THOMAS Graeme

General
FROM QUADS TO DOUBLE SCULLS
In preparation for the 2020 Olympics Games in Tokyo, in 2019 he swapped the quadruple sculls for the double sculls boat to row alongside crewmate John Collins. "The testing came out very favourably that John and I were a very quick combination. I wasn't in the same boat as him in the last Olympiad but I've definitely admired his consistency. The way he delivers in training every single day, and [the way] he's probably missed the least training sessions of anybody in the team in the last eight years, is phenomenal. Maybe that's something I've been lacking through my career, a little bit of consistency, so it's great to partner up with someone who has that robustness." (teamgb.com, 29 Jul 2019)

RIO HEARTACHE FUELS TOKYO AMBITION
He missed out on competing at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro due a mysterious flu-like illness on the eve of the Games. He said that while the experience was difficult, it has changed his perception towards the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. "I was sweating [in Rio], I had a high temperature, I was feeling awful, and then it subsided again. It was only a 24-hour thing, and I still had a few days to recover, but they told me it would be too big a risk for my health. The one thing I wanted to do more than anything had been taken away from me. Seven years of dedication and it's all over before getting to take a stroke. It did take me a good while to bounce back from that. [But] I feel in the run up to Rio it was very much about the Olympics, but now [2019] I really enjoy what I'm doing every single day and that makes me more motivated to do a better job." (telegraph.co.uk, 23 Aug 2019; teamgb.com, 29 Jul 2019; theguardian.com, 02 Aug 2016)

HIP INJURIES
He underwent left hip surgery in 2014, and then two rounds of right hip surgery in 2017, which he says led to a period of depression following the disappointment of not competing at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. "There wasn't much I wanted to get out of bed for [in 2017]. I basically just shut down. All the cartilage [in my right hip] was gone, I had cysts and everything in there. I wasn't allowed to do anything for weeks afterwards. I had to go home to my mum and dad's in Preston and just play [video games] because I wasn't able to move. But the upside was that I knew what to expect from the hip rehab [from 2014]. And [the 2020 Olympic Games in] Tokyo was my ultimate goal, so I thought, 'I am going to take this rehab really slow'. Whereas in 2014 I was rushing. You could look back and say maybe that's another thing that contributed to what happened in Rio, because I was on the ragged edge the whole time. My hips are never going to be perfect, but they're way better than they were." (telegraph.co.uk, 23 Aug 2019)

At the 2013 World Championships in Chungju, Republic of Korea, he won a bronze medal in the men's quadruple sculls event, which was Great Britain's first ever medal in that boat at a world championships. (SportsDeskOnline, 20 Jan 2020)