Aifric Keogh will be a name familiar to many as one of the Women's Rowing Four that won a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympic Games, but the Galway woman isn’t willing to stop there in terms of aiming to increase her medal haul at the prestigious competition.
She’s ready to ‘Dare to Believe’ in the build up to this summer’s edition in Paris, even if she doesn’t know what capacity that may be just yet.
What a performance by Irish women’s 4 of Aifric Keogh, Eimear Lambe, Fiona Murtagh & Emily Hegarty to win a bronze medal for @RowingIreland @TeamIreland . ☘️☘️☘️🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🙌🙌🙌🙌 pic.twitter.com/6FEh54F81D
— Jacqui Hurley (@jacquihurley) July 28, 2021
You see, while herself and Fiona Murtagh (a fellow team member in Tokyo), did clinch a qualification spot for the Women’s Pair boat at the World Championships in Belgrade back in September, that doesn’t necessarily mean it will be that specific duo that will compete in that class come the Paris Olympics this summer.
A trial process within Team Ireland’s Rowing Ireland structure decides which combinations will match up with each other come the quadrennial competition, and with the Double sculls and the Lightweight double sculls also already qualified, there’s plenty to decide just yet.
That’s not even to mention the last chance saloon Lucerne Regatta, which will be the final opportunity for further qualification, although that has more rules all unto itself.
As Keogh outlines, it’s quite a complex process.
“We have selection trials every six weeks or so, with another one in the next 10 days,” she says.
“We all trial individually really first of all. We’ll have a 2k erg test before we even get out on the water… Whatever the coaches think might be worth testing will be tested so yeah who knows what comes out from the other side.
“You’re kind of waiting to hear what boat you’ll be in.
“There’s one more chance then [to qualify], it’s a regatta in Lucerne in May. Whatever boat class gets sent, it’s usually the top two in each event that will qualify…while the World Championship crews that qualify can be changed around, if you race in Lucerne and you qualify, that’s it.”
With selection and possible unions no doubt consistently on everyone’s mind, Keogh admits that “it is always a topic of discussion”, and no wonder given they’re “in each other's pockets quite literally all of the time.”
Rowing, eating and generally living together a lot of the time, be they in camp or not, all of the athletes are team members and weirdly competitors, all in the same breath.
“Whether it's talking about the lightweights or the heavyweight boys, there’s always someone having a great week, so you would kind of talk about it and naturally measure yourself up to that performance,” she says.
“I suppose because the team is so big now and there’s such a high standard it’s constantly rotating, so it is great that everyone is in such a great position and I think the team is in great shape at this point.
“Obviously everyone just wants to be in the fastest boat, so whatever boat turns out to be the fastest that’s definitely where I'd like to be sitting. That remains to be seen now over the next couple of days whatever one comes out on top.”
After a winter of “long miles”, they’re now starting to see “flickers” of their potential speeds, and the selection process is sure set to be an exciting (and fast one).
“Everyone’s excited to get out there in the next 10 days or so just to kind of measure up and see how we’re actually getting on,” she says.
“We have four medals we won at the world championships last year, we have athletes to test ourselves against. We’re going to be lining up against Paul [O'Donovan] and Fintan [McCarthy] to see if anyone can knock them off the top spot or what's going to happen.
“It’s very much race by race, we don't know next week if we’ll do 10 races, one race, whatever it might be, we’ll keep going until they have the information that they want or need.”
🏆Women in Sport Advocate of the Year🏆
Aifric Keogh is the 2023 Women in Sport Advocate of the Year!#RIAwards2023 #wearerowingireland pic.twitter.com/GOB1rb03Hc— Rowing Ireland (@RowingIreland) November 18, 2023
Following that process, which could last anywhere from one to four days, the rowers all then stick around when things are all wrapped up and are brought together to discuss who will be in what boat, in what seems to be a dramatic day.
“You’re just kind of addressed as a group and it's generally announced there all together,” she says.
Having come back from injury in the interim from the last Olympics, Keogh dabbled with the idea that she mightn’t return, although there were a few ideas that ensured she had to come back.
“I think then that's essentially when my injury came I spent a lot of time sitting on a bike and a lot of rehabbing. There were lots of days where I thought I didn't want to go on. I’d kind of ask myself, well ‘why am I still getting up, showing up every morning and getting on this bike?’ and I’d think, I'm kind of answering my own question here by my own actions,” she says.
“I always kind of had to ask myself would I be comfortable sitting at home watching the girls race in Paris without me? Some days I was like yeah no problem best of luck to them but a lot of the other times i knew I’d probably be kicking myself so yeah, here I am!”
With a fine line between excitement and not wanting to put a jinx on her chances, Keogh speaks of how that “funny balance” plays out day to day.
“Sometimes you hear a sentence come out of your mouth talking about Paris and then you have to suck it back in and be like touch wood, fingers crossed, all that kind of stuff,” she says.
“Especially when you have friends saying ‘I’ve got tickets to this, or I’ve got tickets to that, what boat are you going to be in?’ and you’re kind of like look, you go to the Olympics, you do you and I might see you there kind of thing.”
As a child she remembers teachers rolling in the TV and screaming watching Sonia O’Sullivan race in the Olympics, but now, as a Dare to Believe ambassador herself, there are sure to be kids hoping to do just that this summer for Keogh herself.
“We get as much out of it as the kids do…” Olympic🥉medalist @aifricsk on her passion for bringing the power of sport to schools through our Permanent TSB #daretobelieve Schools Programme.
Great morning of #SportforSocialGood with @SportforBusines pic.twitter.com/okuW5CXapw— Team Ireland (@TeamIreland) October 5, 2023
More about Dare to Believe, which Aifric Keogh is an ambassador for
Today the Olympic Federation of Ireland, together with PTSB, officially launched the ‘Road to Paris’, an interactive schools challenge that is part of the Dare to Believe Olympic Schools Programme. With Paris 2024 being almost a ‘home Games’ which is also the 100 year anniversary of Team Ireland competing in the Olympics, this challenge is aimed at getting primary school children more active, whilst learning more about Irish participation at the Games ahead of the summer’s Olympic fever.
Rolling out from 15 April to 10 May, the Dare to Believe ‘Road to Paris’ is a free 4-week challenge which encourages schools to get more active, whilst learning fun and engaging facts about the Olympics, French culture, and Team Ireland.
Over the four weeks schools log their activities which in turn convert to distances on a map that brings them around Ireland and across the sea to Paris. The journey includes five stops where videos and classroom challenges are unlocked, revealing messages and insights from some of Ireland’s top athletes like Olympic Champion boxer Kellie Harrington, Olympic medallist in rowing Aifric Keogh, and World Champion gymnast Rhys McClenaghan.
Hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren around the country are anticipated to participate in the programme, and registration is now open for the free, inclusive, and easy-to-follow programme.
Schools are encouraged to head to this website to register their teams, the first 2000 teachers to register will receive an exclusive and unique Team Ireland Olympic Challenge map, by illustrator Fatti Burke.
