As those of us with children can relate - there can be many curveballs thrown your way.” Brooke Francis and Lucy Spoors last rowed together in 2016. “Being adaptable as a programme to get the right balance between training and parenthood will be a continuing conversation with all our athletes who are parents. These two women have taught us a great deal throughout their pregnancies and beyond, and no doubt we’ll continue to learn,” she says. “Motherhood should never be a barrier to participation in sport at the highest level and we’ve been happy to work with our mums to ensure they’re supported during this time. While more sportswomen are returning in motherhood, this is an “exciting first” for Rowing NZ, says their athlete wellbeing lead, Louise Storey. The sport advised and paid for her to see a pelvic floor specialist: “It was amazing, and I wouldn’t have thought of that on my own I didn’t realise the importance of it until post-birth.” “Rowing New Zealand having open ears is the most important thing at this point – like us, they’re still learning about it, too,” says Spoors. It’s the first time Rowing NZ has supported mum-athletes in their return to the top echelons of the sport. It’s not only the rowing duo learning as they go. “Everyone is really excited to see the kids as well. Like when Keira and Rupert cut their first teeth at the same time. “It’s really nice and it breaks up the pressure of rowing as well because there are other important things going on in our lives now.” “We're both bouncing ideas off each other, trying to figure out motherhood together,” says Francis, nee Donoghue. Their new partnership isn’t confined to rowing, either. “For me the sculling switch has made sense, and I’m just chuffed it’s working out.” I knew coming back from pregnancy it was always going to be a better decision for me to row a single and manage my own training, which is why I sculled during my pregnancy as well. “But I’ve come into the sculling side after sweeping. “Brooke is a seasoned campaigner in the double, she knows the boat so well,” Spoors says. Photo: Rowing NZ.įrancis, mum of nine-month-old daughter Keira, also won Olympic silver but in the double scull. Rupert Robertson (left) and Keira Francis in their Rowing NZ team onesies. “It’s a stroke of luck that we’ve ended up together,” says Spoors, who won Olympic silver in the women’s eight in Tokyo, and had son Rupert six months ago. And if that all works out, and they find synergy and speed in their skiff, their goal will move to rowing at the Paris Olympics next year. Their concentration is on racing together for the first time next month at the World Cup in Lucerne, and then the world championships in September. * Family tree key to Emma Twigg's fifth Olympic bid * World champion Lucy Spoors leading mum revolution They even wear their own tiny New Zealand team onesies.īut once Francis and Spoors slip into the water in their double scull, knowing their first-borns are being cared for, they can focus purely on their sport, ensuring their oar blades slice through the water in unison. Or you might spot the babies at the gym, being jiggled on the hips of Rowing New Zealand support staff, while their mums lift weights. If the new mums get their timing right, the little ones often fall asleep to the whirring white noise of the rowing erg’s flywheel, as the athletes try to snatch a (rare) solid hour of training indoors. And then suddenly, it’s time to go rowing. Their babies, Keira and Rupert, are exactly three months apart, but still at a stage where sleeping is a lottery – some nights you win, some nights you’re up five times. When Brooke Francis and Lucy Spoors meet in the misty dawn on the banks of Lake Karapiro, their first words inevitably are: “How did you sleep?” It’s been a voyage of discovery – for both the mums and the sport – so far. Olympic silver medallists Brooke Francis and Lucy Spoors are making their 'mum-back' together, pairing up to row at the world champs with new babies in tow. Olympics A stroke of luck for rowing mum duo
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