Aifric Keogh has admitted that pursuing rowing full time was a "gamble".
The Olympian won a bronze medal at Tokyo 2020 - along with crewmates Eimear Lambe, Fiona Murtagh and Emily Hegarty, she became the first Irish woman to claim an Olympic medal in rowing.
In November's issue of RSVP Magazine, Aifric opened up about taking the step to pursue it seriously as well as being a woman in sport.
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Aifric decided to join the rowing club in her secondary school, and the rest is history.
" Rowing is definitely not one of those sports that you just kind of pick up as a kid, you do have to seek it out, but I had never considered it or even heard much about it," she told us. "I was lucky that my secondary school had a rowing club and there’s only a handful of schools in Ireland that have that. I was actually one of the only people from my primary school that went to that secondary school so I had to join every club that existed to make some friends! So I picked it up as well as basketball and hockey and stuff, I just threw myself into everything."
When it came to deciding to pursue it seriously, it took Aifric a while to take that step.
"I really enjoyed the fact that there were so many training sessions and that I got to hang out with my new found friends all the time, essentially," she said, on the reason she liked rowing over any other sports she took up. "I think I just got good at rowing and opportunities came along and it was a natural progression through school and college."
She continued: "Taking the next step for me was when I went for the Senior High Performance Team, because more often than not you have to relocate to Cork. I remember looking at the athletes down there at the time and being like ‘I don’t know if that’s for me’. It was a big gamble and it wasn’t until I was around 23 or 24 that I made that step."
We've had a stellar year for female sports this year, but to keep that momentum going Aifric said the key is in the coverage.
" I think it’s definitely improving," she said. "Olympic and Paralympic sports do a good job of it because men and women are seen as equal and get the same coverage. But for me, it’s the sports that have male and female teams - such as the GAA, you definitely hear more about the male teams. When women are given coverage, it’s very much ‘the women’s team’, whereas the men are just called the Dublin team or whatever it may be. I think that equality comes down to coverage and also pushing the individual profiles of players."
Read the full interview in this month's issue of RSVP Magazine - on shelves now
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