Rowing clubs unite behind Killorglin’s Zoe ahead of her Olympic debut in Paris

WITH just days to go until the long-awaited start of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, all eyes in Kerry will be on how our very own Zoe Hyde fares when she makes her Olympic debut this weekend.

Zoe, a 27-year-old Killorglin native, is putting the finishing touches to preparations for what will be one of the proudest moments of her sporting life when she takes part in the Women’s Double Sculls event alongside her team-mate, Fermoy’s Alison Bergin, this Saturday, July 27.

It’s been a long journey for Zoe – who first started rowing when she was 13 – to get to Paris and this week, two of the Kerry clubs who helped her to get to the pinnacle of her sport, spoke to

The Kerryman as they expressed their immense pride at Zoe’s achievement.

Tara O’Halloran, PRO for Tralee Rowing Club – which Zoe joined this year – was effusive in her praise of Zoe and spoke of how, even in such a short space of time, she has been a massive inspiration for the club’s younger members.

“On behalf of the club, we’d like to congratulate Zoe on her continued success. The training that she has put in has been monumental. She is an ambassador for rowing as well as ambassador for us here at Tralee Rowing Club,” she said.

“Two of our juniors, Nathan Guerin and Sean Morris, have both been seriously inspired by an Olympic athlete joining our club and they have now been picked for the upcoming World

Championships.

“We’re just so happy that somebody at such an elite level as Zoe has come on board and has inspired our coaches, our supporter and our junior rowers to be the best that they can be. As a result, they are now up there on the international stage. To have an Olympian and two World Championship calibre athletes is amazing. Tralee is a small area so we are punching way above our weight as a club,” she added.

In Zoe’s native Killorglin meanwhile, Michael Fleming of Killorglin Rowing Club – where Zoe trained up until 2022 – also took the time to wish Zoe well ahead of Olympic bow.

“We which her the very best and hope she does well. We’re on our third Olympian now in two Olympiads with Monika [Dukarska], Aileen [Crowley] and now Zoe. Zoe was training hard during that time, during Covid. We gave her machines and stuff to train on at home and I looked after her training programme that time,” Michael said.

Zoe’s milestones to date include winning a bronze medal in the double sculls at the 2022 World Championships in Racice, Czechia.