In conversation with the GB Rowing Team: Eve Stewart

The Olympic bronze medallist speaks to BBC Radio Lancashire’s Dan Jewell about returning after Paris, doubling up at the Europeans and loving life

How difficult has it been to get back into the swing of things and get your GB kit back on after what you achieved in Paris? 

At the beginning, it was really hard, much more so than I anticipated because I took a long time off. I only came back to training around December / January and I don’t think I’d been that unfit since I started rowing 10 years ago. Climbing back up that fitness ladder is horrible. It’s really horrible. At the first camp of the year in Portugal, myself and one of my teammates from Paris, we were sitting together in a pair, waiting to do some pieces against the rest of the squad, crying. So it’s been a trek, but I’m very happy that I did put in the effort, obviously, because I do love doing it.

“You’re a crew for a reason. Everyone has something individual and essential that they bring.”

How challenging is it mentally to say I’ve climbed this mountain, we’ve come away with a medal and now I’m going to go and do it all again?

I think the mental aspect ties into the physical one because to be able to put your body through what you know you need to put it through, you need to mentally be able to do it. It’s a decision to do that. And something that I struggled with, when first getting back into it was, gosh, I actually don’t know if I’m mentally capable of that right now. But, I got some really great advice from a mentor on the team who has been to four Olympics and she’s really amazing. She said, look, you don’t need to be at an Olympic level mentality in year one. If you only have 70 to give ,just give 100 of your 70 and then ramp it up each year. That was really helpful.  So it was hard, but I had a lot of great insight from people around me which had a lot of impact.

I always find from the outside looking in at Olympic sports, it’s fascinating because we’re talking about four years, so to give 100% all the time, or breaking world records for four years – is it achievable?

Well, if we break a world record this year, I will be thrilled. And at this point in the season, we’ve all been working hard and we’re feeling like we’re in just as good shape as we were in Paris. But it’s just that each year of the cycle you want to be able to add something and that doesn’t mean that you’re holding anything back now, it just means that a year from now I’ll have to step up my game a little bit more! You have to be able to build through the cycle but also to be good enough in each phase of it to actually make the squad and have an impact.

How much does the makeup of the crew make a difference to that? Because, for example, you won your bronze medal in the eight, you’re going to be in the eight and the four at the European Championships but your boat will have different characters, someone like yourself who’s been to an Olympics and won a medal, and there’ll also be people coming into the boat who haven’t been there and done that?

In the run-up to Paris, I was in that position where half of the boat had been to Tokyo and the other half hadn’t. I found it amazing to learn from them and just be around those people with that experience. And it’s quite weird because I don’t necessarily view myself as that person yet, but obviously there’s a lot of new people on the team and I want to try and help fill the role in the same way that the girls in my boat did last year. Also, you’re a crew for a reason. So everyone has something individual and essential that they bring and it’s just figuring out how to work as a unit. You know, what does everyone bring? You’ve got nine different people in an eight, including the cox. So a lot of different ideas and different voices. But if you can streamline that, it can be really good.

In Bulgaria for the European Championships, you’re back in the eight, but also in the four. That sounds insane. How does that work? 

It is a bit insane, but it’s a great challenge. Last year, at the first World Cup, we doubled up – we raced the four and an hour later, we raced the eight and it was really crazy! But we have so few opportunities to race in rowing that I really enjoy the fact that this allows us to. At the European Championships we’ll have two extra races so it’s a great experience and hopefully it’s another chance of winning a medal.

“we put a lot of effort into our communication and building friendship and trust.”

Is it different, the way you approach racing in both boats?

In theory, you apply the same to both boats. The biggest difference is that the eight’s speed is quicker, so everything’s happening faster. Rowing is a rhythmical sport so in a faster moving boat the rhythm might change slightly because it’s moving from a to b quicker but the principles are the same, the way we train for it, the way we do technique sessions, all of that comes down to the same thing, so that makes it easier. Plus, we’re one squad, so even when we’re not training in the eight we’ve got two of the girls in the pair, another two in the second four and we’re all doing the same sessions in these smaller boats. So in theory, it should come together just fine!

How much difference does it make that you are all there, living together, working together, spending all this time together? The stuff that you do outside of the boat, can that be as important as the stuff that you do on the water and in the gym? 

I definitely think it is. A lot of people will say you don’t need to be best friends to win medals, which is true. But it obviously helps if you get along. Last year with the eight, we put a lot of effort into how we work together as a unit. And that’s not to say that we were holding hands and skipping through daisy fields every day, but we put a lot of effort into our communication and building friendship and trust. So I think with a new crew it’s essential to build that trust, build that respect, build how you speak to each other and how to get ideas across. That’s something we’ll definitely have to work on through the season.

Are you enjoying being back in the swing of it? Is there still that sort of anticipation and adrenaline and excitement that comes from being a few days out from a major competition

Yeah, there is. To be honest, right now I’m mostly tired because we’ve been in a hard training block. But I am really excited and I’ve honestly been loving this life at the moment, which is so special. My main objective this year was to come back and enjoy it, because I really believe there’s no point in doing something like this if you don’t enjoy it. So I can happily say I’m really loving it. And what more can we ask for to love what we do for a living?
The 2025 European Rowing Championships take place in Plovdiv, Bulgaria from 29 May to 1 June. Racing will be live streamed on www.worldrowing.com