By Tom Harle at Vaires-sur-Marne
HELEN Glover won Olympic silver on Thursday afternoon as two British mothers reached the podium inside an hour on the rowing lake.
The Truro star joined forces with Rebecca Shorten, Samantha Redgrave and Esme Booth to add to her two golds and become the first British mum-of-three to win an Olympic medal in any sport.
After the women's quad bested the Netherlands in a thrilling sprint finish, a double over the Dutch proved just beyond the four who missed out on gold by 0.18 seconds. In Tokyo, Glover blazed a trail as the first mother to compete for Team GB in rowing at the Olympics and the legacy of that achievement is already evident.
"I feel like I worked so hard in the Tokyo year to break into the team as a mum, and I think now we're reaping the rewards for that hard work," said Glover, who is one of over 1,000 elite athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme.
"Rowing came second to a lot of the battles I had to fight throughout that year and now those battles are fought, hopefully every single mum that comes back can have a journey based on performance, rather than proving that mums can do it.
"I think normalising (motherhood) is really important. I think that sport is a massive reflection on society, and I think that to show that you can come back to a hobby, sport, to show that you can come back and excel, not despite having children, but because you have children.
"I think it's a message to society to say there is space, there should be openness, there should be encouragement for women to come back and do whatever they want to do when they've had kids."
The British crew won their heat by a huge margin and there were only ever two nations in the hunt for gold.
The top two opened up a clear water lead on the rest of the field by the halfway stage and traded blows in the final 1,000 metres, The Dutch just about held off the GB sprint and the winning margin was 0.18 seconds.
“The race went to plan, and we did what we could,” reflected Glover. “You go and expect tight racing on an Olympic final day, so we’ve got to be proud of what we put together.”
Talk turned to whether Glover would pursue a place at a fourth Olympics at LA 2028.
Rowing events will be 500 metres shorter than the traditional 2,000 metres, but it sounds like not even that will be able to pique Glover’s interest.
The best chance of seeing her in California could be in beach sprints, a discipline that will debut in four years time. Beach sprints incorporate a sprint in the sand and rowing in the open ocean near the shore.
“Half the team think I’ll carry on,” said Glover. “I don’t plan to carry on.
“I guess I’ve just been focused on crossing the finish line and we’ll see. Right now, I just want to spend time with my family and enjoy being mum, not really thinking about rowing, and taking my time to kind of decompress from the Olympics.”
With more than £30-million a week raised for Good Causes, including vital funding into elite and grassroots sport, National Lottery players support our Olympic and Paralympic athletes to live their dreams and make the nation proud, as well as providing more opportunities for people to take part in sport.