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Luc and Brooke the super Ms welcome to my podcast thank you it's cool to be here oh it's bloody great to have you
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guys here and I you you guys reached out um to me about doing the podcast which I
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was so so humbled by I was going I wanted you on um but I wanted to leave you alone as well because I thought yeah
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the moms and they just want to go home and do Mom stuff oh I knew that you would call us out for um yeah I was who
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messed you to come on here but um we just wanted to share our story we know there's Heats of other moms that are out
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there working too and I think it's um just a nice story to sh oh now what you
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guys have done is um is phenomenal like it's it's it's crazy like in terms of um
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you because at the level of by the way I I know nothing about your sport and my my my lack of knowledge will become a
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parent um but you can you can hold my hand and guide me through it but um like in terms of high performance sport where
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you're talking about like um you know marginal gains and one perentes and things like that like the the amount of
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those little added extra things that you guys miss out on due to like sleep deprivation and you know having your
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mind focused on on other far more important things than the sport um it can't be underestimated and you're still
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[ __ ] did it I guess I guess that's been part of the exercise right is that
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we've been so trained over our whole careers to focus on the 1%ers and then you're suddenly in this position where
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um you don't really feel you you you don't really get the allowance to do
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that because it's changed so quickly and I think for us part of that was a mental
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shift of saying you've actually got to focus on the big rocks here because the
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1% is sometimes you don't get them anymore sucks for the Romanians who you beat it was Romania a what do we have to
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do these girls haven't even been training properly and they beat us they were actually lovely like we
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actually did a press conference with them um straight after the and it was probably one of my favorite moments
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because I respect them well we both do we respect them so much they they have honestly been so dominant in that
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category for a really long time um and they're probably uh what motivated me a
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lot of our two years on return because I I knew that the standard that they were
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at was to me it felt almost Untouchable so um we had to go above and beyond just
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to feel like we were going to get close and um in this press conference we basically said you know it's been an
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honor to with these guys because for us they've changed the standard of the race
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and they just go out that first 500 so hard and we knew that our only option to beat them was to go out with them and we
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had to do it differently in that way and um they their English isn't great but
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then they basically um when they answered their question um were so kind to us and said they just respected so
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much that we could show up as moms and for them to say that to us I just yeah felt so humbled by that yeah like they
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weren in a position where you know being a parent was on their mind and it they you know it doesn't matter what what
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we've done but the fact that they respected that um yeah it was just of this amazing moment in that press
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conference that we're all sitting there like grinning at each other and feeling
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really crying oh my God that is so special and um have I got this right and saying you guys um the gold medal race
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was the first race that you guys have won together I think yeah we won the heat we
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won the semi okay yeah that was the first big race we had won we came back um both kids in 2022 and then came back
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to Elite racing in 23 and I think we're was my first B final our first World Cup
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back um and managed to get fifth hit by the world Champs and again we raced another world champs this year and we
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got Fifth and like there were a lot of results that wouldn't have led people to
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think that we would have potentially get that gold but um you guys you guys thought you were going to get the gold
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though right yeah I think we oh no no I shouldn't say yes we knew we knew that
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we're stting from the B we needed to get here and like every day we were feeling
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fitter and faster and we like knew if we could execute it really well and those final few weeks that we're in for a shot
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but obviously it's never given it some yeah did you check out like um sports
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beding odds or anything like you guys would okay so we did not like that wasn't on my mind at all but we actually
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met somebody in Italy last week who um had put I think it was 20 on us yeah and he got back like over €2,000 and oh my
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God amazing he came shook our hands us a high was like thank you girls we were like thank you for bitting on us well
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that must mean your odds were like 100 to one yeah I I mean I didn't check I
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just and I'm not good at mess but that is um oh that's outstanding so yeah did you guys just peek at the
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right time what is it I think it's um a combination of yeah a lot of things I think from the
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outside it's um because we were showing up um at you know say the World Cups and
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getting results that didn't look like on paper that we were um tracking uphill but we
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knew we were um I think as experienced athletes who've been to an Olympic Games
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before I think we also knew what standard was required of us and we were constantly working towards that every
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day and we used to say many small many small steps in the right direction because when you're in a position where
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you don't feel like um you are at that standard but you know what that standard
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is um it it was about chipping away and I think especially in the last six weeks yeah six months we um had
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a saying that we used to saying that was that we were dialing it up so we did a whole lot of like B work same as where
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you're running you do like all your base work um the bulk of the season it's the
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last six weeks where you come to doing your like your primers and your fast stuff and every week we were like Just
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Dial It Up Just Dial It Up hoping that we would get a bit quicker um each week yeah and did you feel yourself you you
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must like see your times and have like um good uh information from the training so you knew you were getting better the
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ding up thing I think we felt it was coming I think like we had confidence in um what we were doing and I think that's
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part of it right is that um when you're in a program that you believe in and
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it's proven and we backed our team part of it was just getting it done and trusting that then the outcome was going
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to be the right the right thing M yeah so um the previous Olympics that was uh Tokyo
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2021 yeah because of the co delay and you guys both one Silvers but not not together no I was in the woman's double
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and got silver to Romania's right how cool is that so how did you so and then so then were you
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guys quite tight then you knew each other quite well or yeah and we actually rode together in 2016 yeah and you just
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missed out on making the Olympics in Rio yes yeah so you rode together and then you so you
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didn't make Rio so you're like well that's it we're done let's go
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consciously uncouple or whatever um and then you yeah how did you end up back together um no it's um it's been a very
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like um I don't even know how quite to put it it's been a very lucky accident because
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we haven't um you know plan things together like we both went away from um the Tokyo Olympics and both know
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individually decided that we wanted to have kids and we both wanted to come back and then just by you know luck of
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timing our kids are three months apart and I managed to um well my my daughter car is three months older so I started
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training first and Lucy followed in it it just so happened that we yeah did we both tried for the double and got
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selected but you know R almost in our selection determines you don't just get
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uh given a boat so we've had to both trial to um our after yeah do you think
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um yeah in terms of like this that selection process um is it like the two best rowers for the boat or do you think
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you were paed up because you're like say say you just had a baby and you appeared
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with someone that didn't have a baby that wanted to train harder it could be
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like a a personality conflict or whatever do you think there was part of that that goes into it matching
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personality types or life stage types no to be honest like the way it works in rowing is that um indiv ually you get
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your seat and um I guess it just happened for us that it was a natural natural partnership and we're lucky that
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you know um as moms we get along well and the the um yeah the way that that worked out was not determined by ro New
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Zealand and I thought there were plenty of other people gunning for those seats so so cool yeah let's so let's talk
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about pregnancy and your kids so um yeah Lucy you've got ret yes yes and Brooke
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you've got Kira and they're born 3 months apart in 2022 yes um it seems like you guys almost planned this whole
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thing like getting pregnant at the same time coming back at the same time like what are the chances they're so close in
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age I know well essentially what I guess what happened is we both um and I actually remember having that
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conversation at at the Tokyo Olympics is that I was aware that broe wanted to have a baby and broe was probably aware
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that I wanted to have a baby so we both knew we were heading into this phase of life where we wanted to have children
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but we definitely had talked about um the return to Sport and at the time um I didn't want to put any pressure on I
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knew that I wasn't done with rowing and I had this huge desire to be back rowing
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but I also didn't want to place um any rules around that um to myself I didn't
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want to say I had to be back I had to be back there because I didn't I was a
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first time Mom right like I didn't know how that was going to go I didn't know
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what challenges it was going to bring so I also gave myself the grace to say um if it doesn't work out you know you
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don't have to be back rowing um but I did train throughout my pregnancy within
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the Roy New Zealand team and um it I I didn't have a great pregnancy um I was
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sick basically the whole time and I kind of hated being pregnant if I'm being
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honest but um Brooke was because she was three months ahead of me when it came to
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the time to um return back into training and I had this tiny little newborn big because she was 3 months ahead it was um
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it gave me confidence because um I was watching her you know Brook ended up on the podium at Nationals when she only
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had a three-month old kid and I was sitting there with a tiny newborn thinking okay well this is going well
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for her so I definitely think I can keep giving this a nudge and for me that helped me get back on the urg and get
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back on the water and yeah I think being so honest about that yeah I feel like um
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as as a woman there's almost an expectation that you're supposed to say oh being pregnant was one wonderful and
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it was a beautiful experience and I enjoyed it but it's not the reality for everyone is it I know and to be honest
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it has taken me a long time um to say that because I think the expectation is that you're supposed to feel um so
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connected to this thing that you're growing your body's doing such an amazing job of growing it but at the
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time like for me I just wanted it to be over to be honest like every day I was just counting that's how I would be I
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reckon if I was able to carry a baby and I had I had um you know a friend in Cambridge that was Jo on the same day as
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me and she ended up giving birth four weeks before and I remember thinking God damn it like this is not fair and she
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said to me like my advice would be to um you know sit down with your baby and just you know maybe try having a moment
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of saying I'm ready for you and you know you you can come like welcome into this
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world and I thought oh it's worth a shot I'll do anything because I've been
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trying absolutely everything cuz by now I'm over my je date and um and I sat
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down thinking oh good there to go and I actually couldn't do it because I didn't
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have any sense of connection to you know this child that I've been growing because I really resented you know I'd
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felt awful every single day and I I didn't have a sense of connection until he was born wow thanks for sharing
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that's really cool when and when you say um like who was training all the way
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through we both of you training all the way through well we both were but in different environments cuz I was
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training at Ro New Zealand as part of the team for as long I could until basically I couldn't get to the catch
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because I couldn't F my guts between my lips till when so like till the third
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trimester sort of thing or yeah wow oh I think I stopped at 25 weeks and what sort of what sort of well like workouts
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were you doing how intense was it I guess for me it was a little bit different um I trained away from R New
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Zealand that year um and was actually quite inspired that Lucy got to go over season that she was racing I was well
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you know it was interesting seeing that from the other side of things and I just keept fit my whole pregnancy um I
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didn't follow like a strict program but you know I was doing 30 minutes like
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each side of the day and there's so much and that you can read about people being
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worried about what can you do while you're pregnant everyone almost tends to
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avoid exercising but we've been active in exercising you know our whole Liv that's that's our career that's what we
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do so um it was almost just the advice I got from like physiologist stuff was to
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trust your body and to just do what makes you feel good so I think I Ed up to like 33 weeks still lifting weights
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went to the gym the day before I gave birth actually we burst energy wow oh my God my husband was at
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the point where I was like so annoying had way too much that he was just like going the J like you see so bro was your
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yeah your um whole pregnancy experience it sounds like it was It was kind of different yeah um yeah in comparison I
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had a really um good pregnancy and and loved being pregnant and enjoyed um like watched my body change and everything
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that went through I feel like the funny side of it is though I probably had the worse of birth in you know
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Lucy's went the other way yeah what was your what was your your birth experiences like mine was
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straightforward and Brooks got I would say a little bit of birth trauma yeah we ended up um you know laboring for 18 20
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hours and then ended up with an emergency section so yeah oh my God 18 hours which I think it's a general amount of
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Labor that you were probably similar in terms of laboring but I mean it's just a
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bit annoying to do all that labor and then still have to have them come out the sun roof yeah yeah right um recover
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it and yeah necessari and that makes the recovery way wor do not in terms of core
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yeah um yeah my core was really painful like lying down in bed with a newborn baby I would have to like brace myself
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every time I want to sit up and you're not allowed to drive and things like that um I think I was fortunate in how
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my body actually physically did recover and um being an athlete like the second that they say you can go for a
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walk like you can do you running oh my God you're built different he she Savage
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is she like the alpha dog on the boat yes she is she was running I followed all the protocols I just pushed it a
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little bit well I mean when you're when you're high performance athletes like
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you guys I'm I'm I don't know I'm I'm completely imagining here but I you know
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I I think you must be you know fear about losing Fitness I guess so even though you're doing like a double
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workout day you're doing less than what you normally do you must be I don't know
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does it play in the back of your mind that the Romanians are you making all these gains while you're losing Fitness
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yeah it's really hard to feel um content and patient when you feel like you're
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under time pressure and I think for both of us we actually recovered from birth um relative relatively smoothly like I
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think we both had a great return to training but at the same time um you can't help but feel like you're losing
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ground um you're constantly on the back foot and I think you come back into a
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program where you know other people haven't had this time off and your you're playing catch up on where
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everyone else is at and just little things like I I did train basically for as long as I could um and then once I
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got um back into the program when ret was maybe 10 or 12 weeks old um I got a dexa scan done which is I don't know if
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you know what that is but it's basically a full body scan and I had one done
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before I was pregnant with my muscle mess and then one done at 10 or 12 weeks postpartum where I could see my muscle
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mess and I'd lost I think it was something like 5 kgs of just pure lean mess which I mean is completely
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understandable but I still felt so annoyed about it you know like so annoyed my God you guys yeah and to make
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things to add like an extra lay layer of complication with the co thing it was like a threee 3 years between Olympics
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right which at the time we felt under huge time pressure about um but I think in hindsight um since the games we've
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both come to realize that actually what we did with the kids was full on and it was busy and it was a lot and maybe if
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we'd had to do it for a whole another year we might not have been able to sustain that and maybe the maybe our
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timing was perfect and the window was just right I don't know well those where
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are those gold medals I was going to say the gold medals are proof that it was perfect where are they lift it up there
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on the table them out there Jackson my camera guy he will steal them Jack oh hang on excuse me I'm going to go and
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grab them just leave them out there tell you what whenever I whenever I get to see one of these I get
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goosebumps he there's something really really special about it yeah how do you
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guys feel yeah I still feel like I still feel pretty special man that's so cool all right
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let's yeah let's talk about that so um did you go to the uh the opening ceremony no we didn't no oh cuz you were
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out you were like out of town like 20ks out of town or yeah staying at this lovely French Mana just out of town um
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which was yeah way easier for us for commuting um the commute from Village was over an hour and we had a Prett easy
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20 drive from there but um did you not want to like soak it up and be part of it uh I not really
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it was it was really good to watch on TV but it did look miserable yeah and it was so close to when our rowing starts
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but by then I just like wasn't even really tuned into I mean I think the opening ceremony was playing on my TV
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but we were so close to racing that I watched the first like 10 minutes and then I think I went to bed anyway and to
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be honest I was a little bit um on edge about the security of the whole thing like I was a little bit nervous about
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you know if anything's going to go wrong it could be at the opening ceremony and
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then I thought the same when we went to the men's 100 meter final which was amazing and such a cool experience but
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at the same time there was so many helicopters circling and I had a second of being like Oh are we all good here
00:19:08
have you always been that way or is it since you become a mom I think it's since I've become a mom always that way
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really she like the the safety Mom oh god um yeah no no like that opening ceremony was incredible he like it's the
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most incredible um Olympic opening ceremony ever that it happened you know with the city as the backdrop rather
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than just being in a St but the security behind it like you could see like snipers on rooftops and stuff it's
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incredible I know I mean I'm sure they had it covered but yeah it was crossing
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my mind so um so the competition starts so how many how many races do you have before the the final we had two before
00:19:47
final okay so the first heat what happens you oh good I can't remember we what do you mean what do you
00:19:55
what do you are you kidding it's your Olympic campaign we won our heat we did we won
00:20:04
our heat and we won our semi-final I remember being probably the most nervous of the semi-final because I think that's
00:20:09
a race that you can get caught out in if you're you know too busy thinking about
00:20:13
the next race and actually quite of the semi-finals are the hardest race and we um yeah had a really great race and won
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that but we got to watch the semi-final behind us and Pros that had you know just won at the World Cups and had been
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on the Podium at the World Champ 4 missed out on the a final and that was a really a moment that probably shook us a
00:20:35
little bit to be like [ __ ] like just made this a final and these Crews that have just won the World Cup and have um
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know one last year that we've been chasing aren't in that final and it was
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a really like moment that we probably took a second to look at each other and be like we could do this wow quite a
00:20:55
gooseb moment yeah so so in the final where you won these gold medals um yeah it's 2,000
00:21:01
M race you did 6 minutes 50 seconds what was it in the the Heats similar time faster slow we actually went faster in
00:21:08
the semifinal um yeah the the timings are almost irrelevant I think are they why
00:21:14
why so well you don't really compare from day to day just because the conditions are so variable everyone's
00:21:20
hanging out for a day with a Bast tail one so that you can't have a crack at
00:21:23
the world record what is the world record7 oh [ __ ] far off that right yeah but Paris was quite a windy course there
00:21:32
was quite a bit of wind all over the place before our race um Emma twiger raced to semi-final and um you can see
00:21:38
the flags blown down the course it was this really nice Tower and I remember her coming up and being like girls great
00:21:42
water out there and then by the time we hopped on the flags were just mulling around no this is um this is fascinating
00:21:49
to mey there's so many nuances to your your sport that I I had no idea about I
00:21:53
actually um yeah there's a quote here from um you Lucy um and it's a paragraph
00:21:58
which I've never read before in my life and I've got no idea what it means
00:22:01
really I've come back into the skulling side after sweeping I knew coming back
00:22:06
from pregnancy it was always going to be a better decision for me to row on a single and manage my own training which
00:22:11
is why I scaled during my pregnancy as well I don't know what any of that me
00:22:16
what is that it's like a different language sorry okay so in Tokyo I was in the
00:22:23
woman's a which is sweet rowing which means I have one or so I go out one side
00:22:28
of the the boat four of us go out one side and the other four go out one way so I guess I was specializing in the
00:22:33
sweep rowing for um the previous four years but the thing about the sweet growing is that you can't do it alone
00:22:40
because if you do it alone then you fall out because you always need someone out
00:22:43
the other side so knowing that I was coming back from pregnancy um I had nobody to row with so I thought well
00:22:52
rowing in the single is going to be my best return to training and in the single is the two ORS which is what we
00:22:57
do in the double right thanks for yeah you broke that down for me like I'm an idiot and I appreciate it
00:23:02
because I am I had no idea what that meant okay so um so the final comes and then do you guys have like a pre-race
00:23:09
like routine or superstitions or anything like that what does what does that what does that day look like I do
00:23:14
remember the final should yeah that's the one yeah does this bring back any memories yes I
00:23:21
do remember the final yeah so what time what time of the day is the race uh it's
00:23:24
in the morning 11:00 I say was 11:18 but she would know girl actually Lucy you to
00:23:31
this that speak to book about this yeah so so do you you sleep all right the night before we amazing um we we sleep
00:23:41
great for three weeks because we were in the M oh yeah with the kids there or no the kids
00:23:46
were in Paris but um and we'd been away with um our kids and both of us had our
00:23:51
parents there for six weeks yeah prior of that we'd been Inns um with the kids
00:23:56
coming home from training you know looking after them and doing all that kind of thing and for the 10 days
00:24:00
leading into our final we got to go into the the Mana and we were calling it our
00:24:05
Olympic Retreat we we're there eating Buffet meals and getting full night sleep yeah it's there's little things
00:24:11
like that that you don't even think about like a lot of a lot of people have
00:24:14
probably there and they're highly strung and they're uptight but for you guys
00:24:17
it's a it's a holiday yeah I was like my be made a lot of people are sick of
00:24:22
living in hotels because that's what you normally do for few months leading into
00:24:25
the Olympics but yeah we were Liv yeah yeah so so you sleep well you you sit an alarm or you wake up
00:24:32
naturally an alarm yeah we um have a routine that we do before every race which would be to get up and to do a PR
00:24:41
R so but rather than going down to the lake and using all that time we would just do a little um 4K pedal on the for
00:24:47
our race which is just a nice time to you know reset and start thinking about the race Yeah we actually did it beside
00:24:53
each other and we kind of talked through what would be I guess the ideal scenario
00:24:59
not not for how the race would play out in terms of the other boats but how we would be feeling in terms of executing
00:25:05
our own race plan and that's sort of what you do um leading into um any finals that you have your own specific
00:25:12
race plan and in the previous days leading into the final I almost craved us um rowing down the course and just
00:25:20
running through it in our minds because um we know it so well by that point that
00:25:25
it's kind of has got to the point where all Brooke needs to say is yep yep it's
00:25:30
certain markers and I know exactly what she means and I know exactly how I'm
00:25:33
going to be feeling and for me it becomes like a real safety net to be able to run down the course and run
00:25:39
through there and just like visualize um it was just the place that I wanted to be in you know when you're so nervous um
00:25:45
it it was it was nice to sit there together and just know that we're feeling the same and that's what we feel
00:25:53
like doing I guess for our preow is sitting on the UR together and running it through yeah by the way I love how
00:25:58
you said we just do like a a like 4K warmup like I think most people canet visualize like a rowing machine at the
00:26:04
gym and 4ks is a long way I suppose not for you guys like no we're pretty happy when it gets down to
00:26:10
me a 4K we get to do that we get to do 4K probably twice a year and it's the day
00:26:16
before the Olympic final and the day before that well what's an intense training session like generally training
00:26:22
sessions um in the Balan season are like two hour sessions and they're really um
00:26:27
specialized to being in like the correct heart rate zones and every session sort
00:26:30
of has a purpose some might be that you're just long steady state of trying to hit your heart rate right in your
00:26:35
Zone others are threshold sessions for your G um so that mid race pace and getting your heart rate into those zones
00:26:42
and then we do the max sessions I talked about with the last six weeks trying to
00:26:46
dial it up and trying to get more and more out of your ma oh my God honestly I think it's very
00:26:52
similar to what you're doing with your running training don't by the way this
00:26:55
is very very flattering but um you don't don't let me into your professional
00:26:59
athlete chat run go to the brook writes the run sheet for the day of our race all right
00:27:07
what do you mean well that's just how the day is going to go on the final so
00:27:10
we have a shared note on our iPhone and um the day of the final all I need to do
00:27:15
is Click into it because Brooke has written exactly where I need to be at exactly what time amazing how how did
00:27:22
you fall into these roles it would naturally not be my strength which is yeah I would say I like the organization
00:27:31
side of things and it's something that we like flick to our coach as well so
00:27:34
know be but um it's very rinse and repeat it's you do the same thing for
00:27:39
every single race so all I'm doing when i'm running run sheet is um scribbling
00:27:43
out the times and putting the new times in which are things like um our race time that I put we're going to be on the
00:27:48
water 30 minutes before that um we're going to be on hour before that and then
00:27:53
we're going to eat 3 hours before and that's actually a nice way to fill in
00:27:56
the day because um you can get CAU woring about the race what's going to happen but actually like what do we
00:28:01
going to do next what's what's right in front of us that we need to do and Lucy
00:28:05
if you're running late or something does um does she get mad well I don't run
00:28:09
late because I hit the Run cheat yeah I feir touche um okay so yes so you're training in the morning of the
00:28:17
final um then you just leisurely trip to what do you eat what do you eat there eat that morning I would have had peanut
00:28:24
butter on right I had to just like some CBS yeah and honestly I remember sitting
00:28:30
there in the dining hall together and it's a weird thing right because um right the way through the campaign you
00:28:35
sit there with the whole team you know everybody has breakfast at the same time and then suddenly it's just two of you
00:28:40
sitting there before your race it's dead quiet and you know you're heading
00:28:44
into your final and you got to go in the van down together like it's it's all
00:28:49
very it's quiet and and are you um are you excited are you petrified what's
00:28:55
going through your mind I wouldn't say I was Petri I was definitely um I felt
00:29:00
like it was I felt like I was ready I felt like it was the day to see what could
00:29:05
happen and you you hoped for gold but yeah so when you made it to that final like where were you expected to
00:29:11
finish do you think well to be honest I'm not sure I hadn't really given a
00:29:15
thought to where other people expected we should finish but um I think sitting warming up and sitting in the start
00:29:23
blocks um I just respected everybody else in that race so much that um I never felt like I never felt like
00:29:31
winning was going to be easy I never felt like um we were likely to win I felt like I could win um but I also felt
00:29:39
like we'd put ourselves in a position where um if we were going to win it could be
00:29:45
today was like hearing that like makes my heart heart go really like L reliving it or yeah so you're like back on the
00:29:54
water now yeah she's going to go out for a nervous po oh my god do you have nervous
00:30:01
I we all have nervous pose it's quite yeah jeez for a pre-run event like you
00:30:07
go to the portal and then go straight back in the line again for another one but I suppose you yeah you have to time
00:30:11
your nervous po because once you're on the water or near the water we've got a
00:30:15
five minute buffer in our run ch um and Brooke how are you feeling did you feel like you were going to
00:30:22
win not necessarily I think um it was a race and like we've spoken about we had
00:30:28
such a plan and like we knew exactly how we wanted to execute that I was genuinely just thinking about what we
00:30:33
needed to do to execute um I remember being so nervous sitting in the start blocks and the only thing that I could
00:30:39
think of that was like helping me was that I had to like and it's true like I
00:30:43
was excited to get to push to get to use my legs cuz sitting there and you're so
00:30:47
so jittery that I was just like okay I just can't wait for the buzzer to go off
00:30:51
so I can just push my legs as hard as I can and like actually get to feel and um
00:30:55
get to come into the race m I also had the sense of um I think when I sat in the start line in Tokyo I had um more of
00:31:04
an expectation on myself for a sense or I definitely had a sense of this needs this needs to go well um whereas and I
00:31:14
this might be the effect of having children this might be my perspective because of ret but I think I had more of
00:31:21
a um you truly have have done what you can here without having to comp compromise with him so whatever will be
00:31:30
today will have to be because you've given what you can which felt like a peaceful place for
00:31:36
me to to sit in yeah that's awesome that's so cool and so so the the waiting
00:31:42
but when you're waiting for the the final to start are you guys um like chatting and laughing and yeah having
00:31:47
banter with each other or do do you process things differently or no we're generally pretty
00:31:53
lighthearted if we have a reason to laugh or something to laugh about we like a nervous po
00:31:59
you but um I just remember sitting in that start box we had the French um in our final and the French is such a rowdy
00:32:07
crowd and it goes through each crew and sort of announces each crew one by one and when they you know when they said
00:32:13
the French um they were in one of the early lanes and the crowd that are 2K away just went crazy like you can hear
00:32:20
it from sitting in the start blocks wow oh my God that is so awesome it was cool it was okay so then then then the
00:32:28
race starts oh by the way um Lucy you mentioned before like on the water you don't really talk but you know Brook
00:32:34
says Y and you know what it means yeah by the time um by the time we're racing
00:32:39
I mean we're talking heaps when we're warming up and stuff but by the time
00:32:42
we're coming down the track because your heart rate so high because you're just
00:32:45
tapped right into your top end um I can't she can't get out more than basically yeah basically sitting in B
00:32:53
seat um it's easier for me to talk cuz turn around to speak so I end up um running through most of the race plan as
00:33:01
we spoke about like things we doing the WM up and things we do on the day before
00:33:04
is that will come down the course and I will like talk the whole like the whole 2K about what our race is going to be
00:33:10
like so I might be like yeah first te we're going to really squeeze on our legs second te we're going to Ln it out
00:33:14
a bit and even to the point where we're coming into the last 500 just a train
00:33:18
like I would have been like okay here comes the grand stand like feel that Clos in on us like I'll be talking about
00:33:22
the noise that we're going to hear and I'll be talking about how we're going to
00:33:25
do here and it's so like it's actually quite specific that by the time we do
00:33:29
race I've gone over that so many times that like just these yeps we have visualized this moment so many times
00:33:35
that we know exactly what the other person is about to do and what we expect of each other what does that mean though
00:33:42
does it mean like um increasing the stroke rate or so yeah there's times that that that's what the Yip for
00:33:48
mean what if you get the Yip wrong there's a bit of tone in it as well okay well you guys are in tune with each
00:33:58
other I think by the final we are yeah it was quite incredible to actually feel that and to be able to do it because I
00:34:05
think I almost um overdo the talking because I'm so worried I'm going to
00:34:08
forget or miss something but honestly by the time we do it it's that in sync that
00:34:14
yeah we we understand and we've told this story probably a few times now but
00:34:19
we talked a lot about the Romanians are really great at sprinting over the last um last 500 meters basically they're
00:34:27
known for being able to get their stroke rate up really high and just go for it and um we had in our minds that they
00:34:33
they were potentially going to be absolutely lethal there and we didn't want to be in a position where we were
00:34:37
right beside them because we knew that that could happen and if it did what were we going to do and all we could
00:34:43
think about and all we kept coming back to was Joe and Nathan in their London final in the men's double and how they
00:34:49
were just still storming from behind and just coming through and the speed that they had on their boat in the last 500
00:34:56
we were like if we're in that position it needs to be Punchy short like we're
00:35:00
going to have to Chuck in some really big ones and um lo and behold we were in the position where we were right beside
00:35:07
the Romanians and um we were kind of in a position where we were like covering them but just like only very really just
00:35:14
and I think I had going through my mind the whole time they're going to come
00:35:17
they're going to come they're going to come at us and um in training when we
00:35:21
were practicing the race plan Brooke had always said and if we need to at 100 met
00:35:25
like when I say go like we know what that means that's just like the last the yourself yeah um and instead of
00:35:35
go I think she said Joe which was just so funny because it was so relevant to exactly you know the
00:35:44
way we were thinking about it amazing yeah I've heard you um or read about it
00:35:50
in other interviews where you talk about how with 500 met to go you were think about Joe and Nathan by the way those
00:35:54
guys same event right and they won a golden 12 2012 and where was that London London yeah and I I was curious like how
00:36:03
you how you were both thinking about them at the same time but is it because of the VIS visualization and stuff that
00:36:08
you talked about previously yeah and that race is just so iconic for um to watch as rowers the way they did that
00:36:14
people don't often do it like that so I think it's just um really embedded in my
00:36:19
mind for you know such a such an outstanding race of what's capable and a short amount of distance yeah so so your
00:36:28
event you're your backs to the Finish Line eh yeah so you're rowing so when
00:36:33
you're in the lead position you you know you're in the lead are you sort looking are you s
00:36:37
looking around in your peripheral vision or I tend to take a couple more looks um
00:36:41
earlier in the race to try and let Lucy know where we are but coming into the line like I'm not really looking out
00:36:46
because of the risk of you know catching a bad stroke um the whole time we probably didn't we watched the race back
00:36:54
we didn't actually realize how close it was and we knew that we were right there
00:36:57
with Romania but I had no clue really if our Bell was in front I was hoping that
00:37:01
my shoulders were just in front of the girl next to us but we had no clue until we crossed the finish line and I think
00:37:08
we were so in the moment of our race that you know going from the 500 every every 10 Strokes we were giving it more
00:37:13
giving it more giving it more to the point where I knew that you know if we cross the finish line and if it had have
00:37:18
been silver or bronze that I would like to think that I would been happy I knew that that was that was my best on the
00:37:25
day so when when did you realize you were going to get a middle though or or you didn't I I genely didn't think about
00:37:31
winning a midle I can I can say Honestly though and um Tokyo the race was a bit different the field was way more spread
00:37:38
Romania had a really good lead and we probably weren't going to catch them and
00:37:42
I remember thinking myself wow we get mid race like pretty cool and we almost got bronze and then like this race it
00:37:50
didn't even cross my mind it was um just about being so I think it's quite a
00:37:54
special thing that's how it happened that's how it played out so in the zone
00:37:57
that um I was just thinking about you giving my all those last every so when when do you
00:38:03
realize I think I knew like your peripheral vision I I had a sense that we were up you know like I I wasn't
00:38:11
looking sideways I was looking only down my own track but I I think I knew and I
00:38:16
think I knew it was it was close but I didn't realize quite how close yeah cuz
00:38:20
you how many times have you guys watched the race only twice really why it took about a week for me to watch it as well
00:38:28
how come I think it just like brings back literally like all the emotions that you just felt and like I I cried
00:38:35
the first time I watched the race me like wow like at what point like through the race or just at the end I was
00:38:44
probably but I can watch I can watch I could watch any of our team Race the Olympic Final on TV now and I could cry
00:38:50
probably you know like just the sense of emotion and what everyone's gone through
00:38:54
to be and you know I could watch any one of those finals and probably still cry but I am looking forward to watching it
00:38:59
with our coach to be honest which we might do this weekend when when you guys watch it do
00:39:05
you do you see flaws 100% really I have the worst rowing technique and I watch do you what
00:39:13
I'm so embarrassed at how I wrot good I'm there breaking my arms any rolls this thing will understand but I
00:39:23
think um you know that's oh it's effective we use we use quite a lot of video um
00:39:30
analysis like we're used to watching ourselves and I think every time we get
00:39:34
video which when we're in training is probably on a weekly basis the first thing you do is look at yourself and
00:39:39
think oh yeah because straight away you see what could be better and you know you've got a picture in your head of
00:39:44
what's perfect and um it's hard to get what's perfect at really high rate when
00:39:51
you're absolutely spin so naturally the first thing you do is see your flaws and
00:39:54
think H yuck I think row SP though where you're always chasing Perfection like
00:39:59
there would be no rower that would tell you that that they're a perfect row and
00:40:04
I think that's what keeps us um hungry to keep coming back is that you're every
00:40:08
day like looking at those things was better and it's quite humbling yeah that
00:40:14
really is oh it's a great race to watch um yeah there's that the horn that goes
00:40:19
off when you cross the line so it's like um horn for you guys a fraction of a
00:40:24
second later another one for Romania and then maybe a couple of seconds for third
00:40:28
so you you do you hear like friends and family in the stand um or do you see it on the screen that you've won what's
00:40:35
yeah it's kind of funny we probably um obviously you're a little bit exhausted
00:40:38
so you're sitting there and yeah by the way you guys looked um you looked you
00:40:41
looked absolutely [ __ ] at the end honestly was I yeah there's a way screen
00:40:47
that pops up and um The Spectators can't see it but we can see it and see like
00:40:51
one remain a second like that's that moment have been like and then about 2 seconds later at the end of the Ponto
00:40:57
where um push off from it's this big like and it's our coach and I've never
00:41:02
seen him get that far off the ground he's he's standing at the end of the
00:41:06
Ponto giving us this B wow and like we're both like Jo up D him we're completely spin in it um yeah was just
00:41:15
crazy it must be yeah I mean it's a feeling that um just such a Slither of the population will'll ever get to
00:41:22
experience like it's it's phenomenal just that feeling of exhaustion but also just like um yeah
00:41:29
it's exhaustion mixed with Elation which yeah you're right I'm not sure I'll ever
00:41:34
I don't know if I'll ever feel that again yeah well giving birth yeah what
00:41:40
better I think legally you have to say child birth but oh not mine yeah so so then what happens you
00:41:48
you have to roll your way to the yeah so the next hour was actually awesome because
00:41:55
um um we we go through this media shirt you you get off the water go through this media shirt and then basically you
00:42:01
roll straight into your um Podium ceremony which they give you about two minutes to get put that track suit on
00:42:07
and they're literally counting you down from two minutes so you're this hot
00:42:10
sweaty mess quickly trying to zip up this track suit because it's all to such
00:42:14
tight timing because we finished our um midal ceremony which basically I felt like I sobbed my whole way through and
00:42:22
then it's great to watch it's wonderful you you guys just look so are happy which obviously you are you
00:42:29
know yeah I it was just so um it just felt like oh you stand there and all the emotion just comes together at once
00:42:37
that's what it felt like for me you can see your family in the crowd and yeah
00:42:42
yeah what do you what are you thinking when the the anthems play or you just exhausted oh I think I was still just on
00:42:48
that level of elation and just feeling yeah so grateful and so probably still a little bit in shock yeah it's crazy cuz
00:42:57
not a moment that you particularly prepare yourself for and then to be standing there very long so you a lot of
00:43:03
time to like sit well to standing there be processing this goal that you've had
00:43:07
for 15 plus years you know you've actually done and for me I think I've watched
00:43:16
of all Tokyo and then to be like I'm standing here in that same spot that they stood
00:43:23
in is yeah just kept taking me by surprise and I think I like pull myself together on the podum do like then I'd
00:43:30
look over and see my family see car again be like and you probably can't hear obviously you can't hear it on the
00:43:36
TV but there is moments like through the Anem where one of us would do like to rewatch it the mic does the mic
00:43:45
pick it up no the mic doesn't pick it up there one saying you can't hear it like
00:43:49
obviously we can hear each other for the odd wi oh oh my God what a thing to experience honestly the the ultimate
00:43:55
feeling is happy so that lot as a lot was going through your head but then it just got better because we sort of left
00:44:00
the podium and then our men's four came down and then it felt like was it men's
00:44:05
four first or woman's woman's four sister yeah oh yeah your sister Phoebe
00:44:09
got a bronze yeah so like I left the left the podium or maybe it was just before the podium I can't even remember
00:44:14
it was such a it was such a crazy hour but you know we're standing right there
00:44:18
Then screaming for our teammates and again what was like a super close finish so and then we had the men's four do
00:44:25
exactly the you know the same thing and close finish so it just the whole hour was yeah unbeatable for me yeah so yeah
00:44:34
and incredible for New Zealand as well which is amazing you your sister you got a bronze that's right you guys are like
00:44:39
the the barretts of rowing who any other siblings that row yeah so I actually Phoebe has a twin um
00:44:49
and she used to row too um but she now um lives in the states yeah doesn't row
00:44:56
anymore and the woman's four um there were two sisters Carrie and Jackie as well and I was joking to De the other
00:45:03
girl on the that we need got we sister B going on yeah yeah yeah um and then so the gold medal
00:45:10
ceremony then um you pulled away for like drug testing or anything like that basically um we had this quite sweet
00:45:17
moment though leaving the um ponon all our family were like standing um at the front and we were quickly be in ushered
00:45:24
because you have to move your boats cuz the next races are coming down and we got this moment and we could see our
00:45:28
kids and we hadn't seen them for a few days cuz we've been and we said to this woman like
00:45:34
that's how kids can we go see them and she basically was like wanted to say no
00:45:38
because at the time it was so strict she basically covered her eyes and was like
00:45:41
just go and then we I think she even said didn't she say she was like I'm a
00:45:45
mom go oh oh that's incredible so there photos that people might have seen where
00:45:49
we have this Qui little cudle with our kids which game was really special I'm
00:45:54
so glad we got that moment with them because the rest of the day was just Carnage going through um media and Drug
00:45:59
Testing we didn't see our coach even for a couple of hours and then and we never
00:46:03
saw the kids again that day no um but then you know the other side is is that we got to celebrate with the mental got
00:46:12
to go to the m that night and all oh it's so special and and yeah your kids um ruper and Kira so they're similar age
00:46:20
both toddlers what like 18 months old what they ret is 20 months old just yeah so they they don't really have an
00:46:29
appreciation of of what's going on what's their what's their take on it oh
00:46:34
yeah know but at the time at the games um I don't think either of them had um a
00:46:41
sense for what was going on other than the fact that they were in the stands and super hot weather being fed ice
00:46:47
blocks they not a CL when everyone ask so it's just Mommy's going to work sort
00:46:51
of thing yeah what Kira says mommy work Mommy work again oh God does that make you feel terrible
00:46:59
no oh that's so awesome they're sort of at an age now where they've actually um
00:47:04
by default spent so much time together and you know they've grown up in a way
00:47:09
together you know like I remember them at um our first world Champs when rer was um eight months and you know Kira
00:47:17
was nearly one and it's really nice now to see them at an age where us starting
00:47:23
to um get an appreciation for each other you know like at the age now where they
00:47:27
really know each other and you know they walk into a room and they want to give each other a hug which ends up being a
00:47:33
big shove and then there might be tears but you know they they they start to know like they definitely have um a
00:47:39
close relationship which to me is I feel it's really special that we've been able
00:47:45
to give them that in a way yeah it's it's so unique and so special it's all
00:47:51
yeah and the way that we've been on tour you know with our whole families it it
00:47:55
is unique and I I can't think of another way that it would have happened that we
00:47:58
would have lived in airbnbs next door to each other with our kids and our parents
00:48:04
for four weeks like it it is unique and it has been special what now you keep going or you
00:48:09
done good question is is this a question that you answer you can answer collectively or is this like an
00:48:16
individual thing well I think at the moment um yeah and again I don't want to
00:48:20
answer the Brooke but I think we're both sitting in a place where um we can't
00:48:23
give you a 100% yay or nay you know I I I want to be comfortable sitting with um
00:48:30
feeling like I don't have to decide yet but I definitely um I I definitely am
00:48:36
feeling an an urge to go back and do it all again and I don't know if that's the
00:48:41
endorphins of what it's been and yeah I can't I can't give you a definite but I
00:48:48
do feel still really positive about this Sport and what it's giving me and my the
00:48:54
the way it's going yeah what about you bro oh yeah that's the same for me
00:49:00
um I guess you know going forward four years is a long time and you know I would love for Cara to have a sibling so
00:49:07
you know if if that could happen down the track and if I could still make it back in a boat um you know that would be
00:49:12
amazing but also I you know get to the stage where it's something I don't want
00:49:16
to do I'm not going for myself so it's really like just sitting with and seeing
00:49:20
what feels right yeah and you you both must have the the confidence now that you can you can do if you want to have
00:49:25
another kid have another kid yeah you can come back doing it with two kids great by with
00:49:34
one do all right um let's okay let's talk about some of the training um and
00:49:40
bits and pieces that go with training and being a a new mom that led up to that gold medal moment so first of all
00:49:45
obvious sacrifices yeah I sometimes I'm I'm hesitant to call it um sacrifice um even
00:49:53
though I guess it was but to me sometimes the word sacrifice makes it sound as if it's something that doesn't
00:50:00
feel right or you know you don't want to be doing and at the end of the day we
00:50:04
completely chose this for ourselves and not only did we choose it once but like we chose it every day because we both
00:50:11
said at the start that in no way would we compromise the kids that was just we weren't going to do it so um we wrote
00:50:18
down basically two goals and we said we want to win Olympic gold medals but we want to be the best Ms that we can be
00:50:23
and we felt that um one could not work without the other because at the end of the day if it wasn't working out if it
00:50:30
wasn't balanced we would have just walked away from the rowing so I'm always hesitant to call it um sacrifice
00:50:36
because the word feels wrong to me because you know I was so grateful to be in a position that we were choosing this
00:50:42
every day and choosing how to make it work but in saying that it was a Juggle and the sacrifice to use a word was
00:50:51
probably the time like the balance of um how do you give your best to two things
00:50:58
that are so important and two things that you know in my mind the rowing had always required the 1centers and part of
00:51:04
that was going back to okay well if if you can't always give the 1% is what is
00:51:09
the big rocks here that we absolutely need to nail and we did have to make a few compromises on the way that um we we
00:51:18
I guess in our previous Olympic campaign had thought that was the only way to do
00:51:23
it like we did have to change that up a bit and I think the strength and changing that up was that we then had
00:51:29
each other to be able to be like yeah no I'm comfortable with this this is working like we could see the gain yeah
00:51:34
and our coach was amazing in that um you know he's done things one way and you know that's what has always worked
00:51:42
and there were a few things that we had to um you know work them on be okay like
00:51:46
this just isn't working for us and at any point we had those sort of teething
00:51:50
moments where um you know things weren't working he was great just to sit down
00:51:54
and chat with him um he would understand and where we were coming from and just even making small tweaks to make our
00:52:00
days slightly easier it made all the difference like what well I was that reminded me of like we did have a time
00:52:07
where um Brooke was actually injured broe you had a broken she had a broken rib and um we were basically suffering
00:52:16
through some pretty big weeks and it was that time in the year where you have to
00:52:19
get through the big weeks and we sort of had fallen into because we were handling
00:52:23
the training at that point in the year and we were getting better I guess our coach was only lumping on
00:52:29
more work more work because we were handling it and Brooke was doing massive hours on the bike and um we got to a
00:52:35
point where um we started adding in the three session a day thing which is quite
00:52:40
um you know R New Zealand does that all the time often we have two days that are
00:52:45
three sessions a day and it just got to a point where like we went out for a coffee with them and I remember I just
00:52:51
started crying and I was like if this is it if this is what I have to do like I won't make it m um but very quickly like
00:52:59
we adapted and and it wasn't it wasn't because I wasn't handling the training
00:53:02
but I I had got to a place where I felt like I couldn't be a mom and I was feeling guilty about that like I felt
00:53:08
like I couldn't um go home and even function you know the way I needed to and I was canceling every single
00:53:14
appointment that I had outside of just training just to survive and that's not
00:53:19
really sustainable either yeah it almost becomes um like slightly selfish at that
00:53:23
point doesn't it I suppose like if you're if you're a young raw like and
00:53:26
your late T early 20s and you're doing that you can just go home and eat and sleep
00:53:30
and repeat coaches look at like how your um you know pulling up each day like they might see at the end of a training
00:53:37
session oh she looks cracked like she's crying you know this week probably has
00:53:41
been too big and we're all nothing experienced enough they like we could do the training we could get through the
00:53:45
work but what our you know coach and other people could see is that we would be at home absolutely cracked lying on
00:53:51
the floor like just managing to just managing to get by and so having look after the kids so whereas other people
00:53:57
can go home and lie bed and watch Netflix like you're still getting out off your seat 10 times because you could
00:54:01
KN something again you're going to do because you're a m but that's the side
00:54:05
of things that the coach and team can't necessarily see so we need to have those
00:54:10
like open conversations to be like okay don't think we can do this even though
00:54:15
you know you might be sacrificing result at the end it's not worth it to not be
00:54:19
able to be a great month that we set out to be yeah 100% what about um uh like energy levels and sleeping patterns and
00:54:26
things like that like your sleeping pant must have been all over the place right
00:54:30
they were compromised yeah and we'd be lying to say that our energy levels and
00:54:33
sleep patterns were of a good standard because for most of it they just weren't and we just um
00:54:41
got good at functioning in that space and it was a really safe space to be able to show up and know that Brook
00:54:49
potentially had a [ __ ] night turn and sometimes we wouldn't talk about it until like um we often have really of
00:54:56
sessions on Wednesday and Saturday mornings and sometimes um at the session you know I remember one in particular
00:55:04
was like hugely Gilly and we'd wait until we'd finished it on those days and
00:55:08
then we'd be like how did you sleep last night oh my God it's like a conscious
00:55:13
thing or or what why I think you don't want to admit it before the session because you're like like Mak an excuse
00:55:19
yeah yeah you're like I know like I'm pretty sure I'm going to finish the
00:55:22
session we'll get through it and then I'll admit that I've only had 4 hours
00:55:26
Broast sleeping and sometimes the way for me to deal with it would be like okay I had the worst night but like she
00:55:31
might be all good so like we'll get through this we'll get through this so
00:55:35
if she get a bad night too I definitely don't want to know about it before it
00:55:38
starts and what about like home Dynamics and stuff like Could you um why don't
00:55:43
you guys like sleep in separate rooms and have your partners sleep in the room with the baby or something that just was
00:55:48
not the case I know other athletes but um yeah my I think there's no Badges of Honor for
00:55:58
not sleeping but she hasn't been the best sleeper and I've been you know the
00:56:00
one getting up to her most of the time my husband works red we live in Cambridge he commes hour so like you
00:56:06
know we're also also don't want him sleep deprived and think a mom you're
00:56:11
person that hear the the noise first and again that's a part of motherhood that I
00:56:16
actually I want to do it it's it's quite can be equally special and annoying
00:56:22
having those moments in the night um with your kid and that's something that
00:56:25
I wasn't will to sacrifice wow that's inspirational that's really cool jeez um she's going
00:56:33
to hear this one day and know how lucky she is I'm sure actually she was and when she hear
00:56:38
she should and what about um navigating like breastfeeding and and stuff like that
00:56:43
did you you you have like nannies at home or did you take um were the babies you know at the the gym or the lake and
00:56:51
yeah early on we had them at the lake um quite a lot because um like I can remember breastfeeding
00:56:59
before a weight session and then our strength and conditioning coach um I I would bring down the front peack and
00:57:06
there was a couple of times where she would walk home to sleep after I'd breastfeed um and then I started um I
00:57:13
guess both of our Journeys were different because everyone you know everyone is different in that regard but
00:57:19
um then I started expressing got them onto a bottle and then I switched to sort of a mixture of breastfeeding and
00:57:26
formula fed and yeah amazing I think I eight months old there's another guy and there was
00:57:35
like sorry I'm just pumping like we put my milk in the fridge please don't drink
00:57:39
that after training this protein shake tastes really really funny quite a sweet is a sweet apparently is sweet I
00:57:48
don't know for the coffee it up yeah they don't know um what about um oh of
00:57:56
conversations you had lots of conversations about like I don't know nappy rash
00:58:01
and yeah everything and even thinking about one of our very first World Cups that we went to that was actually the
00:58:09
way that I weaned rer off breastfeeding because it was he was only four or five months old and I I didn't take him and
00:58:15
we only went for 10 days and um that was how I just sort of said okay that's
00:58:19
going to be done which in hindsight I've heard other people talk about um when
00:58:24
they've weaned how terrible their bodies of foul and how it's been such an
00:58:27
adjustment for two weeks but I hadn't I obviously hadn't read anything and I
00:58:31
just stopped and maybe that wasn't the smartest maybe that's the reason our
00:58:35
world cup wasn't good oh what happened at the World Cup it was like a year earlier eh that was our very very first
00:58:42
World Cup so that was our freshest um intern International race and that it wasn't good but part of it for us was
00:58:52
just we had just come back and we had to rip the bandid off somehow we had to get
00:58:56
out there you to throw a line sand I think we could have easily and even coming back into like the r New Zeal
00:59:02
program you could easily hide yourself away and like wait for a moment when you're going to feel good and where it's
00:59:06
all going to feel perfect but you know that was never going to be the case and we just wanted to get out there and just
00:59:11
genuinely see where we at and we weren't expecting amazing things but it's still
00:59:16
um you know when we'd come off these amazing Tokyo campaigns where we you know had one at these World Cups going
00:59:22
to be third in the B final getting beat by Cru that you know you've been before
00:59:27
you know just highlighted how much starting right back at the bottom how much work here today it's daunting it
00:59:34
was daunting yeah and it felt it did feel tough to show up but at the same time What tough is and like kind of
00:59:41
embarrassing cuz you went I felt that but at the same time I was trying to be like no I'm really damn proud of myself
00:59:47
because yeah I've got a tiny baby and I'm here on the international circuit
00:59:51
and we'd have other women from different countries come up to us and be like it's
00:59:55
so amazing that you're here here and then i' be you know thank you and I need
00:59:59
to be proud of myself for that but at the same time your athlete brain is like okay what do I need to do what do I need
01:00:04
to go home and do yeah your um respective and a voice is mostly good I'm thinking um yeah I had Dame Lisa on
01:00:12
the podcast and she talked about you know how she gets really down on herself at the end of like a tough training week
01:00:17
like you know has the self-doubt and is she good enough is she doing enough um you I'm guessing you guys just had that
01:00:23
all the [ __ ] time like sleep deprivation and training hard yeah I think one of the um special things about
01:00:30
having kids is you know my um South talk and you know doubt might have gone on longer in the day but generally now I
01:00:37
get home and it's just like straight into okay I've got to change na make a
01:00:41
lunch box sleep at one and you I generally would just switch on straight on and off from training which as we
01:00:47
spoke about is means you can do both really well um you my time at rowing I really respected
01:00:54
and valued and you when I was there I was just 100% of bodye and likewise when I got home Cara was getting 100% of
01:00:59
bodye so there was almost less time for the South talk of like worrying about R woring about training worrying about the
01:01:05
one perent because I had a job to at home and job yeah what about you Lo yeah I would say the same thing and I think
01:01:13
that's where probably I I needed a partner and I needed someone to that's
01:01:17
probably where the many small steps in the right direction came from because there was a such a long time where we
01:01:23
were sitting in a place where we're like okay we're not happy with this performance- wise but you know in those
01:01:28
times it was about focusing on where's the Improvement going to come from and
01:01:33
where can we get more and as long as I was seeing like really small Improvement then I was okay with it yeah I suppose
01:01:38
you got to be so selfless as as a mom to a newborn you you just can't have the
01:01:42
luxury of getting in your own head right it was quite a mental shift um for me I
01:01:47
think you know going from athlete who you know you never stop a session short you do it um as best you can to then
01:01:56
having this little person who needs you that if you're mid session in the cry
01:01:59
that you have to stop and you have to get them and it's it's quite it doesn't
01:02:02
sound like much but it genely is quite a mental shift to to be okay with like stopping mid session to do that yeah
01:02:10
I've got a very clear picture over the last ha of what sort of person you are I
01:02:16
think she's ferocious eh yeah um what about high performance sport were they
01:02:21
pretty good I I read or heard somewhere that they they paid for you to see pelvic floor specialist or
01:02:26
something so yeah same with ro New Zealand this whole exercise I guess um we couldn't tell them how it was going
01:02:33
to go you know it was like we need support if we're going to do this but we can't tell you how this is going
01:02:40
to pan out so um especially our relationship with Roy New Zealand was kind of we we needed to say when we
01:02:46
needed something because we were we were learning as we went and the first year we went on tour um you know we stayed in
01:02:52
airbnbs and um some things went well and some things didn't and then the next year it was
01:02:59
like okay this is going to be our Olympic campaign we need um airbnbs that are next to each other we need Vans we
01:03:05
need um the kids to have their own seat on the plane because there's no way he's
01:03:09
sitting on my knee for 17 hours you know just all all the little things that um we were working out that could get
01:03:16
overlooked like even as small as like a house of course God there's so much extra stuff to yeah
01:03:26
okay a Bath's not important if you're there for a couple of nights but if
01:03:28
you're going to live there for five weeks with a kid then a Bath's far easier than a
01:03:32
shower and again R was um you know great in listening to what we needed and yeah
01:03:39
we got what was the right thing for our campaign so cool that they believed in you there must have been times when you
01:03:46
weren't delivering the results and they were like oh what are we doing with these two I'm not sure potentially I
01:03:52
didn't ask then um oh worked out great in the end hey I I mentioned on Instagram that you guys were coming I've
01:03:58
got some um questions here I feel like um this first one's probably from like a
01:04:02
rowing person or a mom or both um a question for both of you guys would you rather give birth to twins or do four
01:04:11
times 2 km Max urg with 5 minute rest definitely the UR too really really which that is a
01:04:22
that is is that a hell session oh yeah that would 2 km Max with 5 minute rest is that a
01:04:29
that's a tough session yeah but yeah that's a really tough session but I'd
01:04:32
definitely rather do that um uh ask them about the financial side of being a high performance rower
01:04:39
yeah yeah do do you get paid all right in terms of funding from high performance sport yeah we get funding um
01:04:47
I think for me R isn't a financial decision I you're not doing it to be R
01:04:52
CH yeah there's there's not a money not not a lot of money left over by the time
01:04:55
you're paying for um daycare and all the extra so I definitely came into this
01:05:01
knowing that it was because I wanted to do it not because do you get like a a gold medal
01:05:07
bonus or anything I know some countries do that well the way it works is it's
01:05:11
called an Excellence Grant from high performance Sports so essentially our Excellence Grant now goes up because
01:05:16
we've gone from silver to gold right yeah fantastic and what is that I think
01:05:22
the difference between silver and gold is 10 grand right yeah awesome um did you suffer from Mom guilt and if so how
01:05:30
did you overcome those thoughts yes yes and I remember thinking that Mom guilt I
01:05:36
thought it was ridiculous before I had a kid um and I I did and it was very early on um
01:05:44
for me just small things like you have a newborn and you've got used to having it
01:05:48
attached to you the whole time and as I was coming back into training um which I
01:05:54
was getting out in a boat from probably 5 weeks five six weeks maybe and I remember thinking you know I had to
01:06:02
leave him and I'd leave him with either my partner or my mom completely safe you
01:06:06
know completely normal but because I was getting on the water and Rowing up a lake where I'm like I've got no cell
01:06:12
phone reception and you know things like that like if I'm needed I can't get home
01:06:16
quickly and can someone even contact me and you know and now I go training and I
01:06:22
don't even think about that but so early on it was such a it felt so selfish you
01:06:28
know doing things like that as an athlete it it felt really unnatural it felt like I was just prioritizing my
01:06:33
little Hobby and to leave him yeah it felt really unnatural but you know over time I've I've learned that that's
01:06:41
absolutely not how I feel now now I crave going training sometimes and it's my me time and I need it and I need it
01:06:47
to be better when I go home and to think about only myself for a couple of hours
01:06:52
is amazing and it refills my cup but um it it's taken me yeah all of his first
01:06:59
six months of life to start to grow into feeling that way what about you Brooke same sort of thing no exactly the same
01:07:06
yeah those initial weeks and months it almost feels like no one else could do you know as
01:07:12
good as Jobs looking after your kids as you can supp a maternal Instinct thing isn't it you're fighting against that
01:07:18
and you know asking yourself you is this worth it is it not but like L said um getting to have that time for me to do
01:07:24
something for myself generally made me a better mom if if you went to Paris and the
01:07:30
result had been different and say you made the final but you didn't you didn't
01:07:33
even get a medal um would it have still been worth it well that's a good question so you
01:07:39
did your best say say you even rode the the exact same time as he did in the final bit yeah I know I know that I'd be
01:07:44
disappointed I know that I'd be um yes sitting with disappointment but I I genuinely think that I would have said
01:07:51
I'd given that the best crack that I could have m I'd like to think that I um
01:07:57
would have been happy regardless of the result yeah felt like I couldn't have
01:08:01
done any more and was at the end of my tether so many times that it was all I could
01:08:07
do well thankfully it's so hypothetical cuz we've got the gold um how has the introduction of
01:08:14
coastal rowing changed how you see the sports future oh that's been exciting
01:08:19
actually so that's where we've just been in Italy um and we look at you guys did
01:08:23
the kids stay behind or they oh I [Music] took and BR left here and I 100% should
01:08:31
have left R but um mom came with me she was a legend she's like jet lagged as
01:08:37
ever and it was because the turnaround was really tight you know because we were only there for not that long
01:08:43
basically he didn't sleep the way over never got into sleeping and then we've come back
01:08:48
so anyway that's that's done now um but the coastal rowing thing is it's awesome
01:08:55
it's bigger boats essentially they're not the skinny skips that you see they're wider so they can go through
01:09:01
some serious Surf and the race is we did the long distance race which is a bit different um in more like big rolling
01:09:08
swell but the Sprint that's going to be in the um La Olympic Games is shorter
01:09:13
than your normal rowing race it's only 500 met so it's out through waves like a
01:09:17
bit of a sling through boys and then back they to Sprint up along the beach wow so it's great viewership yeah would
01:09:26
you guys be to potentially explore that for the LA games I mean I'll stay dipping my toes in like the coastal side
01:09:32
of like it's a it's awesome to be out on the ocean like there's something special
01:09:36
about you know going rowing in a coastal boat and being out at sea but I don't
01:09:39
think I'm I don't think I'll be doing the Sprint um someone asked on Instagram um
01:09:45
for Brook and Lucy what role do you each play in this partnership I feel like we've had a glimpse of this through the
01:09:50
past hour so Brooks you're the boss no she is in terms of like Brooke is like timely
01:09:58
organized um like if I I said to her the other day I in the last couple of weeks
01:10:04
um as we've like booked a few things into our calendar I said I've started to
01:10:08
get this real fear that one day she's going to message me saying where the hell are you and I'm going to have to
01:10:13
reply saying where the hell am I mean to be she's definitely the one on top of um
01:10:20
all that stuff and I think in this partnership she also was the one that had done it before you know know like
01:10:25
she had she had sat in this boat class in Tokyo and I had respected her so much through this that whole campaign like
01:10:33
she was a world champion in in this boat class and for me that was being able to
01:10:37
go to her constantly and you know sort of say well what do you think be really critical of that performance like where
01:10:43
do you think that's stacking up like what which bits are right here which bits uh yeah I think our um partnership
01:10:49
has been so special because you know of the like General um mutual respect that we have for each other like I look at to
01:10:55
Lucy and everything that she's doing and there's we're like always proud of each
01:11:00
other like there's no Lucy is the most competitive person I know but between us
01:11:05
there's no like competitiveness like we're generally like I'm genely happy
01:11:08
for everything she does and I feel that same um feeling back and I think what Lucy brings to the partnership is this
01:11:15
just yeah unwavering um competitors like the fact that she said if we finished that race and we hadn't won that she
01:11:21
would have been disappointed like that's that's brutal that's honest and that's
01:11:24
Lucy I love because I know if we're showing up to a race or to a spad piece that she's out there to win she's doing
01:11:30
everything I'm going to do my best to hang on behind her that's cool have
01:11:34
there ever been any sort of arguments or you know professional friction with each
01:11:38
other I can honestly say no it's it's been amazing but I think amazing yeah
01:11:43
yeah no they hasn't that's so what a special relationship and you you're linked by
01:11:48
this thing for life regardless of what happens from here on on it's such a cool
01:11:53
thing to experience together um any Grim or traumatic experiences as new mothers
01:11:58
that you remember well Brook it sounds like the birth was that yeah the the bir's kind
01:12:07
of um been funny though we've been on multiple bike rides we go for two to three hours and had a lot of time to
01:12:15
debrief these sort of things together so I'm feel a bit more confident now about
01:12:19
if I get to go through again because of the time we had to to debrief that um someone no you think no no no um how how
01:12:32
awesome are Long Hall flights with toddlers it's so bad you fly business or oh my God we don't oh but you get the
01:12:42
um the front row with the baby no because our babies are too big we we had that when they were little which was
01:12:48
nice and now yeah we're back of the plane the seat for them and basically just turn on the TV for 17 hours is
01:12:57
quite sweet she'll turn to look at me be like one more for a good 17 hours um and do you
01:13:02
guys I mean you know I always feel bad when I see parents um probably more so with newborns in a plane and the baby's
01:13:08
crying cuz it's like there's nothing you can do about it it's nobody's fault but
01:13:12
do you feel bad like when you kids are making a lot of noise on the plane for the people I I've done it enough times
01:13:18
now that I'm just past that point I'm like you should feel sorry for me you
01:13:20
should be offering me a bit of help cuz yeah I think I I felt like that when he was really small and now I'm just past
01:13:27
caring and I'm just there surviving and now he's at the age where he can watch a
01:13:33
screen and um I never thought I'd be a parent that you know shoves a screen in
01:13:38
front of my child's face but that's that's how I'm surviving those flights
01:13:42
you know like you get on the Dubai leag and it's 17 hours and you feel like you've been heck can sleep for you know
01:13:49
5 hours and then wake up and you feel like you've been on this plane all day
01:13:52
and you've still got over 10 hours hours to go and like how am I going to get
01:13:56
there oh that's such a long time and he's so full of energy yeah it's so
01:14:02
tough on them but I don't plan on doing it again for at least a good six months
01:14:08
that sound that sounds like my sister she she was like my kids are never going to be device kids blah blah blah and
01:14:12
then now her kids they've all got like little American accents because they watched so much Disney
01:14:17
Channel um any role models who made similar comebacks that you draw inspiration from oh so many M did you
01:14:26
pick the brains of anyone like Dame Valerie Adams or I remember jumping on a call with Jim hearing how she did it and
01:14:34
yeah again we were so inspired by so many stories that hadn't quite seen it done in our era of rowing and in the
01:14:41
Rome New Zealand program so a lot of it was very new and um you know the advice we got was great but until you live it
01:14:48
and do it it's you can't compare and even if we were to give advice to someone else so individual like what
01:14:55
Lucy and I both went through yep sounds like we same two months in a boat but it
01:14:59
was completely different for both of us so any advice that you could even give to someone could almost be irrelevant
01:15:05
their situation yeah yeah so Sonia wadell had done it in rowing um years ago obviously not in our time and um we
01:15:14
knew that she'd done it and I remember bumping into her um in Cambridge just in
01:15:18
the street one time and I was pregnant at the time and said you know I'm going
01:15:22
to um come back well that's the plan and I remember her saying to me okay like
01:15:26
definitely doable yeah go for it and then she said I did a World Cup at um I think she said 5 months and she was like
01:15:34
I was useless I was out the back door but then I did one at 10 months and it was awesome and I really I really held
01:15:40
on to that you know and we we did that World Cup at about the same at about the same time and that was when it it didn't
01:15:46
go so well so I really held on to it was such a tiny nugget of information but I
01:15:50
remember thinking like just keep going keep going keep going she felt good at 10 months what what do you mean 10
01:15:54
months like a month after giving okay two months post right right I was like geez that's a long gation
01:16:00
period fourth trimester um said it was a long pregnancy um have they been have the
01:16:09
girls been able to get back to their urg personal bests post pregnancy oh um I I
01:16:17
did one near enough like I think I was just under three seconds um and I reckon if I'd done one more more I would have
01:16:26
been within a second so you're there or thereabouts we were definitely there yeah yeah I didn't
01:16:32
get to I'd like to think that by the time um and how do you hope to be remembered within the sport of Ry oh
01:16:43
that's a nice question tough question but a nice question probably um it's good Mothers
01:16:52
yeah yeah super super moms isn't the nickname it's probably not the word I
01:16:57
would I think Super Moms is um so many moms are super moms you know like being a mom is tough and so many moms are um
01:17:07
at their day-to-day jobs doing amazing things and our day-to-day job is still our our job you know like and we're just
01:17:15
lucky that we get to be outside and we're chasing a dream and like okay it worked out amazingly but for the most
01:17:21
part of being moms it's just been us showing up to work and giving our best and a lot of moms do that yeah bealed
01:17:30
out to moms are just showing up every day for the kids and you know the moms that have to go to work as well yeah
01:17:36
yeah but I do hope I do hope rowing has so many young women in the program all the time and um I do hope that
01:17:44
potentially um this could extend the retirement age of some woman because I think rowing is such a sport where you
01:17:51
know you can continue to grow through your 30s and I I hope that if anyone um comes a point in their career where
01:17:58
they're considering it it just if nothing gives them a little bit of belief yeah you guys are true
01:18:04
Trailblazers say and I suppose you've um you've carved a path to prove that it
01:18:08
can be done yeah I think so and on our um Podium there were three mothers standing on that Podium so the girl in
01:18:17
the GB one yeah was the M's well her son was a couple months older than because and I
01:18:25
think even just for the r community and the sports community that you know mothers shouldn't parents shouldn't have
01:18:32
to stop um what they believe in to start a family like you can do them both coherently I think it only gives you
01:18:39
power and strength yeah you you can have it all and you can you can do do everything at a high level it's
01:18:47
badass hey it's really cool you're both proud of yourself yeah yeah yes you
01:18:52
should be what and what about your partners proud of us yeah I think my husband's
01:18:58
still in a bit of shock a bit of shock in what way oh I think he um always hoped that this would be
01:19:06
something that I could do but I think until you do it and he's been the one who's you know see me in all the worst
01:19:12
days you know I generally can get through the dab training get through the parenting side and then it's you know
01:19:16
8:00 p.m. and car's asleep that I'm absolutely cracked and there's nothing
01:19:19
left in the tank to give him so he's yeah just been an amazing supporter in that to make sure that that I'm you know
01:19:25
looked after and and he's always supported me and in my goals and he's always made sure that I'm you know first
01:19:31
and foremostly like happy and having fun and I just so thankful for that support
01:19:36
I had from him well it's true you you do you know reserve your worst behavior for
01:19:41
the people that you love the most it's just how how as humans are wired so and
01:19:45
I think for both of them like my partner never even questioned for a split second
01:19:50
oh you're coming back to rowing like it was like oh that's what you want to do
01:19:53
okay we're doing it oh it's wonderful having that support network around you well you guys are
01:19:59
amazing and I'm so pleased we finally connected and made this made this happen
01:20:03
um congratulations for everything you've done on the water and around the house
01:20:08
thank you thank you yeah and I love you guys Brook and Lucy thank you so much for coming on the
01:20:14
podcast oh it's been a pleasure it's been fun thanks very thanks for