IT took an Olympic-size effort to win Olympic gold in Paris, as Fintan McCarthy revealed he was, incredibly, rowing up to 400 kilometres per week in training ahead of the Games in Paris.
Back-to–back Olympic gold medallists Fintan and Paul O’Donovan are recognised as the best lightweight rowers in the world – and their gut-busting training regime is an insight into their sensational success.
‘During the winter I was doing more than I knew of anyone else ever doing – and Paul was probably doing more than me!’ Fintan told Off The Ball.
‘It was an exercise in finding the limits, and it was working.
‘My biggest week this year was 400k – I did that once or twice. Paul was hitting closer to that or more a lot of weeks.’
🗣️ 'I was doing more than I knew of anyone else ever doing, and Paul was doing more than me.’ 😅
🗣️ ‘In terms of numbers, my biggest week this year was around 400k.’
Fintan McCarthy talks through his intense training regime. | 🛶
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Fintan added: ‘We are pretty scientific with it, we aren't doing anything without a proper purpose, but we do tend to push the limits. So if it’s going to be that lower intensity, there is a large amount of it. The higher intensity stuff, we do push the limits, either in terms of intensity or duration – we’ll go pretty long at a high intensity or we’ll really hit it hard if it’s shorter.’
