IIt’s 1pm on Wednesday and Helen Glover has just finished training for the day. It’s a day and a half of her work week, from 6:30 a.m. Monday to 2:30 p.m. Saturday, but she still has to pick up the kids at three, like she does every school day, so the next few hours are The only time she could be alone or doing other things. In this case, I felt a bit guilty about using them for this interview, as she might have preferred a quiet cup of tea or catching up on some sleep. Glover, 37, told me she’s used to it.
It’s been a year since Glover announced she would come out of retirement again and compete in this summer’s Paris Olympics. Everything is a little different this time. In 2012, 2016 and 2020 she competed in the women’s doubles competition, but in 2024 she will become a senior member of the women’s quad. She said it was refreshing to work with a new crew and new coaches. They are progressing well, winning silver at the European Championships last May and bronze at the World Championships in September, although Glover admits they need to “improve again” if they want to win medals at the World Championships. This summer’s Olympics.
She has given her fair share of interviews on Wednesday afternoons over the past few months. This is on behalf of Aldi, an official partner of Team GB and Paralympics GB. Just looking at newspaper clippings is tiring. Glover went out at 6.30am, trained for 2 hours and 15 minutes on the water, did video analysis, another hour on the water or on the bike, then drove straight to the gym, did another hour of weight training, then school Start running, taking the three kids to “swim, tennis, gymnastics, the library, the park, or playdates,” and then they have dinner together.
Glover is an accomplished athlete and a strong advocate for working mothers. “A big reason for deciding to come back was thinking: ‘What can I actively do to help my little girl and other little girls’ futures?’” she said. “And there are other women who have young families and want to feel empowered. How does it feel?” Her achievements in Tokyo were remarkable, becoming the first mother to make the GB rowing team and qualifying for the Olympic final just 18 months after giving birth to twins, despite her hopes that That’s not all. “When I think about the women currently on the team, most of them probably don’t want to start a family and then go back to rowing, but every one of them should have that option.”
A lot has been written and said about what a great job she is doing while juggling a career and raising her children. In headlines, she is sometimes considered the Sheryl Sandberg of sports. I imagine all the coverage about her mother must be frustrating, and Glover admits that sometimes she does wish people would ask her questions about her athletic achievements. “Mainly, I always feel proud when I read these headlines, because if things were different, they wouldn’t be there. There are still many areas of society that need work, and sports is one of them.”
Yet the change Glover is pushing for won’t happen unless we can talk honestly about the challenges it involves. I have three kids myself, two of them twins, and honestly, all the talk about how much you can get done if you wake up at 6am and have a “can-do” attitude is a little irritating.
“I get three done every day,” Glover once told me, “because I will always be picking up and dropping off school, and that’s non-negotiable.” It’s a privilege. There is also the privilege of being able to have your mother come over from Cornwall to look after the children for a few days, as you and your husband both work away from home, and to have a nanny on hand who is willing to step in on weekends with late notice. Take an hour or two. These options are not available to most working parents.
I was relieved to find out that Glover got it. She didn’t ask to be put on a pedestal, and she doesn’t really like being put on a pedestal now. “I’ve always found it a little difficult to accept the superhero status of an Olympian,” she said. “You know, when people write about you, it’s like you’re a different breed. If you’re a mom, too, that’s all going to be Go to another level. That’s actually the opposite of what I’m trying to portray here. It’s not me saying, “Look what I’m doing,” but me doing it saying, “This is so hard, I made a lot of mistakes. “I’m not saying it’s easy.”
Here, I finally felt a certain level of acceptance. I think every working parent does this. Because the truth is, there’s no way to do this or anything like it without making a lot of compromises. For Glover, they have always revolved around her exercise routine. She won consecutive Olympic gold medals from 2012 to 2016 and was known as one of the most complete people on the team. She once described herself as “borderline obsessive-compulsive”. She developed a training plan that included hitting 16,000 shots for every shot she played in the Olympic finals. “There are no shortcuts,” she said at the time.
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Glover admits that some days these days it’s just that. The truth is, you can’t accomplish everything without giving something up. “I have to be extremely accepting of imperfection,” she said. “I’d rather spend the day muddle-headed and do the best I can than try to do something because it’s not going to work. So, yeah, we’re going to have something most of the time – someone’s going to have a fever, Someone would need to be picked up from school, or someone would get sick on my boat, so I would have to change my training schedule. I just feel like I have a very lukewarm attitude about it now. Things were very different ten years ago. My attitude then was, everything It’s all important, everything is important, all the little details are important.”
For example, she had to give up recovery classes. She just didn’t have time. “But if the past few years have taught me anything, it’s that bodies are amazing. So this has become my new normal. I’m coping. But if anyone thinks I’m doing all this, then I’m not like 20 I’m training like I did when I was in my 20s, and I’m definitely not sleeping the same quality as I was in my 20s. So I’m doing it, but I’m doing it differently. You have to be flexible. But it’s really exciting because when you When you bend it, you discover things you never thought possible.”
This works for her. Glover keeps setting records. “I got the score, I was achieving the best goals of my life, I just didn’t believe it was possible under the circumstances. But I think part of it was this mindset shift and the way it took the pressure off me. . I never believed these things would contribute to success. You shouldn’t limit yourself, you shouldn’t believe you can’t do it, but you should be open to the possibility of doing something imperfect.”
This summer in Paris, she will try again, and win or lose, trying is enough.
