BRITTAIN Lawrence

General
BEATING CANCER
In October 2014 he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. Both his parents are doctors, and it was his mother Danielle, a former palliative care specialist, who first suspected he may have cancer. He underwent chemotherapy, and returned to training in February 2015. "Finding out was probably the hardest part. It was such a shock. As an athlete you often have setbacks, injury or falling ill, but this was extreme. I was at the boat race in Port Alfred and two weeks later I was having chemo. It was much worse than I thought it would be. There's medication to counter the nausea, but the first two weeks after every three-week [chemotherapy] cycle you're whacked. It's like having a massive hangover. After the fourth cycle I got pneumonia and I was in hospital for a few days. When you realise you've been training so hard, so long with this cancer it makes my mind stronger. Maybe there's no limit to what I might achieve." (timeslive.co.za, 24 Feb 2015)

WINNING OLYMPIC SILVER
He recovered from his cancer diagnosis in 2014 to win a silver medal in the men's pair at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. "For me, just making it to the Olympics was incredible, in 2014 I was diagnosed so all dreams of the Olympics left me as I faced this new obstacle. I wasn't sure if I would even row again let alone make it to the Olympics. So getting to the start line at the heat [in Rio] was for me one of the most awesome moments of my life. Then it just got better and better as the week went on and crossing the finish line knowing you are about to go stand on an Olympic podium was unreal and better than I ever imagined." (Expresso Show YouTube channel, 13 May 2020; worldrowing.com, 01 Feb 2017)

MAKING THE BOAT SING
His first rowing coach taught him about hearing the boat 'sing' as it pushes through the water. "My first day rowing was back in 2003. My first coach, Jared, explained to me that the best part of rowing was not winning, but was listening to the boat sing to you. He continued to explain that when you get the crew [rowing] perfectly together, and you just start to sync and are cruising along on really good water, you can hear the bubbles running under the hull of the boat and that's really just hearing the boat sing. That really is something quite special. As we got better and stronger and bigger we managed to push the boat along easy and you could hear it a bit more often and now we cruise around in a four we can hear it nearly every stroke. It really is something awesome that I love about rowing and I'm sure if you ask any other rower that's something that is very unique to our sport." (The Row Show podcast, 28 Aug 2017)

OTHER ACTIVITIES
In 2017 he began presenting a rowing podcast with fellow South African rower Jake Green, in which they talk about sport and interview rowers from around the world. "We speak about everything. Sports, performance, the gold and the glory, and obviously talk a bit about rowing." (The Row Show podcast, 25 Nov 2019)