Gold medallists Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy have hinted that their Olympic dreams are not finished yet with a possible bid at moving up a weight class for Los Angeles 2028.
The lightweight rowing class is being decommissioned for the next Olympic Games meaning McCarthy and O’Donovan would need to move to a heavier class if they are to compete again in four years’ time.
Asked on Saturday if they would “both have an eye on another Olympics”, O’Donovan said, “I think so. A few left in us hopefully.”
The pair were speaking on RTÉ radio, described how they had worked together and practised for so long, “a kind of algorithm” had developed in which they both knew immediately how to respond to race circumstances.
“I think just being locked into the boat and focused on what you are doing is the main part really,” O’Donovan said.
“We have been together for so many years and had so many races together and talked about so many different races and different scenarios and have played them out as well,” he said.
“We have the race plan in our head at this stage of what we would like to try to do, and as things go on around us, we have the same algorithm in each of our own heads ... We kind of both arrive at the same conclusion without having to talk to each other, without being telepathic.”
Speaking on the Brendan O’Connor Show, the rowers said they never “know” they are going to win.
“I don’t think that you know you are ever going to win,” said McCarthy. “It’s more a feeling of knowing that we are at the top of our game,” he said.
“You build a sense of how fast you are going compared with the other crews during the regatta as well as through the early rounds and all the heats and semi-finals. We had a good race too.
“So we knew we were in pretty good shape. So it is more going out knowing we can put on a good performance, hoping that that’ll be enough to get us over the line first,” he said.
