The neurology of top athletes is, win or lose, always hot-wired to quickly move on to the next thing. For double Olympic gold medallist Fintan McCarthy, it’s the Head of the Charles regatta in Boston next month and then figuring out how to make it three gold medals in Los Angeles 2028.
McCarthy seemed in two minds just after winning with Paul O’Donovan in the lightweight boat at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Olympic Stadium in the French capital last month.
But McCarthy confirmed on Friday his partnership with Paul O’Donovan will continue as the pair figure out how to convert their lightweight medals into heavyweight gold.
The lightweight category that served them wonderfully in Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 is no longer on the Olympic roster.
“We’ve probably been thinking about it already,” said McCarthy at an official celebration of the Olympic team and families in Dublin Castle. “I don’t think any of us are finished with the sport and the only events left in the Olympics are heavyweight events. So, we will have to put a plan together for how we are going to tackle that.
“It’s been done very well by some people in the past, but it has also been done wrong. So, I think we need to have a look at what’s worked for others and what’s worked for us as well in the past because there’s not a huge difference between us and the heavyweights.”
O’Donovan quietly slipped away without McCarthy to St Catharines in Canada to win his seventh World Championships in the lightweight sculls a few weeks after Paris, while McCarthy took advantage of a rare piece of downtime, although he has one eye on Boston.
“I think I am going to do the Head of the Charles regatta in Boston next month,” he said. “So, I need to get my act together for that soon. I think I do want to have some life experiences this year as well. So, see how that fits in. It’s nice it’s four years away not three like the last cycle [Covid postponed Tokyo for a year] was quite short so we were straight back into preparing for Paris. Just to have that extra year to be that bit more relaxed — the worlds are that bit further away so we still have a whole year to decide what’s happening.”
McCarthy is 27 years old and will be 31 when Los Angeles comes around. Athletes often experience the movement of time more acutely around the threshold of moving from 20s into 30s.
There is difficulty in transitioning from lightweight to heavyweight, but “not a huge issue”, McCarthy acknowledges. It does require careful planning and adjustments and is not simply a case of muscling up to take on the much bigger competitors.
The idea of an unprecedented three successive Olympic gold medals is also a driver for the Skibbereen rower. But it is not the only one. Appetite and energy for the job are a critical part of the engine.
“Still young! Thirty-one is fine,” he says. “As of right now looking at a gold medal for me would be a huge challenge. I’m not going to say unrealistic. It would be really difficult to achieve, especially in heavyweight, so I think there has to be something else.
“Even the excitement of seeing if it will be possible to be competitive and, I guess, move on because we have already reached the pinnacle of the lightweight event. Seeing whether we can move on and see how we get on there is exciting enough.
“Obviously, I’ve done nothing for a few weeks so it’s weird talking about it because you’re so far off it right now. But I think if we can put together what we know how to put together and make a few tweaks here and there … it will be a challenge.”
After Boston, decisions will be taken about where he will winter and train. Warm weather is most likely in Spain and its welcoming climate is no stranger.
“I think maybe out of the county,” he says. “We do a lot of training in Spain. Obviously, everyone is in Australia at the moment. There are a few places in mind. I might just end up staying. We’ll see how it all kind of pans out.”
