Ronan Byrne (IRL)

Rising Star – September 2019

Ronan Byrne’s star has certainly been on the rise in 2019.  In his first year competing at the senior level the Irish sculler has won World Championship silver in the men’s double sculls and qualified the boat for the Tokyo. 2020 Olympic Games.  But, of course, he’s not planning to stop there.

The highlight of my season has been… qualifying the double for the 2020 Olympics as it has been the goal for the last 18 months. It was incredible to achieve that and a relief that all the work paid off.

Now that we’ve qualified I’ll have to… show improvement throughout the year to keep my seat in the boat. The plan from here is to settle back into routine with university and rowing over the next few weeks and prepare for the 2020 campaign in the double.

As I started this year at senior level I… was aware that the standard would be very high but saw this as a challenge and it motivated me for competition. I was confident that Philip (Doyle) and I would qualify for Tokyo as we learned from last year where we could gain speed. 

I got into rowing by… following my older brother into the Shandon Boat Club in Cork when I was about 12 years old. It wasn’t until I was 16 that I started taking it seriously but that’s when I began to enjoy it more.

A lot of my training was… done on an erg in my living room this winter but all of the water work is done at the National Rowing Centre in Cork. It’s cold and windy but we have a nice lake there.

My ultimate rowing goal is to… win a gold medal for Ireland at the Olympic Games.

The best rowing advice I’ve had is… pull like a dog.

Ergs are… an excellent physiological tool. I really enjoy long distance sessions on the erg but not so fond of sprint work on them.

When I’m not rowing I’m… probably doing something university related or walking my dog.

For fun I… play football with friends from my club or chop things up with the big axe I have at home.