Tokyo 2020: Novice Team GB rowers told to embrace medal expectation ahead of Olympic Games
Team GB's 45-strong rowing team features 37 competitors who will be making their Olympic debuts at Tokyo 2020; Rio 2016 gold medallist Helen Glover will become first mum to row for Team GB at Games; Britain has been the most prolific nation in rowing at each of last four Games
By Rob Jones, Sky Sports News
Last Updated: 20/07/21 11:06am
Britain's novice Olympic rowers have been urged to to embrace the expectation that comes with being selected for one of Team GB's most dependable sources of medals in recent Games.
Of the 45 selected, 37 will be making their Olympic debuts in Tokyo tasked with extending a fine record since the turn of the century, with Britain the most prolific nation at each of the last four games.
And a rare veteran among the squad, Moe Sbihi, said: "We're Team GB and we're rowing, and that goes hand in hand with winning medals. That's something this team needs to embrace."
Another of the eight returning rowers, Helen Glover, will make history even before she takes to the water alongside Polly Swann in the women's pairs. Glover, twice a champion, has had three children since Rio and will become the first mum to row for Britain at an Olympics - an achievement that has changed her perspective ahead of a third go at gold in Japan.
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"For London and Rio I felt like my place in the team was quite secure and I was really thinking about my result at the Games but this time around it's been such an experiment - every day and every week is different," Glover told Sky Sports News.
"This feels like more of a moment, this is a moment I can really have some pride in and going forward to the games I'm just excited to see what we can do.
"I haven't really thought much about the result when we cross the line, partly because this journey has been so much about the rest of the world the first time we meet them could even be in the heats, the semis, the final then maybe I'll allow myself to predict what we can do.
Having partnered Heather Stanning to win both her golds to date, her new team-mate is Swann, who has been working for the NHS as a doctor during the pandemic.
Swann said of her partner: "We're both very driven, we're both very passionate, we both attack every training session really hard and then I go home and fall in a heap on the sofa and think 'how on earth has she got three children and running around the garden and going on walks!"
Amongst the men, the sharpest focus will probably fall on the coxless four - a boat which has delivered gold in each Games since Steve Redgrave signed off in style in Sydney 21 years ago.
Matt Rossiter admits that at the start of the Olympic cycle the current quartet were "a bit crap" but an extra year of preparation has benefited them and now they aim to maintain Great Britain's dominance of this event.
"GB have won heaps of gold medals in the coxless four with Pinsent and Redgrave and all that lot and I guess ultimately there is all that success, and it's not baggage but it's definitely there," said Rossiter.
"But ultimately what's done has been done and we're creating our own path and giving it our best shot."
Sbihi is one of those to have set the standard in the men's four, being part of the last gold medal winning boat in Rio, this time he's part of the eight and aiming for a third Olympic medal.
For the 33-year-old part of the pressure comes from aiming to deliver for the British supporters, none of whom will be present at a far more sterile Games than ever before, but who will be watching from home with the pandemic still never far from the public consciousness.
"For the majority of the country life has dramatically changed and people are desperate for things to go back to normal, to see loved ones, hug, go into a daily routine," said Sbihi.
"I just hope that in whatever way we can galvanise the nation and represent them in the best possible way."
