Olympic Rower Fintan McCarthy Faces Career Change for Next Games

ROWING STRONG

McCarthy will have to make a major career change for the next Olympics

• Neil O'Riordan , Chief Sports Writer

• Published: 9:41, 26 Jul 2025
• Updated: 9:41, 26 Jul 2025

WHEN Paul ODonovans brother Gary made way for Fintan McCarthy, it was a reminder that nothing lasts forever in rowing.

And now McCarthy is getting his head around the fact that one of Irish sports most successful sporting partnerships may not have another chapter in their story.

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The siblings won silver in Rio before Gary, the older of the two, was supplanted by McCarthy for Tokyo.

A gold medal in 2021 justified the selection and the pair repeated their feat three years later in Paris.

Winning a hat-trick of Olympic titles will be a little more complicated.

For one, the lightweight class has been scrapped at the Games, prompting a step-up to heavyweight.

Secondly, right now, they are in what might be called in sporting terms an open relationship.

So at the World Cup in Switzerland last month they had different partners and were racing against each other.

But the pair still found themselves gravitating towards one another off the water.

Alongside Konan Pazzaia, McCarthy came third.

ODonovan paired up with Daire Lynch who took bronze in Paris with Philip Doyle and finished fifth.

McCarthy said: It was strange. Were so used to each other, which is the main thing I found with other people.

You kind of have to get to know peoples routines, the way they work and their sort of maybe temperament around racing and stuff, whereas I would just be so used to that with Paul.

It was funny in Lucerne. I think we found ourselves just getting back into the routine of having dinner at the same time.

Like we all ate together and that kind of thing.

And then going out to race, you sort of remind yourself like, Oh yeah, sorry. Its a bit different.

It was strange but he hasnt really been around this year anyway. So it wasnt too much of a shock either.

But it was nice to have him there actually.

We got along quite well over there, despite racing against each other.

At the moment, its quite up in the air.

Paul is obviously focusing on his medical career at the moment.

We dont really know where thats going to take him over the next few years.

So you kind of have to plan to be without him for a while at least.

And that is hard because I know how good what we had was and how successful it could be.

But having said that, theres a lot of talent in the rowing centre as well.

That includes Pazzaia, the Geneva-born son of a Belfast mother and a Swiss-Italian father.

But McCarthy stressed his new partner has been on the Irish rowing scene for some time already.

He said: Hes not new by any stretch.

We seem to have had a pretty good double so far.

Pazzaia who grew up in France and Switzerland before studying at Queens University was inspired to take up rowing after seeing the exploits of the ODonovan brothers nine years ago.

McCarthy is not unaware of the passing of time and the changing of dynamics.

He said: I guess as the Olympic cycles go on, it kind of becomes my job to sort of be what Paul was for me early on and bring on the other guys, which I quite like.

I probably have a lot to share and offer that will help them. And thats only going to help whoever ends up being in the boat for the Games be the quickest in LA. But if there is still much up in the air, that is as much by design as circumstance.

"Were so used to each other, which is the main thing I found with other people."

Fintan McCarthy

McCarthy is racing in both the single and quad this year, although he does ultimately still see himself in the double.

The 28-year-old is enjoying the freedom that comes in the year after an Olympics, admitting he has allowed himself to party after recent regattas.

The Skibbereen man is also savouring the release of no longer having to weigh in at 69kg.

He said: I feel like we were so dialled in last year that for me anyway, we nearly went too far over the edge.

I got quite sick in May and I was a bit injured as well.

That is kind of part of it, especially in an Olympic year.

I think sometimes that drive to just go all in for a year and leave no stone unturned, it can catch up to you quite quickly, especially when youre so on the line in terms of food and making weight anyway, that its quite easy to tip the scales.

So just not having to ride that line so hard has been kind of refreshing as well, knowing that youre going to have the energy to do big sessions and actually recover from them as well.

Thats probably been a relief in itself.

And then when you add into that, like growing with different people, mixing the groups together, different training partners and stuff, it is all quite new.

Its not too boring yet anyway.

There is, he conceded, a large element of trial and error about this year with no markers to hit as they figure out the best way for him and ODonovan to negotiate the move to heavyweight.

But McCarthy does that in the comfort of knowing that the dynamic duo were already within touching distance of the standard required to be in contention for further Olympic glory.

He said: We kind of knew in top form as the lightweights, we were pretty much up there with the heavy guys.

We would have done a lot of training with Daire and Phil, they were in the medals in Paris too.

So we can kind of gauge off them and know that we can do quite well in the double in top form.

If you look at Paris, we actually had a faster time than the heavyweight guys who had won gold.

And we raced Romania at the World Cup and they didnt make the final. They are Olympic champions.

I think it is all to play for, especially in that boat class. And so that is sort of why it hasnt been like a reinvent-the-wheel kind of thing.

This year was more about figuring out how we can gain those extra maybe two or three seconds and seeing where it needs to come from.

It might not actually need to be too much extra weight.

It could just be not having to restrict coming into competition, so well have a bit more energy to do a bit more training and get that extra speed from a bit more fitness.

Leading into competitions as lightweights, for me especially, you cant help but drop the volume and drop the intensity a little bit.

You cant eat enough to sustain that type of training while also losing enough weight to be 69kg on race day and be somewhat healthy.

Weve been a bit freer in the gym as well.

Usually, its a lot of maintenance in the summer rather than pushing on the strength and building.

We have been able to kind of keep up a pretty good gym routine coming into the summer.

And weve never really been able to do that before.

I think theres probably more scope to gain a bit of speed from the fitness side of things for this summer.