Helen Glover: Olympic star and mum-of-three proving you can juggle childcare in team sports

Double Olympic rowing champion Helen Glover admits being a mum in a team sport presents some major challenges, but she is determined to prove she belongs in the boat for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Glover won gold at London 2012 and Rio 2016 alongside Heather Stanning in the coxless pair before leaving the sport to start a family with wildlife presenter husband Steve Backshall.

“That’s something that since I made the team I’ve always been really aware of and there are two things I’ve tried to do to combat that,” said Glover, who has three children.

“Firstly, when I get to training, nobody could walk into the building and pick me out as the parent, I want to be there as an elite athlete. Having said that, it’s not always possible, there will always be a time nursery calls and someone’s got a temperature and you have to leave. Things will happen.

“The other thing I do is to try and make me the best that I can. If I’m the very best in the boat, then my crew-mates will want me there whether or not I can make every single session.

“There are lots of sessions I do at home on my own and they’re long, lonely and really hard, but I know they trust that I’m doing them. If I’m fast enough, my team-mates will want me no matter how I’m managing my training.”

With a fierce battle to make Team GB’s final line-up for the Games next summer, Glover revealed she was worried that her team-mates might become frustrated with her conflicting priorities.

“I am, that’s a natural thing. All I can do is keep my head down, keep my professionalism,” she said.

“I know if I do the training then I will rise to the top in performances and that’s all I can do. Of course there’s that worry and sometimes I think ‘I hope people are putting themselves in my shoes’. This is something they might have the opportunity to do in the future.”

The likes of tennis star Serena Williams and heptathlete Jessica Ennis-Hill have proved it is possible to return after giving birth at the top of their sports, but there are few examples of women returning to team sports – and even fewer in a sport where athletes are as reliant on each other as rowing.

“There definitely have been people [who have inspired me]. People like Jess Ennis, who had a child and then went back to Rio. There are lots of individuals, Laura Kenny etc., who I can look at,” said Glover.

“The one thing I struggled with was how to make it work in a team sport. I think that when you’re an individual athlete, there is that element of having the flexibility.

“The two huge elephants in the room in every single conversation we ever have about training are flexibility and childcare – and matching that with this juggernaut, which is the GB Rowing Team, which stops for nobody.

“So introducing the concept of some flexibility and me coming on with a very different life circumstance was definitely interesting and is something that has been catered to really well.

“There were definitely women I saw physiologically [showing] it’s possible. But how do I work with this very specific governing body that I’m under? That was my main question.”

She only started rowing aged 22 after being spotted by a talent ID programme ahead of the London Olympics. Four years later, she claimed a remarkable gold medal alongside Stanning in the coxless pair, with the duo defending their title at Rio 2016 after an astonishing five-year winning streak on the water.

Despite her late introduction to the sport, she was inspired by the Olympics from a young age – notably when Cathy Freeman stormed to a famous 400m gold at Sydney 2000 – and hopes Team GB’s Mini Mascots campaign will help fuel more dreams.

Once selected, the five Mini Mascots will experience extraordinary moments on the journey to Paris 2024, from meeting the athletes, to sending Team GB on their way to the Games.

“I think it’s a really cool campaign. To choose five mascots and for them to be children, it uses that demographic that I always think of when I think of the inspiration of the Olympic Games,” added Glover.

“The young generation is going to see it and you don’t know who is going to have that fire lit inside their belly. Having that represented by five young people is just a really nice idea.”

Between now and October, adults can apply for the chance for their child to be selected as a Mini Mascot for Team GB and any child living in the UK, aged 5-11 is eligible to be nominated. Following the nomination process, a shortlist will be asked why they’d love to be chosen as a Mini Mascot. Five mascots will be selected in November 2023 and will subsequently be given the chance to take part in several exclusive and exciting opportunities on the run up to Paris.