LIAM GORMAN talks to the Irish Olympic rower who came so close to a medal that he has to give it another go
ELITE SPORT. Fame. Travel. Glamour. “I recently split up with my girlfriend of four years, and I know it was because of what I am doing,” says Eoin Rheinisch. Yes, that Eoin Rheinisch – the one who was all over our screens last year exploding through the foam of an Olympic slalom canoe course and coming within the length of a deep breath of snatching a medal.
“I think she waited until after Beijing: ‘See if he’ll be a normal person now’.”
But Rheinisch thought about it and chose to chase more glory; to do everything in his power to turn that fourth place into a medal come London 2012. He chose the route of sacrifice . . . and Colleen became one of the sacrifices.
He sits in the small coffee shop of the Raw gym in central Dublin, drinking water after a hard weights session. This is a sweaty, serious place – walls shocking white and black; a spew of red across the logo for effect. His face lights up in a smile. “You can put in that I’m single. You can do a personal ad.” Let’s see: “Male, 29. Good-looking, world-class athlete in peak physical condition seeks companion. Must be prepared to spend most of the year in contact only by phone and e-mail; will have to play second fiddle to an all-consuming dedication to sport.” Umm. You begin to see where Colleen was coming from.
Rheinisch will spend 180-200 days out of the country this year.
He’s back and forward to Nottingham until the European Championships there at the end of next month. Then it’s the World Cups in France, Slovakia and Germany in June and July.
The big one – the one he’s targeting to peak at this season – is the World Championships in Seu d’Urgell in Spain in mid-September.
All this travel is the price he pays for plying a craft so rare in his home place that there is no slalom course on the island of Ireland.
However, Rheinisch loves Seu d’Urgell. He won the World Cup there in 2004 and and is hooking up with coach Jordi Domen there for sessions at the venue, with the aim of medalling there come September.
“The bits of work I’ve done with him – I’ve been to Spain at camps three times since the Olympics – have been brilliant. It is one of the best courses for me; I’ve had my best results there. I consistently make the final when I race on that course.”
He says the siting of the World Championships there this year was just what he needed to motivate him after the Olympics.
Beijing was the best of times and the worst of times. His gutsy strategy of targeting only this event for the year seemed to have blown up in his face when a surfeit of caution left him in a seemingly ruinuous 18th place after the first run.
He improved to make the semi-final and then the final in last place in each. He went off first in the final, and made a small mistake in the closing stages. He would be the one others could use as a stepping stone. But it didn’t work out like that.
In one of the compelling dramas of the Games, fancied paddler after fancied paddler careered down the course, but couldn’t better the Irishman’s time. He was still top of the board with three competitors left. The dead-certs from Germany (Alexander Grimm) and France (Fabien Lefevre) took gold and silver, and in a a show of true class, a stunning performance by surprise packet Benjamin Boukpeti of Togo gave him the bronze ahead of Rheinisch.
Hours of poring over videos cannot change the fact that had the Irishman “absolutely nailed that final run” he would have medalled.
“Had it all gone the same way as seven-eights of the run it would have been good enough to take the bronze. And that’s a regret.”
We range over other subjects; how at 29 he returns to Ireland to find some of his friends are pairing off and he’s losing contact. “You’re not part of their social scene any more – because you can’t be.”
And back we go to the central question: What siren’s song turned his head and left him shackled again to this lonely merry-go-round? The lure of London 2012? “No. The crucial factor is because I didn’t get a medal (in Beijing).
“I think if I had a medal now it would change the thinking process. Maybe. Or it might have let me go on (for) a year or two to try and get a World Championship medal. If I achieved that I might have thought ‘now call it a day’. The fact that I was fourth kills me. I want one more crack at it.”
Ah, the Magnificent Obsession. But he’s more nuanced than many top athletes. Looking to the future he thinks he may do something in sports science.
“I’d get a kick out of helping people go further, showing them things. Rather than them making the same mistakes you made – and it taking longer.”
When it comes to the Irish Sports Council, not for the first time, he asks that they be given credit for their support. They were so taken with his command of his own programme that they invented a new category for him: he is an Institute of One.
He’s uncomfortable with this spotlight. He worries that the sport of canoeing may be suffering because so much of the funding is directed his way – had he tanked in Beijing the sport might have been painted as a failure, which would not have been fair.
Hmm. Let’s try again. Male, 29. Honest, balanced, likeable perfectionist. Could have a very bright (gold, silver or bronze) future.
Better. Much better.
