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Annabel Vernon - GB rower

Listed below are comments made by Annabel Vernon - GB rower between Monday, 22nd June 2009 and Saturday, 15th August 2009.

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Olympic obsession 8:23pm on 15 Aug 2009 Thanks for all the comments.

Some brief answers (well as brief as I can be... brevity isn't my forte). As for rowing being a middle class sport, there’s not much answer I can make to that except to point out that rowing is a sport which you can’t do everywhere. It’s more than a football and jumpers for goalposts. You need a decent river or lake, and boathouse with equipment(not cheap). Most people take up rowing at university, or at public school. I took up rowing because there happened to be a club near my house in Cornwall, and I ended up at a university which had a very strong rowing tradition. I would say an accident of geography rather than a specific set of socio-economic circumstances is responsible for people getting into rowing.

I am certainly not upper class and neither are the majority of the rowing team. But as I've explained above, to start rowing in the first place you need access to a rowing club, and the chances are such facilities will be found at your school or university, unless (like myself) there happens to be a rowing club in your local town.

As for rowing not being a very popular sport in the public eye, I think here we need to think about why people follow sport with such passion. And realistically, rowing isn’t the most interesting sport to watch. But surely this is horses for courses ... personally, I can never understand why people watch football with such passion. It’s so dull! Short, skinny men running around a pitch and falling over every few minutes? But of course, my perception of football is based on the fact that I know very litle about the game, and I can't appreciate the difference between good and bad football. Similarly, rowing is a sport where to appreciate what are the truly classic races or the best technical individuals or crews requires in-depth knowledge of the sport, which as it's not a mass participation sport, is limited by the general public.

Hope that's answered some queries.
Life goes on, out of Olympic spotlight 09:49am on 28 Jul 2009 Thanks for these responses.

Blindbenny, I think you have hit the nail on the head there. I think you certainly do train better when you can switch off and relax properly; but like many things in life it's easier said then done! To get to the top in sport you have to be utterly driven and desperate to succeed; so I think it's certainly takes experience and confidence to be able to relax and be able to step away. I think particularly in Olympic year it's so easy to slip into the mindset of "I have to do everything I possibly can", so that you almost get into a vicious circle of actively trying to make your life and your training as hard as possible, so you can feel like you're everything to succeed at your Olympic campaign. It take time to learn how to balance your life and your sport so you genuinely go as fast as you can on the days that matter, and if that means your training occasionally takes a back seat in your life, then so be it. You have to know what works.

Nick2012, I began to write a reply to your post but it got so long I have included it in my next blog entry which should be up in the next few days.
From Beijing to Mongolia, then back to the boat 1:02pm on 22 Jun 2009 Hi All, thanks for your comments. In reply...

How much training do we do throughout the World Cups? Well of course, the 'big one' is the World Championships, so we do little tapering for each World Cup, with the aim being to bring us out at a higher level in Poznan at the end of August. So it's less of a taper, and more of a general increasing of intensity to make sure our lungs are open and our muscles are firing for racing.

Mikhalich, yes I met some very interesting characters in Mongolia from all round the world; places as far afield as Korea, Netherlands and Israel.

Nick2012, of course that is the big question for any athlete: is it worth it? Is it worth the sacrifice, the pain, the hard work, the total commitment to the cause? And I'm still not sure. I think the most important thing is that you don't stake it all on the result at the end of it; the journey should be as important as the destination, although that sounds like a horrible cliche! It's easier to say 'it's worth it' when you win a gold medal, but I think it's important to be able to say the same thing when you fall at the ultimate hurdle. You should enjoy and be proud of what you're doing, win lose or draw.

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Annabel Vernon - GB rower