Imagine it or not, there was as soon as a time when Olympic rower Kristine O’Brien thought rowing wasn’t an actual sport.
As an athletic excessive schooler, O’Brien expressed doubt within the sport when her mother and father inspired her to hitch the college’s rowing workforce — now, she’s obtained an Olympics look with Staff USA beneath her belt… or ought to we are saying oar?
“I assumed, ‘I don’t know if that’ll be a ok exercise,’” O’Brien says of her highschool hesitancy. “However my mother and father needed me to strive it due to all of the scholarships in ladies’s rowing. So, I attempted it out.” By the next spring, she was a nationwide champ.
O’Brien’s story is one many rowers might acknowledge. She says that rowing isn’t a sport that many individuals get entangled in at a younger age as a result of the gear is so heavy. In any case, rowers carry their very own boats and oars to the water earlier than even stepping into their seats. Half of O’Brien’s boat within the 2020 Tokyo Olympics didn’t even begin rowing till faculty. She’s a part of the ladies’s eight boat, which positioned fourth at The 2020 Video games.
The “ladies’s eight” refers back to the variety of rowers within the boat — however actually, there are 9 ladies concerned in getting a ship of eight rowers to the end line. The rowers are the engine, and one other (smaller) teammate, the coxswain, steers the boat, motivates the rowers and talks them by means of the workforce’s technique all through the race. Rowers themselves face the again of the boat as they row, so saying a superb coxswain is necessary in an eight-woman boat can be a severe understatement.
This isn’t the one success O’Brien has seen in her profession. She completed first within the pair (a two-woman boat with no coxswain) on the 2020 Nationwide Choice Regatta, completed third within the pair on the 2018 Nationwide Choice Regatta and third within the pair on the 2018 Nationwide Choice Regatta. In 2019, O’Brien’s workforce positioned third on the World Rowing Championship and completed second on the World Rowing Cup II.
This yr is particular, nonetheless, as a result of it’s the primary time O’Brien has joined Staff USA within the Olympics.
“I skilled a very long time for this,” she says. “I used to be reduce from the 2016 Rio Olympic workforce, and after that, I didn’t know if I’d strive once more or not. However then I assumed, ‘How many individuals get this chance?’ And I made a decision to come back again.”
When she obtained the information that she can be going to Tokyo, O’Brien realized that she was really grateful for being reduce as a result of it made her a greater rower ultimately.
The expertise, she says, was definitely worth the wait.
“The Japanese did a tremendous job,” O’Brien says. “I felt so welcomed and everybody was so heat and welcoming they usually made the expertise so particular.”
Whereas she was starry-eyed in regards to the The Video games, O’Brien switched gears when it got here to really competing.
“I felt prepared, like I knew this was my second,” she says. “Clearly it’s very intense and the largest race of your life so there’s nerves there, however that’s simply a part of it.”
The workforce has to work cohesively as a single unit of muscle and approach, so their efficiency is just not solely spectacular on it’s personal, however particularly so contemplating the previous yr’s coaching obstacles regarding COVID-19.
“All of us simply got here collectively and leaned on one another and supported one another,” O’Brien says. “That’s what makes this workforce so particular.”
Coaching on and Off the Water
Rowing on the highest stage is demanding, to say the least. Throughout common coaching, O’Brien is on the water or rowing machine — aka the erg, brief for rowing ergometer — twice a day round six days every week. Sunday is normally a time off, or the workforce does exercises on their very own. Relying on the time of yr, weight coaching is 2 or thrice every week within the afternoon.
A Fundamental Erg Exercise
O’Brien executes many various sorts of rowing exercises, however a continuing is an extended row at a decrease coronary heart charge, from 130-150 BPM for round 80-100 minutes.
Sometimes, she’s going to undergo a 2,000-meter check (often called a 2K) on the rowing machine, which is a shorter, a lot sooner exercise that takes high-level feminine rowers about 6-7 minutes. It most likely goes with out saying that that is an insanely quick time in comparison with what a median individual may do. Should you’re already pretty match and wish to strive knocking out a 2K as a exercise, shoot for someplace within the realm of 8-9 minutes in your first go-around. And ensure your type is on level first!
Diet
Right here’s a day of consuming for O’Brien:
Morning: Oatmeal, collagen powder, berries, a scoop of peanut butter, honey, cinnamon and coconut flakes — plus a cup of espresso
“I didn’t all the time drink espresso, however as quickly as I did, coaching obtained so significantly better,” O’Brien says.
Morning exercise
Put up-workout snack: Chocolate milk
Second breakfast: Eggs or a bagel with orange juice
Pre-workout snack: Clif Bar or yogurt
Afternoon exercise
Put up-workout snack: Protein shake
Dinner: Meat with a carb and greens
“My basic rule of thumb is to have 20g of protein each three hours,” O’Brien says. “It’s such a way of life. If you’re not rowing, you’re interested by getting sufficient sleep, water and meals. You must be in your sport all day each day.”
Damage Prevention
The fixed bending backwards and forwards required in rowing can injure the decrease again, higher again, knees, wrists and ribs. O’Brien is aware of this from firsthand expertise. Over the course of her rowing profession, she’s suffered from overuse accidents, together with a fractured rib that took her out of form for 2 weeks.
“It sucked, but it surely taught me such a lesson on figuring out my physique,” she says. “If one thing flares up, handle it instantly. Don’t ignore it.”
She advises that to forestall damage, athletes have to be targeted not solely in coaching, however exterior of it as nicely.
“Getting sufficient sleep so that you’re recovering correctly, getting the meals you want and hydrating are all necessary,” O’Brien says. “I additionally see a bodily therapist about twice every week. We do delicate tissue work and workout routines to strengthen areas of weak spot.”
Fast Q&As
Oxygen Journal: Espresso or no espresso?
Kristine O’Brien: Oh, undoubtedly espresso. I’ve an espresso machine.
OM: Pre-workout snack?
KB: Clif Bar — mint chocolate chip or peanut butter chocolate taste!
OM: Put up-workout snack?
KB: Protein shake or, often, I’ll seize a Wawa hoagie.
OM: Favourite pump-up tune?
KB: Born to Rage (USA Model) by Dada Life.
OM: What’s going by means of your thoughts as you row?
KB: I simply attempt to take it one stroke at a time and be current. I consider little targets to get by means of it.
OM: What’s the hardest exercise you do?
KB: Two-by-six kilometers. Each 6Ks take about 22 minutes.
OM: Should you may have dinner with one individual, lifeless or alive, who would it not be?
KB: Serena Williams.
OM: Have you ever ever fallen out of the boat?
KB: A number of years in the past, I used to be in a pair with my teammate and our oars didn’t lock proper and after they come out you flip. That’s what occurred to us. We have been completely shocked and by no means noticed it coming. Swiftly we have been within the chilly Jersey water in November!
OM: Do you’ve a mantra?
KB: Earned, not given. Entitled to nothing, grateful for the whole lot.
