‘With Paul I get the feeling he is not waiting to get the perfection, he keeps it simple’

Paul O’Donovan can become the first Irish athlete to win three Olympic medals at three different Games, so KIERAN McCARTHY set himself a challenge: to discover what makes this Lisheen man the greatest Irish rower ever 

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‘PAUL always stood out. He was in a different league to the rest. When he was 15 years old he was Irish Junior single sculls champion  – that’s an U18 grade. That created a stir. He’s a freak of nature. The exception to the rule who is better than everyone else. He proved it over and over again’ – Something in the Water: How Skibbereen Rowing Club Conquered the World.

‘PAUL always stood out. He was in a different league to the rest. When he was 15 years old he was Irish Junior single sculls champion – that’s an U18 grade. That created a stir. He’s a freak of nature. The exception to the rule who is better than everyone else. He proved it over and over again’ – Something in the Water: How Skibbereen Rowing Club Conquered the World.

Paul O’Donovan has always worn his crown lightly. It never weighed him down because he pays no heed to it. He was only 22-years-old when three-time Irish Olympic rower Niall O’Toole hailed the Lisheen man as ‘the greatest Irish rower ever’ – and that coronation followed Paul’s 2016 breakthrough Olympic silver medal in the lightweight double alongside his older brother Gary and, weeks later, World gold in the lightweight single. It turns out the new kid on the block was just getting started.

Since the summer of 2016 Paul has powered to Olympic gold in the Irish men’s lightweight double with Fintan McCarthy (2021) and five more World golds, four in the double (three with Fintan, 2019, ’22 and ’23, one with Gary, 2018) and one more in the single (2017). Toss three European gold medals onto the pile, too. If he rustles through his pockets for spare change, he’ll also feel plenty of gold, silver and bronze World Cup regatta medals. It’s a staggering collection. The most decorated Irish rower of all time. Paul and Fintan also hold the world record in the men's lightweight double sculls, winning their Olympic semi-final in 6:05.33. And all this before he turned 30 in April of this year. It could get even better – if Paul medals at the Paris Olympics he will become the first Irish athlete ever to win a medal at three different Games. 

SILVER SENSATIONS: Gary and Paul O'Donovan celebrate winning a silver medal at the 2016 Olympic Games.

His legend is already assured – there will never be another Irish rower like Paul, in terms of success and the self-deprecating way he carries himself.

‘It’s always nice to win medals but I just think… you know, I’m not rowing to get a big collection of medals. I’m just rowing because I enjoy it,’ he explained in the lead up to the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 when, alongside Fintan McCarthy, the two Skibbereen trailblazers from Aughadown parish became the first Irish rowers to ever win Olympic gold. In Rio five years earlier, Paul and Gary were the first Irish rowers to ever win an Olympic medal. Paul has a habit of smashing glass ceilings – he has normalised Irish rowers winning the biggest medals and raised the standards and expectations of an entire sport, but carries that tag very lightly. 

Paul can fade into the background in a room, if he’s left to. An introvert, he doesn’t want the spotlight or crave the attention or seek out assurance or to be defined by rowing.

‘When Paul comes to Lucerne every year we always meet for a coffee,’ says former Swiss rower Michael Schmid, who knows the two sides to Paul – the beast in the boat and the quiet guy on land. They’re almost a contradiction to one another, but it works. Think Clark Kent and Superman. 

‘A few years ago when he was in Lucerne he also came to dinner at my place. Not all of those invited knew him, and they were surprised when they found out he was a two-time Olympic medallist. He is calm, he saves the energy outside of the boat so when he is in the boat he can go for it and spend the energy. 

‘If you meet him on the shore you wouldn’t think he is one of the most successful rowers in the world. Paul is a really humble and honest guy.’

GETTING READY: The Irish men’s lightweight double of Paul O’Donovan, right, and Fintan McCarthy training at the National Rowing Centre. (Photo: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile)

Michael and Paul first crossed paths at the 2014 World Rowing Championships in Rotterdam. Paul was 20 years old, Michael six years his senior – and the Swiss man beat Paul to the bronze medal in the men’s lightweight single sculls final, the Skibb rower pushed into fourth. That was the start of a rivalry on the water that soon turned to friendship. 

When Paul and Gary qualified for the Rio Olympics at the 2015 Worlds, they finished 11th overall to grab the last qualifying spot. Less than one second ahead of them in tenth place was the Switzerland double with Michael. By Rio, Paul and Gary had passed Michael out, the Swiss boat finishing 13th overall, the fresh-faced Skibb boys with silver medals draped around their necks. Paul was on his way.

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When 1984 Olympic gold medallist Martin Cross appeared on the Star Sport Podcast in September 2022, he stated: ‘I think Paul is right at the top of world rowing.’ Those words carry weight.

Perhaps here at home it’s easy to be biased towards one of our own, but it’s those who have walked the same path as Paul who confidently crown him as the best.

‘Paul is exceptional, he’s one of a kind, one of a generation,’ Eugene Coakley insists, and the 2004 Athens Olympic finalist knows more than most, also emerging from the medal-factory that’s Skibbereen Rowing Club.

‘Paul is a phenomenon, one in a million. Pound for pound the best rower in the world – by far – in my opinion,’ Niall O’Toole added in 2021, ‘He is just a phenomenal athlete, mentally, physically, he is the complete article.’

GOLDEN WONDERS: Fintan McCarthy and Paul O’Donovan with their gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics.

On Off The Ball earlier this year Rowing Ireland President Neville Maxwell added, ‘Paul, for sure, I think Ireland’s most successful ever athlete – Olympic gold, Olympic silver, six World championships.’ 

But how is this sensational Skibbereen rower viewed outside of this island and on the world stage? 

‘For me Paul is the best lightweight rower ever, but when you say such a statement, everyone has a different view about who is the greatest. They are difficult discussions,’ Michael Schmid admits.

Retired Danish rower Eskild Ebbesen, from the dominant Denmark lightweight four, is in the conversation. Former Olympic gold medallist Jeremie Azou, part of the French double that pipped Gary and Paul to the top of the podium in Rio, is in the reckoning. All good shouts, Michael Schmid agrees, but he’s raced and watched Paul enough times to push him to the top of the pile. 

‘Obviously he is an unbelievable rower and it’s not fun to row against him because he is so fast. He always keeps everything simple,’ Michael explains – and that’s a character trait that can be traced right back to his origins at Skibbereen Rowing Club. Keep it simple – that's the phrase synonymous with Paul’s long-time coach, Dominic Casey. 

‘A lot of rowers are always looking for perfection,’ Michael adds. 

‘Sometimes they get lost in the search of perfection. With Paul I get the feeling he is not waiting to get the perfection, he keeps it simple, he puts his head down and just goes. He is really fast and finds perfection without waiting for it.

‘Paul keeps rowing simple. At the end, it’s rowing as fast as you can from point A to point B, and he does that really well. He stays in the moment and doesn’t overthink it. He works really hard, is really, really fit; he is the one of the strongest lightweight rowers ever and he is also competitive in the heavyweight division. 

‘I think his mindset is why he keeps it simple, he doesn’t think it’s “Oh, this is so hard,” he just does it. He can move the boat fast, but if you look at him rowing it’s not the perfect technique that you would find in a book, but it’s an efficient technique. He is not waiting for the perfect stroke, he is taking the stroke and onto the next one. He fights really hard. He can suffer like nobody else.’

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Paul’s greatness has led many to suffer, both his opponents (just ask Michael Schmid) and his training group. Just ask former world champion rower Mark O’Donovan – no relation – who was part of the Rowing Ireland lightweight training squad along with Paul, Gary and Shane O’Driscoll. 

All four from Skibb, all four became world champions under Dominic Casey, with Mark and Shane dominating the men’s lightweight pair in their glory year of 2017. World champions. European champions. They won the lot. As good as they were, Paul still operated on a different level. Mark has his theories.

‘I spent many years in the high performance set-up with Paul, as well as Gary and Shane, and the one thing we all agree on is that Paul has a phenomenal engine; he has a great physiology,’ Mark says. 

TOP OF THE CLASS: Paul O'Donovan with his brother Gary after his graduation from medicine at UCC in March 2023.

‘What sets him apart is that the physiology he has allows him to absorb the training load better than all of us. Depending on how much training we would be doing, Paul would be able to add on more volume. While we’d be in the horrors, he would still be able to keep going, adding more kilometres after a session. 

‘Sometimes it worked negatively for us because Paul thought we weren’t doing enough, and that would change the whole programme to do more which would leave us all hanging, while he would just be on the doorstep of getting tired. He has a superb engine, and you could argue he has the best engine of any lightweight rower in Ireland. He’s phenomenal for absorbing training and was above us all.’

Eugene Coakley has pointed to this, too. 

‘His lung capacity is incredible,’ he explained before, ‘with Paul it’s said to be up around the high five litres, maybe even six litres. The more oxygen you get into your lungs, the more oxygen you get into your blood, the more you can push yourself. The limiting factor in rowing is lactic acid, that’s created by a lack of oxygen so if you are getting more oxygen in, you’re pushing back the lactic acid to a bit later into the race. It is going to come, and he can deal with that.

‘If you look at a car, a two-litre car is going to be a lot faster than a one-litre car.’

Paul has never been afraid of hard work. He embraces the challenge in his pursuit of his version of perfection. In his Lisheen National School days, his mom Trish recalls how when Paul was learning to write, if he spelled a word wrong in a sentence, he’d erase the entire sentence instead of just the incorrect word. That approach hasn’t waned. 

In the training camp in Banyoles ahead of the 2017 World Rowing Championships – where he won gold in the lightweight single – Paul ripped it up, tagging on kilometre after kilometre on top of a session after others had finished and were already sitting down to dinner. Repeat day after day. Dominic Casey was blown away.

Michael Schmid loves Paul’s attitude to racing. Again, trace this back to the River Ilen in Skibbereen where it all began, Paul and Gary as juniors racing the club’s seniors and being encouraged to take them on. That’s where Paul learned to row and then to race, and that’s his approach still.

‘Paul really likes racing, he is not afraid of racing,’ Michael explains.

‘In 2016 a lot couldn’t understand why after the Olympics he did the World Championships instead of a holiday, but he went to Amsterdam and won as well. Then he went to Boston and raced the Head of the Charles. He likes racing.

‘Two years ago he came to race in Lucerne, straight from Australia, Paul was the only Irish boat at the regatta because he wanted to race.’

Michael then adds Paul’s studies into the mix: the Skibb rower graduated as Dr O’Donovan in May 2023 after studying medicine. That’s on hold for now, as training full-time for Paris took over, but it’s impressive how he juggled both. He has this ability to switch off outside the boat.

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So, what’s it like to race against Paul? Michael Schmid laughs: it’s not fun.

‘The good rowers, and I thought the same, of course we wanted to beat him. Sometimes it worked out, sometimes it didn’t,’ he says, with more rowers finding themselves in the latter camp.

‘If you want to beat him, you have to be in good shape. The race is not over until you reach the finish line. With some competitors, if you are two lengths in front at 1800 metres you feel confident, but not with Paul, he has the capacity to accelerate the boat so fast and make it go faster than any other boat. 

‘He can row through you even if you have a few lengths advantage.’

THE ONE THAT I WANT: Gary and Paul O'Donovan with their dad Teddy (far right) pictured with Great Britain Olympic gold medallist rower Fred Scarlett when he visited Skibbereen Rowing Club in October 2002.

Paul’s medal haul backs this up. He has won it all, again and again. And even though lightweight rowing is being axed from the Olympics after these Paris Games, Paul has hinted he’s keen to mix it with the big boys at heavyweight.

‘Most of the guys you’re racing there are very big and tall and have long levers, big engines, which is more conducive to going fast for rowing than being a bit smaller and shorter. But it’s not totally insurmountable,’ he says, and Michael Schmid agrees.

‘He has the strength. Mentally he is really strong. And he knows how to row. If he has the motivation to continue, I think he can be successful there as well. Usually it’s tougher for a lightweight rower against the heavyweights, but some lightweight rowers who made the transition are successful at heavyweight,’ explains Michael who knows Paul is not just any lightweight rower – he’s the best in the world and about to prove it again in Paris. 

While it hasn’t been a smooth build-up to these Games for Paul and Fintan, with the Swiss and Italian doubles both impressing, the recent noises suggest the Irish boat is moving well at the right time. Even Michael is convinced the Olympic champs will retain their title, adding ‘Although I am Swiss, I think Paul and Fintan will win.’

If that happens and the Skibb men are celebrating on Friday morning, August 2nd, Paul’s standing as Ireland’s greatest rower will transcend to a conversation he is this country’s greatest sportsperson. Not that it will bother him. Life will go on, on and off the water.