O’Donovan brothers win Cork Person of the Year award

Nothing has changed in terms of preparing for rowing competitions despite the media attention they have received since winning their Olympic silver medals, Gary O’Donovan has said after he and brother Paul were named Cork Persons of the Year 2016.

“For us, nothing has changed too much since Rio in terms of rowing,” O’Donovan said. “We are doing our training and putting in the hard work because we want to go on and win more medals in the future. Our priority is our training because if we can’t do our training, our chance of winning medals is going to reduce.”

Accepting the award at a gala banquet at the Rochestown Park Hotel on his own behalf and that of his brother Paul, who couldn’t attend because of physiotherapy exams at UCD, O’Donovan said they were greatly honoured to be named Cork Persons of the Year.

RTÉ documentary

O’Donovan told RTÉ’s Sean O’Rourke, who was hosting the event, that he and Paul were very happy with the RTÉ documentary on their success, Pull Like a Dog. Shown over Christmas, O’Donovan said it conveyed to people that behind their easygoing public faces, they were serious athletes.

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“It’s often forgotten Paul and myself are fairly serious athletes and we do a lot of training and the success doesn’t come out of nowhere,” he said. “It was good in the documentary to remind people that there is more to us than just two lads who turn up places and have a bit of a laugh, though we do that too.”

The brothers, who are from Lisheen near Skibbereen, were selected from 12 monthly winners. The ceremony was attended by Lord Mayor of Cork Cllr Des Cahill and Mayor of Cork County Cllr Seamus McGrath, who made the announcement.

Event organiser Manus O’Callaghan said: “In the 24-year history of these awards, we got the most nominations ever for Paul and Gary, so it was really no surprise to most when they picked up the Persons of Year trophy for the huge impact they have made.”