Between the Buoys
Becky Wilde and Eve Stewart are Olympic, World, and European medallists. On Between the Buoys, they take you along for the highs and lows of life as a full-time athlete.
Between the Buoys
Lessons from our younger selves | Episode Five
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Join Becky and Eve as they bring your the fifth episode of Between the Buoys. This week, they dive into the lessons they've learned from careers in high performance sport, what they'd tell their younger selves, and of course answering your questions.
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This week on Between the Boys we'll be reminiscering on some of our younger days in school. I'm Becky World and I'm Ave Stewart and we're both Olympic World and European medallist for Team GB.
SPEAKER_00And this is our podcast about what actually goes on in our lives as GB rollers. We can't tell you everything, but we can tell you a lot. Thank you of course to our sponsor of Rocket Coaching for making this episode possible. Now sit back, grab a coffee and enjoy. Between the Boys is proudly sponsored by Rocket Coaching, a UK-based performance coaching and development practice led by Ian Howe.
SPEAKER_01Rocket Coaching works with leaders and teams across organisations of all sizes, helping unlock true potential and deliver lasting world-class performance through a values-led human approach.
SPEAKER_00With decades of experience in sales, leadership coaching and human performance, Rocket delivers substantial. With decades of experience in sales, leadership, coaching and human performance, Rocket delivers sustainable transformation for organizations.
SPEAKER_01Helping people perform at their best, not just in business, but in life.
SPEAKER_00Discover more at rocketcoach.co.uk. So Becky, episode five, we're up and running. Yep, here we go again. Um, it's been I don't even know how long it's been, maybe a week since we've ordered the last year. Something like that, two days. Um but spring seems to finally be here. The rivers are receding. Yes, the rivers have gone down.
SPEAKER_01So it's looking good. It's looking good. I must say, I feel like last Monday it was like properly sunny or Wednesday, and I did get really excited, and now we we've been back in a sort of grey fog for the past few days.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I am looking out the window now. I have a shim and it is grey again, but I don't think it is flat, and the sun does seem to come out in the afternoon, so it's fingers crossed.
SPEAKER_01So this week, I know we always start with, or sorry, we always finish with our QA.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But one question in particular really got us thinking, didn't it?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and that was from Abigail, and she asked, How can young rowers get to your level?
SPEAKER_01And we thought this would be a great opportunity to just talk a little bit about well, the start of our sort of what I wouldn't even call it, it wasn't even a career at that point, but our sort of start to sport when we were younger.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I think we spoke obviously last week about our university um university days, and um that was very much rowing for both of us, but neither of us were junior rowers. Um, so I think although we weren't in the sport, there's still a lot of similarities and a lot of lessons that we probably learn at that age that we can really draw upon now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, agree, totally agree. And I think, you know, for anyone with sporting ambitions when you're young, there's this sense, this massive sense of urgency, which I definitely felt. I did sort of ballet and horse riding and lots of dance things until I was like 14 and then started athletics and did that up until I started rowing. Yeah. And especially in athletics, I very you know, I was watching these really cool girls who I thought were really cool, my age sort of winning national champs, and I wasn't winning national champs, and I was like, well, that's it, I'm never going to be Jessica Ennis Hill. Um, and yeah, felt this sense of like, oh, if you're not making it now, then you're probably never gonna be good enough because you're clearly not talented. And bear in mind I was like 14, 15 years old, like looking back, what a ridiculous thing to say. But I think this question, sort of, you know, how can young roads get to your level? Um, it's a nice way to look at it because it sort of acknowledges the fact that you don't need to be at this level when you're young, but you know, what can you do to get there when you're older?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, definitely. And I think, well, we're both 28 now. Sorry. Put that number on it. But um I think like for us, our journeys have obviously been they've been years rather than like a really fast process to get to the top. And I think that's kind of what you lose sight of. Definitely when I was like a teenager, like you want to be being at the top of the national podium, you're always looking up to those athletes and being like, how do I get there? And you're I don't know, I think it's almost hard sometimes when you feel like you're not getting there to not lose hope. But I do think a sporting journey is or it can be such a long process, and you really just have to trust the process, and like trust that those steps are gonna get you there, and I think enjoying it as well. Like, I look back on my time as a swimmer, and definitely when I was at my best was when I'm enjoying it, and I think anyone who is looking to like be in whatever sport it is for a long time, that enjoyment is so crucial.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, 100%. And I think, right, so in this scenario, there are obviously people who were 14, 15 and were winning everything, and maybe are still winning everything. Yeah, and that's amazing. You're sick. Yeah, that wasn't our experiences. So, like, this is very much something that is based on our experience, right? It's not gospel, but it's just how we've lived through the past sort of 10-15 years of sport. So I feel like to start with, I mean, just take us through like we've never really talked about time before rowing, have we? So, what did that look like?
SPEAKER_00Um, so I was a swimmer growing up. Um, so I swam for 10 years of my life. And I think swimming is a sport that you have to give so much to when you're younger. And I guess I mean, I think like a junior rowing schedule is very full on, and I think the swimming schedule is very similar, but I basically train as an elite athlete from like the age 12 onwards, really, in terms of like getting up at 5 a.m., training before school, going to school, training again straight after school, and then homework, bed. And I like look back on that period of time, and I actually think it's probably the hardest routine I've ever done. Like I train three times a day now, but I'm not trying to do all my schoolwork and everything in between that, and I'm not sat in lessons nine till four. But swimming gave me so much, it taught me like the meaning of hard work, it taught me discipline, and it gave me some incredible friends that I'm like still best friends with now. And I don't think I'd be the person I am today without those experiences, and I think that's the same with any sport. Like, do you find that do you look back on your time like as an athlete, um, doing athletics? And like, do you still draw on things now, even like this?
SPEAKER_01I feel like maybe not not so much in like training methodologies or anything like that, because I I was just almost too young to even understand that as a concept. But definitely like just the fun we had. I remember also when we fur when I first joined the athletics clubs, when I was at my time at school, everyone was tiny, my entire school sort of career. Because then I went to school in Amsterdam, and the way it works in the Netherlands is you don't have like school school sports teams, you do all your sports at clubs.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01Um, so my school just happened, I just happened to be like one of the largest people there. And I remember just feeling really ginormous all of my sort of school time until I joined Athletics, and there were a few taller girls there, and everyone was a bit more sort of muscular, and I was like, Oh, I I you know, I feel like I fit in here a lot more, and people who maybe prioritize going to a weekend athletics meet over going to you know a disco when you're 14 years old, and that's so that was really nice, just in terms of like finding I felt like I found a really nice social circle as well, and then obviously enjoyed the training. And you know, I think from my understanding anyway, athletics obviously you're running, so you're never gonna train as much as you are rowing, so very different from swimming in that sense. I wasn't waking up at 5am ever. Um, but we trained hard, you know, like six days a week. Sometimes would train like two times on a Sunday, sort of thing, but I absolutely loved it. But um yeah, it's definitely it was just the start of really developing my real love for sport, I think. And when I stopped athletics, I was really sad about it and sort of thought that that was gonna be the end of my sporting career, and I just go to union and that would be it. And that's when I sort of stumbled into rowing in my last year of school. So I had like six months as a junior rower, but um yeah, very a very formative time, and I'd say just in terms of this question of like how can young rowers get to our level, um it would be just in the beginning, as you sort of touched on earlier, not to overthink things too much and not to stress and not to take it too seriously, and to appreciate that everything you are doing you probably are learning from and you are improving, and it will contribute to what you want to do later, just like trusting it a bit, I think.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think that's definitely something I found when I switched to rowing. So I switched to a uni, um but I guess having done this like swimming for so long, I'd almost like not had a career in it. But when you do 10 years of that sport, like you do go through so much, and I think although I was still very young switching to rowing, it was almost that like, okay, well, I can I can be a better athlete as a result of those experiences, and I can learn that it's the processes, it's not like the striving, like yeah, it's part of like part of it is like having goals and stuff, but it's like the process goals along the way to get you there, and I think that's definitely something I took into rowing with me. It was like, okay, those technical aspects are so important, and it's that mindset that not every day is going to be perfect, not every session is gonna be perfect, but if you can find some positives, then you're still gonna keep moving forward. And I guess for me as well, like I've spoken about it a lot, it was like the whole fueling thing, and that's definitely something that I slipped up on towards the end of my swimming career, and was part of the reason that I was so broken by the end of it. But it was like coming into rowing and like almost like having that reset, and I do realise that like a lot of people aren't gonna have that switch. Like me and you are very well, we're not unique, but we have had the opportunity to change sports and find something that we're brilliant at or even better at. Um, but I think even if I'd rode when I was younger, I'd I'd hope that I like had learned those things along the way and could keep like building on those experiences because I do think any experience when you're young is gonna set you up so well for when you're older as well.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And also just being open to something different, right? I feel like one of the questions we had last week was about sort of tr trusting your uni program, like what to take out of it, or something like that. And I feel you know, where we had that change in sport and when it brought lessons, I think it can be hard if you've stayed in the same sport and you know, you obviously row at your junior club and then you go into uni rowing. And the one of the best things when I started rowing was I think that I knew nothing, so I just took everything on face value and was like, all right, well, here we go. You want me to hold this split? Okay, I'll give it a shot. Yeah, yeah. And obviously, you know, when it comes to holding splits for 2K, is like your psychology can play such a large role in it when you know nothing, you that isn't an element in the same way. So I feel like one another way to look at it of you know, if you have been rowing since you're 14 and maybe you're you know 17, 18 now looking at the next transition is that when you do have that reset moment where you're changing clubs or changing, you know, I don't know, from sculling to sweeping or whatever, is also to just be a bit open-minded to it again and a bit fresh-faced, and sort of not forget what you know, not at all, but just be open to your knowledge base evolving and changing, and maybe some things that you really believed in helped you loads maybe might not stay exactly the same. That's so true. And that sort of stays our whole career, doesn't it? Like even in the Olympic year when I got into the eight, sort of the way that I thought an eight should be rode was not how we were rowing the eight, and it was like February time, and it took me a bit of adjusting. Obviously, the way we rode the eight, I now am 100% and I was then as well behind. But there was a few weeks where I was like, oh, this is a bit different and awkward and doesn't feel quite how I thought it would feel. Um, but it's that same thing could happen when you're 17 and changing clubs or whatever, when you're 16 and yeah, changing disciplines. So it's sort of using using the knowledge you have, but being open to it changing.
SPEAKER_00I think that's so relevant actually for going through like puberty and going through your teenage years, like especially as girls. Like I definitely hit a point when I was 16, 17, 18 in swimming, and you kind of stagnate is almost too strong a word, but you plateau a little bit because when you're younger, you can make so many jumps forward. Like, gosh, when you're 12, 13, 14, you can take huge chunks off your best times. I'm sure it's like similar in athletics, um, and probably similar in rowing in terms of those like PB jumps. And then suddenly, when I got to 16, those jumps were so much less frequent, and suddenly seconds became tenths of a second or even less. And I went through a period of time where it was gosh, I don't even know how long, like it would take me like a year or so to break a PB, or even two years. But I think during that time it is, and I guess it's something it's something I definitely wished I'd done better. It is like having that open-minded approach and just being really, I think like really just like believing in that approach and believing in that process and not getting like frustrated and upset by it. And also like at different times in the year, you're gonna be in a better shape than another time in the year. Like when you're deep in winter training, um, you're probably not gonna be in PV shape. Whereas like in the summer, when you were a bit more tapered and rested, that's when you're gonna be hitting it. But I definitely never saw it like that. I was always, always trying to chase that best time and always trying to chase what I thought was like better. But instead, like I wish I'd almost like just stayed in that like internal approach and just had that like trust in the process a bit more.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Which I guess is it's similar now, right? You like learn from it.
SPEAKER_01But a lot of it does just come down to trusting what you're doing on a daily basis, even when I mean I've had a lot of humps in my road this year so far. Um, like two injuries and two illnesses, and there are definitely moments where you're like, Oh my god, everything is wrong, like throw everything out, start again, we need to change everything. And realistically, that's never the answer. But yeah, it does sometimes feel like that. But then you're right, it's just coming back to like trusting what's going on. It doesn't always happen in the moment, but it often does pay off later. I feel like this is actually a bit of a jump back to something we were saying previously, but like if I look back at when I started rowing, I think one of the big focuses was actually not on anything that physical, it wasn't to do with like chasing splits necessarily, it wasn't to do with absolutely ending yourselves on sessions, it was just sort of laying a really strong technical foundation. And I was really lucky to have some amazing coaches at the time who sort of had been on national teams or even been to the Olympics themselves, and I feel like that was so pivotal in how I learnt to row because it wasn't ever based on just yanking on it. That first sort of six months to a year was literally just like almost how can you move the boat with as little effort as possible, and it was something that worked because I was in a team of like there was one other girl my age, and there were five of us in total. So obviously, we've talked about this as well. If you're on a big team, it's not always going to be like that. But I do feel like that again, just like being patient, not needing to be the best, the fastest, the strongest, the whatever straight away.
SPEAKER_00I think that's definitely I I can see that in how you wrote that you're so patient, so that's so interesting. That that was literally from the outset, that's what you were told. Yeah, I think that's so important. Yeah. How so how did you actually get into rowing? Because I feel like that's something we've not actually properly spoken about.
SPEAKER_01Um well, long story short, we had I'd obviously been doing athletics, and meanwhile, we had these family friends. We were living in Amsterdam, yeah, and they lived in Marlowe, and for years we'd sort of go on summer holidays with them and meet up with them, and they said I should roam. And I thought, no, that looks really boring. Um, and then one summer I went and visited them in Marlowe, and it was sort of your average British summer day, you know, not 30 degrees, but it wasn't raining. And the dad said, Right, um, guys, we're gonna go. It was a son who was a year younger than me, and then the daughter was like two years younger, and we were all good friends. And he was like, We're gonna go and take a quad out and we're gonna go for a row. So I literally hopped in this quad with the the father and the two children who I was friends with, and just went for a row in in Marlowe and absolutely loved it. I remember so vividly, like the feeling of being so close. We probably only rode like two kilometres, but the feeling of just being sat so low on the water, I was like, wow, this is amazing. Um, and then went back home sort of after summer holidays were over and joined a club in Amsterdam and never looked back. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's so I actually hadn't realised that you were in Mali and it all started. So it's meant to be, yeah, it's meant to be in the UK, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Look at you now.
SPEAKER_01I know, but you started at uni.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. So I started in Bath. I so I fell out of love with swimming, and I'd always wanted to try rowing. I kind of call it a bit like my backup plan because I think it was always something I knew I was gonna try when I was done with swimming, and that change actually came about sooner than I thought it would. Um, but through like the Workout Start programme, I it wasn't part, it wasn't why I chose Bath, but it was part of the reason because I knew that I had that programme, and I knew at some point at uni I wanted to give it a go.
SPEAKER_01That's so funny. I didn't realise that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I know. Um I mean I chose yeah, the uni for the course and swimming, but yeah, then the third reason was that rowing programme. Um, and then fell out a lot of swimming, and quite honestly emailed Dan Harris like basically that day and was like, please can I test out? Um he replied to me like almost instantly, and then I was tested like a few days later. Um and you you have to do what you have to do, your your height and your arm spans measured, and then you do some power testing and then um a physiology test on the what's it called? Call it an air dime, based the hand and arm bike. Oh I can't remember what it's called. Assault bike, yeah, right? Yeah, yeah. So I did that, and obviously I had like some decent physiology from swimming. So did well enough to be invited on the programme, and quite honestly, like the next day I was a rower, but I remember the first time I went in the water, it was with Dan in a double. Um, I had no idea how a rowing boat worked, like I'd only ever watched it on TV, didn't know if you're meant to wear shoes in the boat or whatever, and he was like, no, leave them on the side. And then me and Dan went in a double, we've never been in a double sense, obviously, but he just like took me for a few strokes, and I was like, This is so weird, but so cool. And I think for me, it's that like a water element because water was obviously such a big part of my life for so long. And although I wasn't in the water, I was on the water and I could still kind of get that same feeling out of it, and that's I think that's why I fell in love with it, is because that feeling when you're traveling on the water and you're making it yeah, you're moving with it. Yeah, most like that's what I love about rowing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, I agree. There's nothing quite like it, which is why also I I don't know if I could ever not because there's anything wrong with it, but I don't know if I could ever get into like beach prints, yeah. Just because I feel like everything I love about rowing is flat water, like gliding and the ocean is just ruthless. That never happens to my imagination, but I've never done it, so maybe I need to go and try it one summer and see what happens.
SPEAKER_00I would love to give it a go, but it does look so much more unpredictable, yeah. And I guess I don't know, I think you have to work out the sea almost. Yeah, and that then takes more time, yeah. But it's very different flat road, yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01Like I feel like you speak to any surfer and they're like, Oh, you know, you have to respect the ocean.
SPEAKER_00Like anyway, we need to get we need to get Tom to teach us on eating communication.
SPEAKER_01Um anyway, before we go into the rest of our QA's, here's a little note from our sponsor.
SPEAKER_00Okay, right. Um so if I asked that question. No, no, no, if you ask that question, I asked that question. Okay, yeah. Right. Okay, so into the rest of our questions, I believe that you got sent a lot. I did, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So thank you very much to everyone who sent those through. I love getting them. And I believe a few of you actually spoke to Becky when you were was it Cardiff or um no, it's uh it's uh
SPEAKER_00William Park in school. So I did a um talk for them at their annual boat club dinner on Saturday night. Just wanted to give a shout out to all the girls there. They were brilliant, really amazing. And it was refreshing actually to just like yeah, spend some time with them and just see how much they love the sport as well. So shout out to those girls and thank you so much for listening and for asking questions.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, please keep selling them through because we love reading them. So the first one was the Instagram handle was just AP. So I don't know, yeah, app. I'm not sure. Anyway, from AP, Becky, favorite playlist and go-to music for ergs.
SPEAKER_00Okay, um, I think it depends on the erg. If it's like a UT2 erg, um, it would be something like fairly chill. Um I'm actually so bad at remembering music, but uh you're a Taylor Swift girly. I do love a good bit of Taylor Swift. Um yeah, those kind of like feel-good tunes, like when we're definitely doing it as a squad of your Dean, whatnot. Um, and then hard ugs. I feel like everyone's always surprised when I say this, but I like I'm a massive I RMV fan, like hip. Really? Yeah. Um I love that. I will just have some absolute like filth going through my ears. And everyone's quite shocked when it's like played out loud. So that interesting. Um yeah.
SPEAKER_01Oh guys, we learned something new every day. I didn't know this either about Matthew. Gets me through. Um, what about you though? Um, yeah, I'd say for like long sort of UT2 sessions or even up to UT1, something that maybe you can sing along, especially if you've got a whole squad in the room. Yeah. I love it if there's a few belters out in that. I think it just brings the good vibes. Um, on the yeah, for pieces, definitely not RB. Um, sometimes a little bit of Dutch rap, that's like the closest I'll get to any sort of rap music. It's quite fun. It's almost got a like sort of Spanish Latin undertone to it. It's cool. Um, but otherwise just like pretty basic stuff. I have sort of playlists that every 5k I'll listen to or every 2k I'll listen to, maybe change one song, but yeah, just standard stuff.
SPEAKER_00Okay, next question for you from Kath. What are the things you appreciate that a cox has or does?
SPEAKER_01This is a really good question, actually. Um, well, the first one's a simple having tools with them, I really appreciate because um I'm embarrassed to say that I never ever have a tool with me. So a cox with a toolkit, you're a one-way street to my heart. Um, so shout out to Jack and Henry because they both always um that's Henry Fieldman and Jack Toss and always, always, always have a toolkit filled with amazing things with them. Um, and then secondly, I'd say, what's something that I appreciate that a Cox does? This was actually something that Will, I think I don't want to mispronounce his surname, Denegri, said in, I believe it was at Leander at a sort of Cox talk, maybe with Wax, I'm not sure. And he said, I thought so he'll say it more eloquently than I will, but it was something along the lines of that a Cox is not there to project their own views on a crew, they're there to be the voice for something that as a crew you've agreed upon before you row, and they're there to hold you accountable to what you've agreed to do. So, like, you know, if before the session, as a group you're saying, okay, we're gonna work on the rock over, we're gonna work on coming in and out of the front, like really light on the foot plate, the Cox is there to sort of continue to enforce that when obviously you can't make the calls in an eight, rather than to like inflict their own session plan on it. And especially in a racing scenario, you know, you agree with something as a crew beforehand, and the cox is there to relay that to you. He's not there or she isn't there to create their own scenario, if you will. Obviously, there are moments where a decision needs to be made and then it it is in the cox's hands if it's something that you haven't prepared for, or you know, something unforeseen happens. But yeah, I just thought it was so well said by Will. Like, as a cox, you're part of the team, you're not above it, or aside from it, or behind it, or in front of it. You're you're you're one unit with the rowers, and I think all the best coxes are ones that do that really well and just remain a part of the team even when they have the microphone.
SPEAKER_00I really like that, and that's something that I've noticed like obviously I don't really ever get coxed once in the very blue moon. Um, but from like the outside looking in, it seems like the best coxes are the ones that facilitate that crew and yeah, deeply like a part of it rather than trying to like inflict their own opinions. Yeah, that's so interesting.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I just thought, I mean it was Will's words, not mine, but yeah, great question. And I just thought it was worth worth shouting out to him there. Uh the next one from Holly. What is the hardest thing you've ever had to overcome in your rowing career?
SPEAKER_00Oh, good question. Um there's probably been about there's two things that I like struggle to decide on. I think the first is when I had hip surgery when I was 21. I'd only been rowing about a year and a half at that point, and I think it would have been very easy just to pack it all in there and then. Um, but I wanted to get through the rehab process and I desperately wanted to like show that I could still achieve something in the sport, um, despite still being very new to it. And I believed I still had potential and I still wanted to just do more because I'd fallen in love with it. And it was like six how long was the rehab process? Like six to eight months. I guess it was like eight months in the end, and it was it was intense and it was really hard. And I do think hips are one of the things that takes the longest to rehab, and especially at that point in my career with like very much very different support to where I am now, it was tough, but um, yeah, that's probably the first thing. And then I think the second thing was 2022, when I basically kind of realized the reason I was getting so many rid of injuries was partly because of like not eating enough and like having bulimia. And I think if I hadn't sorted myself out then and asked for help, I would never have got to where I am now. I would never have got to the Olympics if I hadn't like really made that change there and then. And it took like a long time to sort, but without asking to asking for help, I would never have yeah, made it through. What about you?
SPEAKER_01I'd say similar in the sense of like there are two that really stand out to me, which is actually crazy when you think about how long, like over a 10-year span or whatever it is, it's not that many, but if they were more like big moments. Um the first of which would be so when I left Iowa, my my dream was to go back to move back to Amsterdam, make the Dutch team, and then go to Paris for Team NL. So I went back to Amsterdam, made the Dutch team, spent like a year and a half on the senior team, and then obviously Tokyo had been moved, so it was in 2021. That that was around the time when I was there. And after Tokyo, a new head coach came in. And he sort of said, Okay, if you haven't got an Olympic medal, which I hadn't been to the Olympics, a lot of us hadn't been, um, you have to retrial for the team. We're gonna do like a clean swipe. And I was injured at the time, so I couldn't retrial. And the answer was basically okay, see you later then. You can try again next year. And it just felt because at this point we were what, three years out from Paris. It was it was around 2022, it was just January 2022, two years out from Paris, and I'd been kicked off the team, and I my world honestly crumbled, and that sounds dramatic, but it's genuinely how it felt. Like I just thought, well, okay, my Olympic dreams are over, like I'm never gonna make it again. I was really heartbroken. I felt like all my friends were on the team. That was sort of my whole life plan, and I felt just helpless, and also I think when you're so hurt by something, you're also like, Well, do I even want to row anymore? Like, is it just too you know painful? So spent some time sort of licking my wounds from that, and then decided with Nerus, who were my club at the time, I'd come and do a fixture at the one of the Cambridge fixtures. We got absolutely rinsed, but um, it was fun, and I was like, okay, I do still like rowing, and then obviously thought I'd spend a season at Leander and the rest is history. Um, and then the second one would be when I finally got onto the GB team, which was February 23, and I was so happy, also a sense of like proving this coach wrong that you know I could do it, even though he and so many others had said, You're never going to be good enough, like we don't believe in you, just stop. Um made it onto the GB team, and then I got injured again, and I was like, Oh my gosh, like this actually I can't keep doing this, and then you know, I was really grateful for the support that GB provided me in letting me rehab here, and I spent six months doing that, came back from that, and then I got injured again. So I think that that sort of year or eight months from February to November 2023 was just a really challenging period where it felt like again the Olympic dream was really slipping away, and it was just like clinging on to it for all it's worth. It obviously worked out all right in the end, but it worked out amazingly in the end, but just really hard moments where I was like just riding on this everyday, slowly diminishing sense of like belief that I could actually do it. Um, and then it did work out, thankfully. But um, yeah, hard, hard stages.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think from both our stories and like both our careers, I think what really stands out is just that never giving up. Like, we still had this hope, we still had this determination that we could do it, and even when it were like even in those moments where you honestly feel like you're at rock bottom, and like you're crazy for, yeah, just never give up hope. Like, whatever you're going through, you can you can prove not just to others, but also to yourself that you can do it. I think, yeah, that's definitely what I take away from like your career and like the injuries that you've gone through. And I think, yeah, I mean, we are so similar in terms of that. It's just never give up because you will come back, yeah, and you will prove them wrong.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I think that's probably we've rambled on a bit today. It's sort of a very chatty, a chatty podcast, but it's it's just it's nice to talk about these things that we don't often stop to talk about. Um, so I think we'll we'll one more question and then we'll wrap it up. This one's from Anna, which I thought was an amazing question. Is 40 too old to start indoor rowing?
SPEAKER_00No, it's absolutely not. Like, I love the fact that you're thinking about starting indoor rowing. Like, please just go for it. There is absolutely no age limit on this. Like, give it a go and um hopefully you'll fall in love with it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and even also, I mean, indoor rowing, you can also still outdoor rowing. So, you know, go to any local rowing club. I'm sure they'll very happily welcome you and just go for a row and see if you like it. Because we need more rowers in the world. We do, and hopefully you'll fall in love with it just like we did. Yeah. And let us know if you do like it, please. Okay, that's it for this week, guys. We will see you again next week.
SPEAKER_00Remember to send your questions our way. Thanks for listening. Bye.
SPEAKER_02Between the boys is part of the JRN podcast family. Check out our four other shows wherever you're listening to this one.