The Irish women’s lightweight double is determined to bow out of the Olympics with a bang. KIERAN McCARTHY caught up with Skibbereen’s Aoife Casey and Mags Cremen ahead of their last dance
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‘IT’S a bit mad to think that there won’t be lightweight rowing at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles,’ Aoife Casey muses, as the end credits on her event as an Olympic sport get ready to roll next week.
For a fan of certainty and routine, the axing of lightweight rowing from the Games could have rocked the boat, but Aoife’s plans to step into ‘adult life’ post-Paris will soften the transition from life on the water to the next steps on land.
‘I am a person who always has to be busy, I'm never not at it,’ she smiles.
These days all her thoughts are consumed by making the Irish women’s lightweight double as fast as possible for the Olympic regatta – Aoife (Skibbereen Rowing Club) and Mags Cremen (Lee Rowing Club) begin their adventure on Sunday in the heats – and signing off in style before her next chapter begins in September.
‘I am excited to try a bit of full-time life rather than full-time rowing,’ the Aughadown woman continues, and so she will start a Masters in Bioscience, Innovation and Enterprise at University College London in September.
Having graduated from Medical & Health Sciences in UCC two years ago, Aoife’s Masters will steer her towards consultation work in science companies – and it’s the fresh challenge she feels that’s needed after nearly every thought in recent years centre around one all-consuming question: how can I make the boat move faster?
‘I have been rowing more than half my life so I am excited to put the Masters as a priority and have a taste of normal life,’ she says.
‘Who knows with rowing after that, I am not closing it fully but a break is well needed after the last few years and rowing full-time.’
TOP MARKS: Aoife Casey with her dad Dominic Casey when she graduated from UCC in 2022.
This won’t be a clean break, Aoife laughs, as she still plans to train with University College London’s rowing team. Just one training session a day, she quips.
‘There is no fear of me being idle or bored after the Olympics!’, and she knows that her dad, Dominic, who is also her rowing coach, will be in constant contact too, wanting to know the rowing programme in the university. Dominic, like Aoife, is never not at it. They’re similar in that sense; perhaps it explains why they work so well together. The father-daugher coach dynamic has never been an awkward one with these two. The line has always been clear, from their Skibbereen Rowing Club days to the Olympics – Dominic is dad at home and is her coach at training. There’s a relentlessness to both, an obsession with the sport, they’re process-driven, and share a sharp eye when it comes to technique. Just ask Aoife’s lightweight doubles partner Mags Cremen.
‘Aoife is so good at focussing on technique and making the boat move. Sure, Dominic is so good for that as well; that’s his thing, technique and to move the boat well,’ explains the Rochestown rower who, like Aoife, has had those poignant moments in recent weeks, knowing this Olympics will be the last to include lightweight rowing.
Life after Paris will be different for these mighty lighties.
‘It’s hard to believe that we won’t be together every day next year,’ Mags admits.
‘The whole lightweight team shares such a great friendship so it’s going to be weird not being with them every day.’
But Aoife and Mags aren’t finished yet.
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There is one word Aoife uses more than any other to describe her partnership with Mags Cremen in the Irish women’s lightweight double: fun.
A shared passion for rowing brought them together in their junior days, and the bond formed at the European Junior Championships in 2017 when they won silver together (Ireland’s first-ever medals at this event) has grown into a strong friendship. When Mags competed at the recent European Rowing Championships in a lightweight single, as Aoife missed out through illness, she felt lost without Aoife by her side.
‘We are very much attached at the hip,’ Mags says.
‘None of us really have a social life,’ she laughs, ‘but we’re great friends off the water.’
That helps them on the water, too, because there are no filters and everyone can speak their mind, including Dominic.
‘He never puts massive pressure on us, but just wants us to do our best and he wants to put us in the best position we can be. It’s nice to see how much it matters to him,’ Mags adds. There are three in this double and all share the same goal: let’s make this boat move faster. With days left to Paris, this all-Cork pairing feels confident their boat is moving well and can make an impact.
‘I believe we will be our fastest and strongest in Paris. I am really excited and confident we will have good races. We are feeling good,’ adds Mags (25), as the Irish crew that finished eighth overall at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 are three years further on in their development.
‘We are better now,’ Aoife (25) insists, pointing to their 2022 World Rowing Championship bronze medallist as proof that the new kids on the block at the 2021 Olympics now feel they belong on the big stage.
‘We were very young in Tokyo and it was such a whirlwind because we qualified late and it was a carnival after that, but we’ve a few more years on us now, a lot more experience and with a lot more confidence in our abilities as well.’
TRUSTING THE PROCESS: The Irish women’s lightweight double of Mags Cremen, right, and Aoife Casey training ahead of the Olympics. (Photo: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile)
Their first Olympic experience was revealing – the late bolters from the pack, then only 22 years old, who came in under the radar and grabbed the last remaining qualification spot for the Olympics at the last-chance saloon regatta in Lucerne and went on to finish eighth overall in Tokyo. That result didn’t get the attention it deserved, understandably overshadowed by the medal success of their lightweight men’s training buddies Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy and the Irish women’s four, but it still suggested these two were ones to watch.
Three years on, they qualified for the Olympics through the front door – their seventh-place finish at the 2023 World Rowing Championships in Belgrade, by winning the B final, punched their tickets to Paris. It also allowed Aoife and Mags to start building for the Olympics rather than juggle the extra pressure and stress of the final qualification regatta route in the year of the Games.
It’s been a smoother journey to their second Olympics, though memories of Tokyo linger.
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Aoife remembers watching the lightweight women's double sculls A final at the Tokyo Olympics. An hour earlier Aoife and Mags had finished second in the B final for their eighth place finish, but now all eyes were on the medal race.
It sticks in Aoife’s mind because of how incredibly tight it was. From gold medal winners Italy (6:47.54) to fifth place USA (6:48.54), one second separated five crews. The difference between bronze for The Netherlands and heartbreak for Great Britain was 0.01 of a second.
‘In lightweight rowing it’s fractions of a second that separates crews,’ Aoife explains.
‘I remember talking to Mags after that race and saying next time around let’s be in it.’
That’s what they have been working towards for these past three years, and it’s why their mantra of squeezing every last ounce out of every session is so important.
‘The margins are so close in lightweight rowing,’ Mags adds, ‘We won bronze at the 2022 World Championships and then we were seventh last year. It has to be race by race.’
Aoife adds: ‘We are trying to leave no stone unturned and we are trying to improve on the water, off the water, sleep, nutrition, everything, so we can tick every single box and then we can be as proud as we can with our racing in Paris.’
The more time they spend in the boat together, the better they feel they gel and the more their technique comes together, with the hope the stars align in the week ahead. It helps that they also train with the Irish lightweight men, knowing what Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy do is proven to lead to success. The knowledge and experience they have banked between Tokyo and Paris is key in their development, too. The bronze at the 2022 Worlds was also a breakthrough moment.
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In The Southern Star 2022 Sports Review, Aoife reflected on her five most memorable races.
The Skibbereen junior women’s four second-place finish at the 2015 Irish Rowing Championships made the cut. So did her first-ever international race – in a double with one of her best friends, Emily Hegarty, at the 2015 Coupe de la Jeunesse in Hungary. Also in that list was Aoife and Mags’ bronze medal at the 2022 World Rowing Championships – that September Saturday was the day this lightweight double arrived on the world stage.
BREAKTHROUGH MOMENT: Aoife Casey and Margaret Cremen celebrate with their bronze medals at the 2022 World Rowing Championships.
It was Aoife’s first senior world medal, coming seven years after her first international race at the 2015 Coupe. They had to dig deeper than ever, pulling the hardest strokes of their lives.
‘In the last 500 metres we were in a battle for bronze with the French boat that won Olympic silver in Tokyo and it came down to who wanted it more – and we did! Because there was no way we were coming fourth,’ Aoife explained.
‘Those last ten strokes were the longest of my life, but we finished third and won bronze, and that’s an important medal for us. It's so satisfying when it comes together like that on the big day. All the training and all the experience we have, we drew on it all.’
It was further evidence that they are on an upward trajectory, under Dominic’s guidance. Trust the process, he repeats, always keeping his advice simple and succinct.
‘Stick with them,’ he advised Aoife and Mags ahead of the 2022 World A final.
‘Use your strength’
‘Use your legs.’
‘I think you can do it, you know.’
‘I think you can do it.’
Aoife and Mags focussed on the process that day, like Dominic has always told them to, and they earned their reward – that’s why they’re now a much different proposition on the water to the 2021 version.
Their bond is stronger, forged by the good days and the not-so-good, and countless days on the water taking on board Dominic’s advice that hard work pays off.
‘You don’t know what’s going to happen at a regatta so if you have each other’s back you know everything is going to be okay. It comes down to trust and we have a huge trust in each other,’ Mags explains.
‘Even when we were in the B final at the Worlds last year, having missed out on the A final by a small margin, we stuck together. We were really disappointed after the semi-final but we stuck together, and it was a hard task to wrap our heads around winning the B final but we trusted each other to do our best.
‘There was a lot at stake: if we didn’t win it, we weren’t going to qualify directly for the Olympics, but we knew that if we did our best, no matter what the result was we would be happy.’
The Irish women’s lightweight double won the B final by over a second. They delivered under pressure; Paris, here we come. It’s their approach that doesn’t allow pressure to creep in. Their expectation is always to do their best and see where that takes them. It has worked so far.
‘We don’t put too much pressure on ourselves – we keep it fun, keep enjoying it and focus on the process and getting as much as we can out of training together,’ Aoife explains.
‘Racing is our favourite part – to see how fast we can go and enjoy the racing because as long as we do our best, you can’t do any more than that.’
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This friendship began in 2017 when Aoife and Mags, rivals before, were selected to row at the 2017 European Rowing Championships.
Aoife was in fifth year at Skibbereen Community School, Mags in her Leaving Cert year.
They won a silver medal at the 2017 European Juniors, and Aoife was back in school the day after – that was the start of their partnership in the lightweight double that has strengthened over the years, and has led to this final destination: the Olympic Games in Paris.
They’re determined to sign off in style before the next chapter of life begins for both, with Aoife moving to London and Mags weighing up her rowing options.
The surprise packets in Tokyo have shown they now belong on this stage – it’s time to make more memories that will last a lifetime.
