September 2022: Eimear Lambe

Eimear Lambe was inspired by watching her older sister Claire qualify for the Olympic Games in 2015, and then when she made history being the first women’s crew from Ireland to make an A-Final. Since then, Eimear has made history herself; winning the first ever Olympic medal in a women’s rowing event for Ireland. Since then, Eimear has picked up a bronze medal at the 2022 World Rowing Cup II, and a silver at the 2022 European Rowing Championships. She is our September 2022 Rower of the Month.

WR: How has your 2022 season been outside of regattas?

EL: It’s been a busy one! Post Olympic year I decided would be a good time to take the pressure off rowing a little bit and I began working in a graduate consultancy role with EY (an Irish consultancy brand). It was a great opportunity to try something new while keeping training tipping away in the background, but it also meant being very busy at times trying to juggle both. Coming back into racing season, the shift in focus has returned to rowing and so far it’s been really exciting.

You had a great 2022 season so far – silver at Europeans and bronze at one of the World Cups. What has your competitive season been like?

The racing season has been really exciting so far. We’ve been trying out different combinations in the four and we’ve been really happy with our performances so far, building on bronze in World Cup II to a silver at Europeans. Hopefully Worlds will keep to the same trajectory!

Irish women’s rowing has been on the rise in the past few years. Can you give us a perspective of that growth from inside the team?

Irish women’s rowing has been growing exponentially over the past few years, having only qualified one female athlete for London to three for Rio and then a record 9 female athletes competing in the Tokyo Olympics. Our women’s 4- in Tokyo won Ireland’s first ever Olympic medal in a female rowing event and first ever in an open weight category. It’s been incredible to be part of it, watching Irish rowing grow from the inside out. At a club level participation has increased massively and this has fed into more and more female athletes training at the national rowing centre. Training in a squad with such depth has made it both more competitive but also more enjoyable. There’s more people to both push off and lean on when it gets tough. We’ve created a huge momentum which has opened up so many opportunities such as fielding the first ever Irish women’s eight. This was something that not many people thought would ever be possible and fielding it has meant so much to so many.

Your sister was also on the national team for many years. What was it like having rowing be such a large part of your family life?

My parents had never rowed before so it was only something my sisters and I had done. My sister Claire competed in the Rio Olympics and was the first ever Irish woman’s crew boat to make an Olympic final. Claire showed me exactly what it took to be successful in sport when I was growing up. To me, Olympians were people totally different to myself and to qualify for the Olympics never felt like a realistic goal. Watching Claire qualify for the Rio Olympics in 2015 gave me the courage to go out and try for myself.

How did you first get into rowing?

A bit by chance really! My parents bought a house near the local rowing clubs and in a move to get myself and my three older sisters out of the house, they put us into rowing. I was too uncoordinated for basketball, so luckily rowing stuck.

When you aren’t rowing, what does your life look like?

Right now when I’m not rowing, I do some part time business consulting work. That usually fills up most of my hours in between sessions. When I have the time off though I love traveling either around Ireland or abroad depending on how much time I have. I also enjoy hiking, going out with friends, going to the cinema and binging the odd crime documentary on Netflix.

What are your upcoming goals in rowing?

Right now, preparation is really underway for the upcoming World Championships. The main goal is to be able to go out and put down our best performance. Hopefully that means walking away with a World Championship medal, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Where is your favourite rowing location?

For training it would have to be Blessington Lakes, Ireland. For racing, Sarasota was a great place for spotting alligators.

If you could give one piece of advice to a rower starting out what would it be?

Find what you love about the sport and let that be your motivation. The most important thing is that at the end of your career whether you’ve achieved what you set out to or not, you can still look back and say you had a good time trying.

What is the most memorable piece of advice that has been said to you?

‘There’s 100 ways to win a medal’ A friend said this to me once at a time when I was full of self doubt and found myself regularly comparing myself to other athletes, which I had put on pedestals. What works for someone else doesn’t have to work for you. There is no such thing as a perfect athlete and so when you try to compare yourself to one it only wastes energy. Just find what works for you and be confident in it. Everyone is on their own path.