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After announcing that she was returning to sports after having children, the double Olympic gold medalist Roar and fitness app Runna ambassador, Helen Glover OBE says this made him realize that “the game is much bigger than the moment you cross the line in a race”.
Glover, who didn’t take up sailing until he was 21, says the sport was always his passion growing up. “It was definitely my kind of identity of what I enjoy and who I am, but I never thought it would become my career,” the 39-year-old mother of three admits.
After having her children, Glover described this phase as a ‘revolutionary part’ of her sporting career as her training changed as she went to her next two Olympic Games. “When I was training for my first two Olympics at age 20, I didn’t even have time for friends and family,” she says.
“My world revolved around results and revolved around that one day. I was determined to win Olympic gold,” she admits. “The way I look at the world and sport now is a bigger picture of where I fit into my life, my family and what’s important. It’s more about what you can represent to other people,” says Glover, as she explains she’s received a lot of support from other moms online. When it comes to finding balance as a mother and staying in training for the Olympics, Glover says there were certain non-negotiables. “I’ll always do school pick-ups. I want to see their faces at the end of the day, look into their eyes and know how their day was. I even coach their rugby training on Sunday mornings. All of those things are important to me to be there and be present.”
When it comes to talking to her kids about health and fitness, Glover admits she always wonders what her kids’ internal conversations would be. “This is especially true in a world where there’s so much going on and so much that I can’t control, like social media and other influences that they can see,” says Glover. “As they’re growing up, I really try to promote the idea that movement is great, not because they feel pressured, but because it’s a big thing to have in your life. My little girl is going through a phase right now — she’s five years old — and when you ask her to describe herself, the first thing she always says is, ‘I’m very strong.’
“Right now, I just want them to be happy and enjoy what they’re doing. I think if they’re happy they’ll find their way into it and it doesn’t have to be sports. It could be art, music, literature. It could be anything but I think fitness and sports also play a role in lifelong health and mental health.”
Glover speaks about the idea of mother guilt, as saying that ‘everyone feels it in certain ways.’ “We put a lot of pressure on ourselves as a society,” says Glover. “When you open your phone, you’ll see a mom doing something better than you. Whether it’s the Elf on the Shelf or they’ve already done their Christmas shopping, you can’t stay away from moms who you think are doing better.
“I think if you want to choose any kind of career, and especially in sport, because it has such a physical element of being present in training, there are certain things I have to remind myself to help with that feeling.
“At first, I had to remind myself that your kids benefit a lot from seeing you do these things,” says Glover. “Seeing and living those moments is a huge experience for kids, so they know they can break barriers in the future, too.”
She says she also gave herself some check-in points and rules. “I asked myself every week, am I improving in rowing, am I going fast enough and are the kids coming first? When I checked it out, it was my way of reducing mom guilt,” says Glover. “I thought if they all remain true, it’s a good reason to continue and the day they stop being true, I know I’ve lost balance, and family life is kind of in the wrong direction.”
When it comes to his current relationship with the game, Glover says it changes all the time. “When you’re training for the Olympic Games you have this really solid, cemented value of who you are,” she says. “If you meet someone on the street and they ask, ‘What are you doing now?’, you say, ‘I’m training for the Olympics’, even if it’s three or four years away – already it’s an automatically wonderful feeling that you’re able to say that.
“I think when you’re in this dilemma of not training, you feel like you can’t identify yourself as an athlete anymore.” Glover says there’s also post-Olympic sadness that happens when you’re “so focused on that one moment and you don’t really think about what happens after you cross that finish line.”
Admitting that she is like everyone else and sometimes has difficulty motivating herself, Glover says: “People Ask me how I get up and go to the gym after a sleepless night with the kids. But those things are still there for me, even after having all the experts around me and all the years of training, I’m still wondering how to motivate myself.
“However, for me over the past year, I think accomplishing smaller types of fitness goals has been really beneficial. I did oxford Half-marathon about a month ago and I think having things like a schedule through the Runna app also helps me stay consistent.
Although she admits that her situation is different from others due to training being her job, Glover advises others not to overestimate what needs to be done to view something as training or an exercise session.
“If you go for a walk with your kids, that’s exercise,” she says. “If you have five minutes to do yoga, Pilates or stretching at home, that’s exercise. Don’t feel like it needs to take an hour and you don’t even need to break a sweat. It’s really about being kind to yourself and reevaluating what you see as exercise.”