Helen Glover on her Olympics journey: "My life now isn’t defined by rowing"

Between 2015-16 she was ranked the number one female rower in the world, and she’s also a triple world champion. One would have thought there was nothing left to do, but here she is, climbing into the boat once more for the Paris Games. What is it that drives her?

"Well, up until London and Rio, winning was the be-all and end-all. It was the most important thing in my life," says Glover, 38. We are sitting by the Thames at Marlow Rowing Club, near her house, which is also on the river.

“But my children are so much more important than anything I do in the sporting field. My life now isn’t defined by rowing, so it gives me the freedom to go out and explore how good I can be. It’s a perspective shift.”

Even without the shift caused by parenting a young family, the fact that she’s preparing for her fourth consecutive Olympics – where she was selected, alongside Tom Daley, to carry the Union flag at the opening ceremony – means Glover has an unusual view- point among athletes. How does she summarise her four Games?

"At the London Games, I was young, it was a home crowd, we won the first gold for Team GB. You couldn’t write it. It was too big to even comprehend. I never thought I would be an Olympian, never mind win Olympic gold."

And then? "Well, I had four years to come to terms with it, but by the time Rio came along, I had imposter syndrome." Ridiculous! "Not to me. All the wide-eyed brightness of the first Olympics had gone. I was determined to cement London and prove I wasn’t a one-off."

And Tokyo? "Because of Covid, we were in isolation. Plus, I had one-year-old twins at home. Getting on the plane was my goal. So, in some ways, Tokyo was one of my proudest achievements." The support came from parents, who saw themselves in her. "People who wanted to get back into the thing they used to love before they had children."

In Paris, Glover will be racing alongside Rebecca Shorten, Esme Booth and Sam Redgrave (no relation to Sir Steve) in the women’s four. Does she feel ready? "Do you ever feel ready for an Olympic Games? Now we are in the final weeks, we are kind of hoping that we’re good enough to be in the mix." Plus, it’s just over the Channel. "That was actually a really big draw for me in coming back. It feels close to a home game. You know, my relations can hop on to a train and get there. It’s the first Games since 2012 that are in our time zone. I think these Games will almost be like a throwback to London 2012, with that huge groundswell of support."

Even with her vast experience and support, Glover admits she gets nervous. "But nerves are important. That feeling I have on the start line is pretty consistent from my first race, which was about 14 years ago."

It doesn’t seem long enough. Before she began training as a rower, Glover was a gifted track and field athlete, en route to becoming a PE teacher. Until an inspired moment in British sports.

"When I was 21, London won the bid for the Olympic Games. And they launched a talent programme to find people to compete. I signed up, but when I turned up I realised I was too short to be considered [she is 5ft 9in]. They had set the bar quite high, and women needed to be 5ft 11in, so I just thought, 'I’m just going to stand on my tiptoes.' Fortunately Paul Stannard, who became my first coach, was watching from the sidelines, and he was like, she’s the one with the most fight. And he asked me to think about joining the rowing squad."

She had never sat in a boat before. "I thought I’d be picked for volleyball or something. I was so close to saying no. I’d just started working as a PE teacher and all I wanted to do was pay off my student debt. But I pictured myself in 2012 watching the Games on TV and thinking ‘I never even gave it a shot.'"

Even so, when the phone call came to say she’d got through, she still hadn’t decided. "As I answered it, I didn’t know whether I was going to say yes or no. Half an hour later, I might have said no." This from a three-time world champion. "Yes, it scares me. To think about those choices you make in life, and how different everything could be."

She’s still remarkably diffident about her achievements. She keeps her gold medals in a sock and doesn’t display them at home. "Steve will say, 'Hello? I’ve just put your medals back on the shelf.' I’m not hugely attached to them, in a sentimental way. The first Olympic medal I held was my own. Nobody had ever come into my school to show us a medal, or anything like that. So it’s important to me, when I go to places like Cornwall, where I grew up, to go into schools and let children feel the weight of it. Through that, I can send a message about what is possible."

Glover was one of five children in what sounds like a perfectly normal, happy home in Penzance, and her father was an all-round sportsman who played rugby to a pretty high level. "I was very lucky to have a very sporty, but un-pushy family. I was just a little girl who spent time on the beach with friends collecting shells." Clearly a talented athlete, she won a sports scholarship to Millfield School. "None of my family went to private school. I never felt I belonged with a group of people who were going to go off and succeed. The kind of people who went to the Olympics were not people like me."

So, what happened? "A sense that this was my last chance. I was 21, and I was given this opportunity to start rowing. It was the kick up the bum that I’d never had, and it was the first time I’d actually applied myself fully to anything. Rowing focused me into realising that you can be much more than you might have pigeonholed yourself into."

Focus is possibly Glover’s superpower. Rarely have I interviewed someone who listens so intently to a question, thinks about it, and disregards a stock answer. It could be one of the reasons that she has achieved so much.

Hers is a career she hopes will resonate with young people; even her own children. "Especially for my little girl. To feel deep down that she can – and should – and that there’s a place in the world for her no matter what she wants to do." She’s a trailblazer in so many ways. “The other day Kit asked, ‘Mummy, can boys row?'" She laughs. "I thought that was great, because I’ve been asked whether women can row about 100 times by strangers in the street."

Of course, her three will be watching their mum compete for Team GB in Paris. She hopes it will influence them. “I want to send a message, that you can be what you want to be. That every woman, every girl, every female should have a chance to try. And it doesn’t matter if they succeed or not. But it matters that they’ve tried. And that you can return to sport after having kids. Many men in Team GB have children, and it’s not spoken about because it doesn’t change anything. And it’s expected that their careers are longer than women’s careers. But hopefully the biggest thing about these Games is how many women competitors are coming back after having children. That was a big motivator for me in Tokyo. There was this given within rowing, that for women, when you had a family… it was an assumption.” That you would stop? Correct. “There was only one way to do it. You turn up at this time and you leave at that time, and there is no space for anything else.

“Now, in training, my non-negotiable with the team is that I do school pick-up. So I’m done by 3pm. It makes my day much harder, because I’m putting in the same training as everybody else, just with three hours’ less time. But part of being the best mum I can be, is being present. So even if I’m stressed or tired, I see [the children’s] faces light up when I’m at the school gate. Every time, it makes me feel I’ve got the balance right.”

Will this be her last Games? The question of whether Glover will retire is a pertinent one, given that she has hung up her Team GB strip twice already – once in 2016, after she won back-to back golds in London and Rio, in order to start a family, and once in 2021 after the Tokyo Games. Would she consider it after Paris? “I think there is something that keeps the fire in your belly and keeps you coming back. I think right now, I have no intention of going back [to the sport]. But I have also said that twice before. I’m making no plans to carry on.”

A long pause. “It’s a wrestle, because I also feel I could carry on, but I think, especially in this pressurised time, there is this big maternal urge within me when it’s done, to be Mum. So when I have competed, and I go back, and I’m Mum, without all the other stuff around, I think the answer will reveal itself to me. But right now, my expectation is that this Games is very likely to be my last one.”

Right now, however, the Olympic Village is in her sights. “The ethos of it transcends politics. It’s the most special thing in the world. Everyone is represented: every physique, every sport, every nation. Everyone is on their own journey to get there.

"There is this undertone of respect, because everyone knows that whether you are a marathon runner or play rugby sevens, you have gone through hard times. You have challenged yourself to get here. And that gives inspiration to every young person in the world. They can look at the Olympics and see role models. That’s the best thing about sport.”

Does she hang out in her official kit in the Village? "The whole time. With Team GB, every day is either a red, white or blue day. The team has this great sense of togetherness."

If the four make it through to the final on 1 August, what will go through her mind when she sees the finish line is beckoning? "It varies. Sometimes my thoughts are just very practical. Sometimes you count strokes. You are thinking about the race plan. Watching people in my boat. Keeping an eye on the boats around me. It can be very process-driven, without much space for emotion. But…" she smiles.

"I raced in the European Championships the other week, and in the last 30 seconds I had this awareness of this bracelet," she says, holding up her wrist to display a threaded, beaded bracelet (see main picture). "My 'Mummy Bracelet', made by the kids for me. I felt it, ever so slightly, for one stroke."

She pauses. "I just had this sense of feeling them there with me. It has never happened in a race before. I’ve never really thought about them, much, in a race.

"But I felt this, for one stroke, and it took me away for a moment. Not in a bad way. It gave me strength, a strength that I haven’t felt before in the last 30 seconds. And so, whether I think of my children actively when I’m racing in Paris, or not, the plan is to wear it. It gives you that little bit of deep strength."

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