Two-time Olympic champion Helen Glover is crediting her second rowing comeback to the ‘superpowers’ motherhood has given her.
The 37-year-old announced her return to the sport in the run-in to Paris 2024 last year and has since supercharged her way through a short Olympic cycle. Should her Games ambitions be confirmed with squad selection in the women’s four before the summer, Glover could become the first British mum of three to win an Olympic medal.
The Penzance rowing powerhouse has relished the challenge of juggling parenting with her athlete intentions and is ready to embrace another Games in Paris.
"A lot of the questions that were asked of me in the Tokyo year have not been asked this time because I’ve answered those questions for myself and the wider world of sport," said Glover, speaking as an Aldi ambassador ahead of this summer's Olympic Games. “I know this is possible and it’s going to be the freedom this year where the priority is being a mum, but this is almost like going back to being me again and the athlete I always was.
“She’s still there, she still exists but the person I was in 2012 and 2016, I’ve now added this amazing facet to my life.
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“The power of the mind is amazing but the power of motherhood gives you so much adrenaline and hormones, all these amazing superpowers go through your veins.”
Glover and pairs partner Heather Stanning became the first British female rowers to win an Olympic title at London 2012 before going on to successfully defend it four years later in Rio. The pair retired after 2016 but Glover announced her return to the Olympic stage after having twins in 2020.
Alongside Polly Swan, Glover came fourth in Tokyo but will be looking at the women’s four in Paris with an eye for a third Olympic medal.
She said: “I’ve always loved to think that my best is when I’m working for other people and I think it uses my skillset really well. I want to challenge myself, I know what I’m doing with the fours is out of my comfort zone and the challenge which I seek.
“You see the glitzy moments once every four years on the podium but you don’t see the miles. It’s a seven-minute race but we can train for two hours at a time on the rowing machine or on water and it’s a real mix of endurance and power.”
Aldi are the official partners of the Nearest and Dearest programme in partnership with Team GBGlover admits she always wanted her return to the sport to be firmly about the rowing. But the triple world champion has cited a societal change that empowered her to head back on the water and hit some of her best times to date.
She said: “I didn’t see my career lasting this long, not for any physical reasons but almost for a societal reason. It was always the way that you have a career, then there’s a line in the sand, then you have your family.
“I just didn’t see it as a possibility and never considered it. To see myself now over a decade on from London I’d probably think, ‘you’re crazy’, why are you still doing this?
“Being part of an Olympic team is the best thing and I’m so lucky to do it, so while I still can, I want to.”
Aldi are proud Official Partners of Team GB & ParalympicsGB, supporting all athletes through to Paris 2024
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