, they are leaving three-year-old son Albie (inset) behind to go for gold in the land of the rising sun.
By the time Jason and Laura Kenny return from Tokyo, one of them may be Britain’s greatest Olympian – and Albie, already enjoying BMX sessions for toddlers, will be their greatest cheerleader.
Supermum
Laura, who has a
100% record at the
Olympics after two gold medals at both London 2012 and in Rio five years ago, planned her balancing act between parenthood and elite athlete after consulting heptathlon queen Dame Jessica Ennis-hill.
Laura, 29, revealed: “I sat down with Jessica when I was pregnant and she told me, ‘Make sure you have a timetable, you need to make sure you have everyone planned in exactly when you need them’.
“I thought, ‘How on earth am I going to tell my parents and Jason’s parents I need you here at this time, I need you there at that time?’.
“But actually it came very easily to me. I do actually like organising people, as it happens.
They’ve been great, we couldn’t have done it without them.
“I think
Albie is beginning to understand what his mum does for a living. He came back from a balance bike session at the track with his nursery the other day and he said, ‘Mummy, I know what you do at work’. He knows I have bikes because when I go out, he asks which colour one I’m riding today.
“It was quite nice, a moment where I thought he’s starting to realise. Motherhood has changed my perspective as an athlete because it’s made me a lot more relaxed.
“When I go home now, I just go home to be mum. I used to want to analyse everything. Now I won’t have the chance to do that until he’s in bed because the minute I walk through the door he’s like, ‘Play with me’. It’s nice.”
Laura will be going for three titles in Tokyo – team pursuit, omnium, Madison – and she has been grateful for the extra 12 months’ preparation after two heavy crashes early in 2020, including one that left her with a fractured shoulder and concussion.
Even if she lands the hat-trick, she may not even come home as the greatest Olympian in her household – let alone the Games.
Husband Jason, who equalled fellow track sprinter Sir Chris Hoy’s record six gold medals in Rio, insists there will be no ‘Steve Redgrave moment’ to mimic the rowing legend’s famous reaction to winning a fourth title in Atlanta, “If anyone sees me go near a
boat, you have my permission to shoot me.”
And what would it mean to the 33-year-old to go past Hoy’s record? “Every gold has been special,” he said. “They have all got a story – and this one would be no different.”
together, working together, coming home as the team. We have to manage our own expectations before we look to see what’s happening outside of the sport. We’re good, not at isolating ourselves, but at restricting our exposure as a team and we’ve always looked to do that.
“A few of my friends only figured out recently that I was going to the Olympics so I’d love to see what this increased exposure of the sport is!”
Still, Doyle acknowledges that the rowers are in it to win it in Tokyo after years of intense preparation and then adaptation around Covid restrictions.
“We all have a drive,” said the Banbridge man, who only took up the sport seven years ago. “Every athlete at the Olympics has some kind of competitive drive.
“One boat drives the next which drives the next which drives the next. You see it at World Cups – it just takes one spark. On our best day we’d like to come home with a medal. You can say you’re going to win a medal but you have to have realistic expectations.
“For us, there’s maybe six to eight boats in our category that could win it and they’ve swapped around on the podium over the last few races.
“Now it’s just about trying to present our best race on the day.
“With rowing you can’t tackle anybody, you can’t come in with a sliding challenge in the middle of the race. You just have to ‘do you’ and hope your best is better than theirs.
“A medal is what we’d be happy with, it’s what we’re working toward.”
The rowers travelled to a holding camp in Fukuroi for 10 days before heading to Tokyo – the course wasn’t open to them until last Sunday. “It is coming together nicely but we know there’s more to go because every country is going to step it up,” Doyle added.