O'DONOVAN Paul

General
TRAINING UNAFFECTED BY LOCKDOWN
He was on an Irish Rowing training camp in Spain when the first COVID-19 restrictions were implemented in March 2020, so he and brother Gary returned to their home in Skibbereen, Ireland. The brothers said their training was not particularly affected by the lockdown thanks to their indoor equipment. "We've got the Concept 2 rowing machine, probably the best piece of exercise equipment on the planet," said Gary. "Actually they reckon it is the best piece of exercise equipment for training anyway. We use it all winter long, and it's sometimes better than being of the water for more quantitative training, you can get a lot more information on the screen in terms of distance and wattage and that." Paul said only the intensity of training changed for them. "The intensity has changed a little, it's more endurance-based stuff. We just try to break it down, keep it simple, and we're lucky that it's not a team sport, or swimming say. We can still do all the training with the equipment we have here." (irishtimes.com, 23 Apr 2020)

MATURITY SINCE RIO
He and brother Gary come from a small town in south-west Ireland, and shot to fame after winning Ireland's first Olympic rowing medal in 2016. Speaking in 2020 Paul said that despite their fame their lives had not changed. "The fundamentals of our lives are still very much the same. We both mostly do rowing and a bit of college on the side. We've had a few different experiences with television and the media and this type of thing. We've had these experiences and done a bit of partying, but after doing that we realised that while it's fun to be out there partying, we were happier doing the rowing. We knew then to curtail that and do as much training as we could. I think our knowledge of the sport has accumulated a lot since Rio. Back in 2015, we were still new to international rowing. Rio was our first year winning a senior international medal. We've a lot more confidence now [2020], back then it was a bit more naivety, and ignorance, that got us successful. It's more calculated now." (olympicchannel.com, 29 Jun 2020; irishtimes.com, 23 Apr 2020; the42.ie, 18 Aug 2020)

OARSOME BROTHERS
After winning silver with older brother Gary at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, the brothers continued competing together and won gold at the world championships together in 2018. However, in 2019 an injury held Gary back and Paul began rowing with Fintan McCarthy, with whom he won gold at the world championships in 2019 to secure an Olympic quota spot for Ireland. In mid-2020 Gary said he was doing everything he could to earn a seat alongside his brother at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. "You could almost argue that the competition you face to get into the Irish lightweight double is tougher than the competition you face at the world championships," said Gary. But both brothers said they are not worried about who will make the boat in Tokyo. "It doesn't make much difference, to be honest," said Paul. "If you're winning a race, it doesn't matter who's sitting there," said Gary. (irishtimes.com, 23 Apr 2020; the42.ie, 18 Aug 2020)

FURTHER STUDIES
In 2018 he began studying medicine at University College Cork in Ireland on a scholarship. He deferred his studies in late 2019 to focus on training for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, but resumed online classes following the postponement of the Games. (irishtimes.com, 23 Apr 2020; independent.ie, 04 Sep 2018; thesun.ie, 27 Sep 2018)

His silver medal in men's lightweight pairs at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro with brother Gary was Ireland's first ever Olympic rowing medal. (redbull.com, 10 May 2018)