No missing the Rio boat as Olympics dream comes true

Sinéad Jennings is the kind of woman you want to be when you grow up. The Donegal woman is a mother of three children, a doctor and will be representing Ireland in the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, in lightweight rowing.

Jennings (39) also does it all with a warmth and a smile that lets you know, that while it might be tough to balance everything, seeing her dream to get to the Olympics finally happen will make it all worthwhile.

“I’m really excited. When you have tried for something for so long, to finally do it is just amazing.

“From when I was a young child, I’ve dreamed of walking in the opening ceremony of the Olympics behind the Irish flag. It will be really emotional.”

Jennings won the bronze in the 2000 World Championships in the lightweight single and then took gold the following year even though she was relatively green to the sport. But for her Olympic dream to come true she had to go to double as the lightweight single was not an Olympic event.

Her career has seen its fair share of knockbacks and she missed out on qualifying for the Olympics in 2004 and 2008.

When she was pregnant with her daughter Hannah, her coach, Don McLachlan, convinced her to try for the double one more time and she connected with her team mate, Claire Lambe, who will line out with her in Brazil. Within a week of giving birth, Jennings was back in the boat and on the road to Rio when they qualified their place last September with a third place B Final finish at the World Rowing Championships in Aiguebelette.

Hooked

Falling in love with rowing was initially inspired by her summer job as a lifeguard in the US, and the potential bonus of romance, but then she got hooked on rowing itself.

“I was always into sport when I was a kid. I used to do triathlons with my sisters, and Mum and Dad used to take us everywhere. I went to college to do pharmacy in England and, in my second year in college, I was on a J1 in America.

“I was working as a beach lifeguard and myself and my best friend were doing this job that was the best job in the world. We discovered that a lot of the beach lifeguards were rowers in college so we said, ‘When we go back to college now we’re going to join the rowing club and meet some nice men for ourselves.’”

A series of unfortunate and near misses in qualifying for the Olympics have not dimmed the light on her ambitions; she epitomises resilience.

"In 2004, myself and my partner, Heather Boyle, were actually really close to qualifying; we were 0.1 of a second off qualifying. So that was pretty tough because you have invested so much in it and then it doesn't happen. One thing I have had is that I have always loved to row in the single. After that I had two weeks to try for the single for the World Championship so I had to get focused straight away and I got back in my boat."

In 2008 while she was at the World Championships, Cycling Ireland phoned her as they were trying to put a track team together for cycling. “I felt that I didn’t have a partner in rowing and I still wanted to go to the Olympics so I thought I would give it a go.”

She did not find the transition to joining the women’s team for track cycling too difficult as they are both endurance sports and she had cycled as a junior and the same skill set from rowing and mentality about training applied. “From what I have learned through rowing, and dealing with pressure, it certainly is very similar.”

When she missed out on qualifying in 2008, it was her husband, Sam, who suggested a new focus.

“We got a puncture at a race in the Kazakhstan World Cup and we should have been allowed a chance to restart but the race officials said no and we didn’t get a chance to do it.

“The next day they apologised to us and said they should actually have given us the chance and they didn’t and that felt like such an injustice. But I found a different way to overcome that one.

“Myself and my husband, Sam, already had Clodagh, our little girl, and we always wanted to have at least two or three children. Sam straight away said we should have another child now in case I wanted to go for an Olympics later on. So we were really lucky and got pregnant straight away with Molly.”

When they failed to qualify for London in 2012, she decided to focus on family. “I had been out in the river crying, thinking ‘I can’t do this anymore’ but I love the sport. I really do love it and that is what keeps me going.”

Juggling

Already a qualified pharmacist, at the age of 27 she went back to college to study medicine. As a trainee GP, juggling all the aspects of her life can be difficult, the hardest part being away from her family.

“With work and study, you can make it up. You can put in the long hours and I made sure that when I was studying, I was studying well but it’s totally different with family, there is the guilt alright.

“When I was working as a doctor I was working really long hours and my girls didn’t get to see me as much. But with rowing, I’m generally home by four in the evening and on a Monday I get to go to Clodagh’s violin lesson – stuff I wouldn’t get to do if I was actually working as a doctor.

“So, although I am away when I’m at home, I’m getting much better time with them so that’s the way I rationalise it to myself.”

Jennings trains seven days a week and is currently on sabbatical in the run-up to Rio and credits her husband with being a huge support.

“Sam has been amazing really. He has been through it. He’s been to two Olympics himself and has been world champion twice in rowing as well so he really understands what it takes.”

I meet Jennings at a photoshoot in Dublin for Electric Ireland’s 2016 Olympic campaign called #ThePowerWithin. Its campaign’s focus is on identifying powerful stories about how our Olympic athletes are resilient, overcome failure, have fought to get to where they are now and their overall strength to keep motivated.

“For me it’s been such a long road, and about never giving up. There have been times when I have had to find my passion and my love and also find a way to do things.

“It might seem impossible but I say that there is a way, and I’m going to find it.”

When it does all get too much, “a good cry” can help an awful lot, says Jennings. “I’m a good believer in letting it go, don’t try to keep it all in all the time.”

Jennings leaves you feeling inspired and that it can be done; just get “back in the boat”.