An Interview with Paul Griffin - Kerry Olympain
2004
By Weeshie Fogarty
W.F: You are very welcome to this pre-recorded
Olympic Terrace Talk special and with the 2004 Athens Olympics
almost upon us my guest on this programme is a young Kerry man
who is preparing to write himself into the pages of Irish and
Kerry sporting history. Excluding the terrible possibility of
a late injury Paul Griffin will become the first Kerry man in
history to row for Ireland in the Olympic games. Paul since your
last appearance on Terrace Talk in September life has been absolutely
hectic. You can officially tell our listeners that you have been
chosen to become an Olympian.
P.G: That’s right Weeshie it has been hectic.
I have just recently been selected to confirm that I am in the
actual boat for the Olympics in August. That was my goal all year
I said back in the last Terrace Talk show that I was going to
be under serious pressure and under constant selection and being
constantly watched to hold my place in the boat all year and finally
after a long winter and a hard spring and a few early season races
I can confirm I am back in the four and am there for the Olympic
games.
W.F: Now Paul the crew has been chosen tell us
how it is chosen who’s in who’s out and what has happened.
P.G: Yeah the whole thing was that there was
a panel of people there very well trained athletes. They’re
were six or eight of us there really and in March or April it
was knocked down to six for the four seats and six into four doesn’t
go so obviously decisions have to be made. It wasn’t any
athlete’s decision it was going to be made by the management
and it wasn’t made on any one day of any one-month this
year it was made throughout the season and continuous observation
always under pressure always being watched and assessed. Anytime
we do a test piece lets say on an indoor rowing machine times
would be recorded and it was like continuous observation like
in school or college nowadays where its like your final exam your
final mark isn’t given based on the final exam its based
on through all exams throughout the year and that’s like
the selection of the four. Three of last years four are still
in the four myself included the other two are Richard Archiebald
from Coleraine and Eugene Coakley from Skibeereen County Cork
not too far away from here but the big change really is Timmy
Harnaday who is also a Skibeereen man has lost out unfortunately
that is the brutality of top level sport that’s the way
things pan out some times but the man in his place is now ex-world
champion of 1991 Niall O’Toole from Dublin and I am very
excited about Niall being in the boat. I think it has added a
freshness to us now and its funny the way the world goes but I
mean in 1991 when Niall won his first Gold World Championship
medal incidentally it was the first gold medal for Irish rowing
at the World Championships and he was a pioneer of sorts. I was
eleven years old then he was 21 so there are ten years between
us little did I know looking back when I was watching videos of
him racing that I would be sitting in front of him stroking the
oar with him behind me backing me up bracing the Olympics in Athens
in the year 2004.
W.F: Its great to have him in the boat of course
Paul great experience and everything a strong man but for the
man that didn’t get it for Timmy he must be absolutely gutted
after training for four years and then being told you are not
in.
P.G: Yeah this is it we are all friends and we
are so involved in it together and basically since last year and
yeah you could go back to the last four years we’ve been
living with each other, training together, seeing each other strip
down to the bare minimum seeing each other suffering hard just
doing the hard stuff running in the rain doing all the hard things
you can possibly imagine and bearing our souls to each other if
you like you learn what a person is about when you live with them
and train with them for so long it’s early mornings there
is no bow attached the pleasantries are detached everybody knows
everybody inside out and when somebody loses out unfortunately
it has to happen because six into four doesn’t go. I just
hope the guys who have lost out will give us the support and I’m
sure the guys that have lost out will give us the support and
wish us well.
W.F: You are home on holidays this is the end
of June now Paul we are doing this programme because you will
be so busy now you won’t have time to talk to us. What happens
from here now we’ll say until July?
P.G: On Monday now I am leaving for Sweden we
are going to be there for three and a half weeks. Basically we
are going back to basics we are going up there its very like Ireland
very like Killarney. We are going to go up there and go back to
basics back to long rowing back to long steady rowing going back
to lifting weights back to running going back to the basics and
build everything up from there. If you like its like a new season
after this break and that’s the way traditionally in rowing
we have a season that starts in October and lasts until the middle
of June which is the big regatta which was Luas Hern so that’s
one half of the season and then we do a sort of miniature season
after Luas Hern regatta to the final which is the Olympics. So
we are going to go back to basics now in Sweden for three and
a half weeks and then we come home for two or three days rest
then and then we are going to go to a pre-Olympic training camp.
It’s a climatisation camp in Zagreb in Croatia and that’s
where we are going to acclimatise to the heat that’s where
we are going to do our sharpening work and that’s where
we are going to gain the speed that we will need down in Athens.
W.F: And your first choice of music
P.G: Yeah one of my first songs that I thought
was good it was around 1995-96 it was Wonderwall by Oasis
W.F: Paul lovely choice there Oasis a group
I like myself remind our listeners where you came from and who
are your parents?
P.G: I’m from barley mount in Fossa outside
Killarney. My parents are Donie and Mary Griffin. I have one brother
and one sister, Danny and Maureen. I started rowing initially
in Fossa. Fossa have a club and had a club back then in 1993.
When I first started rowing I got involved a few friends of mine
started up and I went down then with them. We got a group together
and trained from there and this is where I have come to at this
point ten years twelve years later.
W.F: You have indeed come to be Kerry first ever
Olympic oars man. We’re going for a very short break stay
with us on Terrace Talk
W.F: Welcome back to Terrace Talk. I am talking
to Olympian Paul Griffin who is getting set to head for the Olympics
in Athens in August. Paul since I spoke to you last and in particular
the past two months you have been very busy in the pre Olympic
World regattas. Talk to us on how ye got on because ye actually
won a silver medal in it. Tell us about that
.
P.G: Yeah this is it the thing about rowing is
what makes it so different from other sports is that we put in
massive volumes of training and we only end up racing three times
a year in three major regattas usually and one of the major regattas
is either the World Championships or the Olympic games which is
on only every four years so needless to say its very important
and we treat every regatta as very important as we get so little
time and such little opportunity to race other crews and just
to see our form so we have to treat it with great importance.
The first regatta really this year was in Dursberg in Germany
and was just a weekend event it was not as important as the other
two regattas we were at. We raced there and did some switches
with the crew just to try out people and again it was a part of
the selection and we won both days there convincingly that was
kind of a positive thing. The opposition wasn’t very strong
there we only beat the Polish crew who weren’t even qualified
for the Olympics so we had to wait until we got to Munich regatta
which is part of the World Cup series of regattas which was two
weeks later.
W.F: What date was that on?
P.G: It was early June and that was our first
taste of real hard international competition this year and it’s
a big deal when you do the work all winter and it’s a nervous
time as it’s the first race of the year. You want to know
how good you are. You want to know if the winter has paid off
because very often my take on it or I believe that 90% of our
summer speed is built up in the winter so we can only influence
10% of our speed in the summer so basically if we screwed up the
winter and we come along in Munich and we come 12th or 15th we
can change very little about that but fortunately we did really
well in Munich or first race it was in the heat we were racing
last years World Champions from Denmark and we beat them by three
seconds to win the heat and we progressed to the semi so that
was very positive. We kind of screwed ourselves with the semi
because we had won the heat so we were going to get a harder semi
and we had five of last years World Championship finals in the
semi and there are only three to go through to the final so again
we really performed positively and we actually won beating the
Italians and Denmark and Canadians and French we’ll say.
So then the final, we were semi final winners and we went to the
final and a medal was a minimum requirement really because it
had happened last year at the World Championships where we had
won the semi final and we went into the final as semi final winners
and by right we should have got a medal but we didn’t we
were inexperienced we were young so we ended up coming last out
in sixth but we still managed to qualify the boat for the Olympics
which was the goal last year so it was the same situation this
year we had to put that to bed the big final day we had to perform
after performing in the semi final we had to actually perform
in the A final which was the business end of the race which is
what you train for all year what you come to do and we got a silver
the Italians beat us by about two and a half seconds and we were
happy with it I’ll put it that way. We weren’t delighted
we were happy enough with it like.
W.F: Paul put it in perspective for our listeners
two and a half seconds that is a lot in a boat race.
P.G: Yeah two and a half seconds that’s
about three quarters of a length in a boat race two and a half
seconds over about six minutes.
W.F: Were ye disappointed with that?
P.G: It was a bit of a fifty fifty-one as it
was our first major race as a unit together. It was actually the
four that was selected with Niall O’Toole in and that was
one of the reasons we were selected because we can perform under
pressure. I was happy with the fact that we put the Danish away
again for the third time that weekend who were reining World Champions.
We put away the Chileans who were a so so crew, the Dutch who
had beaten us previously and the Germans which we had never beaten
we had never actually beaten the Germans until that race on that
weekend and now in sport as you know physcological edges and when
you get to the top when there is so little in it physcological
edges are so important and I like the fact and I like the idea
of putting down markers earlier on in the season to put these
guys away to put them in their little boxes and say to them look
this is our speed here now you are going to stay there and no
matter what you do this year we are going to try and beat ye.
W.F: Now what was it like for a young man from
Kerry to stand up there on the podium, receive his silver medal
and look down at the rest of the world and say we have beaten
them all. What were you feelings Paul and how difficult was the
finishing of the race in the lines of physical and mental tryings
circumstances.
P.G: Yeah I felt relieved in a way that I had
finally got on the podium. I mean I have been knocking or been
there or there abouts for the past two or three years and eventually
it was going to happen at one stage it was only a matter of timing
and finally we got there and it was great we got there the first
regatta of the season in Olympic year in a strong field with ten
of the thirthteen boats that were there are going to be at the
Olympics. Physically as regards the race its funny because some
times it can be excruciatingly painful and more times I can cross
the line and wont remember anything about it because your just
so clued up your so clued in your so concentrated its difficult
because my job is steering the boat and I have to be so focused
on that and so sharp that I don’t know what’s actually
going on around me and I am just so focused when I cross the line
that I won’t remember of anything that happened but I will
be in a heap basically and things will be happening like some
guy behind me puking his guts out over the boat or something like
that but sure it all pays off when you get some present to bring
home to people.
W.F: And your next choice of music
P.G: I will go for the Pogues this time with
the Irish Rover it’s a good wild mans song so we’ll
go with that one
W.F: Thanks for that Paul the Pogues a little
good old Irish song as you say and after that regatta then two
weeks ago from today now ye raced again in another regatta the
final one before the Olympics talk us through that.
P.G: Yeah the last regatta of the World Cup Series
was in Luasern in Switzerland. Again it was another high-class
field. They’re were two new fours into the field that made
up the full complement of the Olympic programme so all the fours
that were going to be at the Olympics were at this regatta. The
Australians had come over and we knew they were going to be fast
because they had some previous Olympics medallists in the boat,
previous World medallists so we knew they would be fast. Then
we had the Russians who we didn’t know much about because
they tend to keep themselves….
W.F: And this was being held where?
P.G: This was being held in Luasern in Switzerland
so the preparation for Luasern before I start wasn’t as
good. We’d been in Ireland for most of the time, before
the other regattas we had been away a lot but it so happened we
were in Ireland we didn’t get away as much as we would have
liked before Luasern so we came cold from Ireland right into the
cauldron out in Luasern and I feel now we weren’t as prepared.
We ended up coming fourth point six of a second behind the Australians.
The Aussies got third. We had a hard weekend we had two hard races
we had a photo finish in the heat and we had a photo finish in
the semi and both times we were beaten we were second in both
of them. The Danish pipped us in the heat actually so they turned
things around again and they are going well again so they are
a crew to watch. Incidentally they didn’t even make the
final as they were in the other semi so they are a bit inconsistent
at the moment so the first time we actually raced the Australians
this year was in the semi and we led them all the way to the last
stroke they pipped us at the line which isn’t ideal either
and we’re disappointed with that and its something we are
going to have to address over the next six to eight weeks when
we’re in Sweden and in the sharpening camp in Croatia. Having
said that we are still there or there abouts on the fringes in
the pack. I mean it’s our own goals we are setting for ourselves.
You know there are different expectations from different people.
I remember reading in the paper today the Irish Times it was an
article about the selection of the four and this guy says yeah
we have a possibility of making the final at the Olympics he says.
There are different goals set by different people but what really
matters are the goals set by ourselves in the four in the group
as a private unit as a compact unit and that’s what will
matter when we head down to Athens in August.
W.F: Your welcome back to Terrace Talk. I am
talking to Paul Griffin Kerry’s first Olympic Oarsman. Paul
looking back at those two regattas now there must have been an
awful lot learned out of it looking forward now to the Olympics
and you’ll be rowing against all of these countries what
are the prospects?
P.G: That’s a good question. It’s
one I have been thinking about a lot. It’s a serious question.
It’s a big thing to say that you want to get a medal at
the Olympics. It’s every mans dream it’s every top
sports mans dream to get a medal at the Olympics and it’s
very easy to say and I don’t want to be drawn into saying
these things but we know we have improvement to make. We’re
making the finals of the regattas consistently and if you don’t
make the final and you’re not in you can’t even get
a chance of getting a medal. The nub of the whole thing is that
we go to Athens. We get out of the heat. We make the semi and
probably the biggest hinge race in the Olympics will be the semi
final because if you don’t come out of the semi final you
are not going to be in the Olympic final. You have no chance of
doing well then. We just have to train ourselves and to train
ourselves mentally to be able to deal with that type of pressure
to perform under pressure and I think we have experienced that
in the racing in the two regattas to a point this year. We’ve
been dealing with pressure. We’ve exposed weaknesses in
ourselves one of the things we are doing this week because we
are home is we are away from each other we are on a bit of a holiday
so to speak we are still training but its actually a break from
each other we’re actually mudding it over and one of the
things that is going to come out of the week is a list of things
we feel we can improve on so I am going to go home at some stage
and write down ten or 15 things I think we could have improved
on we could have been better at in the regattas and a list of
solutions that we can use in the next six or eight weeks to be
faster in Athens and already I have a good few and I think everybody
in the four is going to do that and we are going to compare notes
and if any of them overlap and match we will have to address them
I think its professional things like that that will definitely
make the difference at the end of the day.
W.F: Now you are home in Killarney from your
travels around the world for four days what are your training
schedules for each day in Killarney because I presume you are
not staying in bed until ten or eleven o’clock and I also
presume you are not out at night drinking pints of porter and
smoking fags and I presume you are in bed early so what’s
an Olympian’s training schedule in Killarney?
P.G: An Olympian’s training schedule in
Killarney on a holiday is yesterday now for example I did an hour
and a half run so I left home. I love running from home and I
love running around here because there are so many places to go
and its so fresh so I just ran down Fossa in by the golf links
down the demesne around Ross Castle and back home again.
W.F: Somebody told me you did a trip up to the
top of Carrantoohill.
.
P.G: I did actually before Luasern because I
was home for a few days then as well so I did that as well again
it was like I drove back and I togged off and treated it as a
training session it was a fine day it was really nice and I said
I’d bomb it up to the top.
W.F: How long?
P.G: John Lenihan might be listening and I don’t
want to embarrass myself in front of him (laughing) and I took
a different route John so it was from the car to the top in 58
minutes and I felt I could have gone quicker I was down to 45
minutes so.
W.F: Why did you mention John Lenihan’s
name there now?
P.G: I am a fan of John’s big time he’s
a fantastic athlete and I have been following his career with
ten years really as I have always been interested in the mountains
and in guys who can run mountains. Now there are guys getting
geared up and climbing mountains but this guy is absolutely phenomenal
I followed his career closely in the papers and I have met him
once or twice at various award dos and very nice guy and an excellent
athlete and ex-world champion as well.
W.F: Well said because he is one of my favourite
all time Kerry athletes so go on to your training schedule.
P.G: Yeah I am doing weights now a lot like I
said we are back to basics so I am lifting heavy weights now so
I am inside in Aonguses Physiques Fitness Studio inside in town
and I’m pumping iron inside there so basically its training
away from the boat but at the same time relaxing it and enjoying
it maybe you know going for the odd pint of I want like its not
like that’s critical at the moment. The most important thing
about this break at home is that I go to training camp feeling
refreshed and ready for fighting again
W.F: Your third choice of music Paul
P.G: Yeah the third choice I will go with is
a new man Paddy Casey “ Saints and Sinners”
W.F: Paddy Casey’s “Saints and Sinners”
that was Paul’s third choice there. Paul before we go for
a break are you nervous about the Olympics?
P.G: I won’t say nervous but I am very
keen I’m very keyed up about them I really want to go and
enjoy the whole thing while I want to perform there and I want
to nail it down I want to enjoy the whole experience and I have
been asking around to people who have been there before by all
accounts it will be good and that’s why I am really looking
forward to it.
W.F: You’re very welcome back to Terrace
Talk I am talking to Kerry’s first ever-Olympic oarsman
Paul Griffin. Paul you are the Cox in the boat explain to our
listeners and many of them wouldn’t know what a Cox is or
what the job of a Cox is explain exactly the crew and what people
will see when then are looking at the television screens when
the Olympics come around and they watch you coxing the Irish crew
tell us about the crew and the Cox.
P.G: There are four of us in the boat and we
have one oar each. I am sitting in the stroke seat in the Cox
seat steering the boat so I have two jobs. My prime job and my
most important job is to stroke the boat and to set the pace basically
for the crew and to lead it out and to go up and down in stroke
rates and go up and down in power output throughout the whole
body of the race and my secondary job because of where I am sitting
in the boat, it’s at the back of the boat and I can see
the lanes more clearer then anybody else in the boat, I’m
steering the boat and it’s a technical enough job and requires
a lot of concentration and I am just using my foot and my foot
is on a sort of a swivel and is connected to guide wires which
are connected down to a little rudder connected onto the stern
of the boat so it’s a demanding job like I said before in
the stroke seat you always have to be on the ball sharp and knowing
what’s going on exactly you know with the guys behind you
feeling everything checking the boat is it going well have we
got the proper length stroke are we accelerating the oars through
the water correctly
W.F: One slight mistake
P.G: Yeah one slight mistake can cost you so
much. As I saw we lost by point six in Luasern who knows how we
quantify that that could have been anything down along the race
it could have been me using the rudder a bit too much to correct
a wind error or something like that
W.F: Paul three boats level a hundred metres
to go who calls?
P.G: Who calls? Generally the bowman he is the
guy opposite to me.
W.F: What does he do?
P.G: Richard is our bowman he’s very good.
I have asked him so many times because I can’t actually
understand how he can speak in a race. I wouldn’t say he
speaks he gives key calls he shouts out he bellows out.
W.F: Tell us what does he does
P.G: Yeah in a typical race everybody is well
drilled we know what we are doing from the first stroke it’s
well discussed generally after the first five strokes and twenty
so that’s twenty five strokes we are absolutely nailed flat
out to the mat just to get out ahead if we can generally no one
gets out ahead all six boats are going to be in a line at the
finish he’ll call a rhythm call or a length call he’ll
say length there or rhythm there and length and rhythm are two
things that are really important that we establish a length and
a rhythm of a stroke length that we can actually sustain for the
middle of the race and generally he’ll tell us what position
we are in the race if he feels there is something not right with
the boat like if he feels our length is not as long as it should
be he’ll make the call length or slide up with the seats
and his most important job is to call the pushes and the moves
generally from the half mark on we’re going to lift the
stroke rate by half a pip per minute every 250 meters to the finish
line so basically we are going for the finish line from half way
on and it’s his job to have a sharp eye out to see what’s
going on around but also to be rowing himself flat out and making
sure the boat is going well.
W.F: What will your lifestyle be like between
now and the Olympic games in relation to sleep, diet, heat, relaxation,
drinking and fear of sickness or injury?
P.G: Yeah that’s a good one about the fear
of sickness or injury. I am not going to change anything in my
life. I’ve got to this point by doing what I have always
done I fell and that’s the reason I am where I am at the
moment and I find if I start changing things now if I start being
more careful maybe I’ll build a little cocoon for myself
and start thinking too much about being careful and maybe something
could happen me then if I am just thinking about it all the time.
I just have to be natural, natural in my actions and movements
around the place and just do what I normally do and regards training
and our regime its going to be pretty much the same as it has
been all year we are going to have to watch the weight I mean
we haven’t much of a problem with the weight but I mean
were going to have to be right on the weight when we stand on
the weighing scales in Athens two hours before the heat on the
15th of August so that’s something we are going to have
to address all of the time and that means just eating the correct
fuel for the training and basically pushing the training all the
time pushing right to the edge but never ever going over the edge
because if you go over the edge you will have to take time off
and you will be afraid to have to push it again and it’s
just going to be a disaster so basically being careful enough
to walk the tightrope and to make the difference between winning
and losing.
W.F: In charge of each team and every group of
people taking part in the Olympics there is a coach. Talk to us
about your coach.
P.G: Our coach is Thor Nielsen he’s a Norwegian
man he’s 73 years of age. He has 50 years experience in
rowing he has worked for the Italians, Spanish, and Irish.
W.F: Mick Dwyer has a bit to go to catch up to
him.
P.G: Yeah he has alright (laughing) Thor is unique
in his coaching style. His big thing is that he doesn’t
tell you what to do he more or less guides us. His philosophy
is that he coaches us to coach ourselves because he won’t
be there at the end of the day. He a won’t be there in the
race and also a big thing with him is and I’ve noticed it
very much this year it’s that he tries to develop us as
people as well to make us more strong willed to help us get something
out of sport and that’s what sport is for essentially it’s
for the betterment of mankind really and that’s a big thing
with him but I think he’s training programme is very good
and we have great confidence in him and he’s a guy that
commands a lot of respect he’s like a school teacher or
a garda or one of these people in position’s of authority.
He’s a guy that commands respect that when he walks into
a room everybody shuts up and listens and he’s the guy making
decisions and he’s the guy that picked us and we’ve
confidence he’s doing the right things for us.
W.F: Does religion come into any of the crew’s
lives or does religion come into the crew’s life?
P.G: Religion. We do a bit of relaxation and
it’s good when we’re away in camps a lot of us and
we go away on our own and have time to think and time out and
take perspective on the whole thing. I find actually music is
a great help especially when your sitting down after the weigh
and are waiting for the race or waiting to go out and race it
can be a really nervous time really it’s an unbelievable
situation you know and sometimes we throw on a walkman and a lot
of the guys have their own ways in dealing with things but generally
I like to chat and joke around just to keep relaxed But I must
say the walkman has been my best friend all year out running and
has helped me through an awful lot this year.
W.F: Have you been measured up for your Olympic
suit and have you tried it on?
P.G: No I haven’t tried it on we were measured
up in January actually they measured everybody because we weren’t
selected then they measured everybody involved. They have my sizes
and I hope they get it right.
W.F: Have you met up with any other Irish Olympians
that are going to Athens?
P.G: Yeah we bumped into a few out in Seville
in Spain because there was a kind of multi sport training camp
out there around Christmas. They’re were a few cyclists
out there, there was one or two from the athletics so there was
a bit of banter and mixing between us alright. Of course Irish
people out in Spain you know mix together and I am just looking
forward to meeting the rest of them out in Athens you know mingling
and being part of the Irish team.
W.F: You are very welcome back to this final
part of Terrace Talk. I’m talking to Paul Griffin Ireland’s
Olympic oarsman. Paul unfortunately another great Kerry oarsman
just failed to make the Olympics Sean Casey.
P.G: Yeah unfortunately Sean didn’t make
it and you know like I was saying earlier on before on Timmy not
making the four it’s just one of those things it’s
the brutal reality of sport. Sometimes people don’t make
it sometimes people lose a medal by point six of a second you
know it’s just one of those things that happens it’s
what you take from that experience is more important than the
actual failure of getting there and I know Sean well and I know
what kind of a character he has and he’s a fighter. We’ll
see Sean back in four years time going to the Olympics and we’ll
see him every year between here and then every year going to the
World Championships. He’s a fighter and that’s the
kind of character he is and if you fell at the first fence if
you walked away after one failure if every fella walked away after
one failure then we would have nobody in the sport
W.F: Yeah we wish him well because he’s
a lovely fella. I did a full Terrace Talk on him there some time
ago and a lovely fella I’ve no doubt he’ll be back
and of course Kerry for the first time ever have two Olympians.
Gillian is of course going out in the walking race she’s
injured at the moment but hopefully she’ll be ok I know
she’ll be alright. Have you met up with her and what does
it mean to have another person from Kerry being with you. Have
you met with her lately I should say?
P.G: No I haven’t met her lately I mean
we have been away doing our own things really. It’s actually
when you really think about it it’s actually a great achievement
or great honour for the town or the locality to have two people
going to the Olympics in Athens. The population of the place isn’t
that big it’s not like any of the cities where you would
have a lot of athletes coming out of there. It’s special
in that way and it’s also great that we have come out of
this place and we have learned our sports in the locality so we’re
home grown talent and that’s a great thing because you know
for so many young people around today they can learn at home and
they can get to the top. I’ve done it. I’ve done it
all from home and they can learn from that too.
W.F: What would you say to young people listening
to you know to parents who are listening and who can turn around
to their children and say this Kerry Olympian said this. They
all won’t become Olympians but they could become great sports
people. What do they have to do?
P.G: If I was a parent I would get my son or
daughter involved in every kind of a sport there is around the
place because chances are they will be good at one of those sports
personally growing up I remember I wasn’t very good at football
I wasn’t very good at swimming I was okay at running. I
was good at long jump for example it was as diverse as that and
the more things you try and the more things you give a go at the
chances are you will find something you are good at and the chances
are if you are good at it you will like it and if you like it
you are going to stay at it and if you stay at it who knows what
could happen. That happened with me and rowing I fell upon the
rowing thing I was good at it, I liked it stayed at it and became
obsessed with it and now I am going to the Olympics doing it.
W.F: Who inspired you up along the away from
Fossa to Muckross?
P.G: Jimmy Doyle really in Fossa he was our driving
force there I’ve said it before he’s the guy that
thought me how to pull and that’s not an easy thing to teach
a young kid coming down who’s green to the world to pull
and to be honest to fight and to struggle. Essentially what he
did was he thought us how to win and that’s not an easy
thing either and then I went to Muckross and Sean Coffey was down
there and Ulick Daly great people to be involved in a club and
they showed me to bring it on where I had left off from with Fossa
to even develop more and more to get into the more technical aspects
of the sport. It’s real good people like this honest people
that love the sport and are actually driving clubs around the
country producing people like us.
W.F: Well said Paul. You are going off to where
did you say your next training camp is?
P.G: Sweden
W.F: Bring us into the training camp from dawn
to dusk are you called early in the morning what time do you go
to bed?
P.G: Sweden won’t be too bad it will be
just twice a day rowing that’s all but I’ll tell you
the hardest time I put down this year. This is just an illustration
of the work we done in the winter which we are going to reap in
the Summer basically the 90% 10% split the way we work it. The
hardest time I went through was in December of 2003 last year
out in Spain we were getting up at half seven crawling out of
the bed like really crawling as we were really tired from the
day before and the day before that and the day before that and
we’d go for an hour run. So we go for an hour run it’s
not hectic but I mean it’s just a warm up wake up and burn
some fat. We come in have a shower come down eat come back and
straight away we’re out into the gym lifting weights for
an hour by then we’re warming up for the day. Then we go
rowing for an hour and a half out in the water and generally we
are going to be doing a lot of hard working pieces in the water
lots of different rates striking your rate. Then we have lunch
and the evening we did a lot of sprinting this year actually running
interval training and a lot of sprinting and that was always competitive
like there was a group of us there and there were fellas knocking
each other and real aggressive stuff because I remember our asses
were on the line every day and that’s what it was a part
of sometimes we would have a rowing machine session and again
same thing fellas pumping it trying to be the best as everything
was going to be written down and documented and you knew that
information was going into that seat if you got into that boat
and usually in the evening we’d finish off with another
gym session of sit-ups and push ups and stretching session. We
were doing six seven hours a day back then it was really hard
but I mean we knew we had to do it and hopefully we will reap
the benefits of it next month.
W.F: When you’re out foreign on your own
and your talking to people does anyone say how does a fella from
Kerry become an Olympian an oarsman. Would people be astonished
that there is an Olympic oarsman coming from Kerry?
P.G: Yeah if they can understand my accent like
(laughing) yeah its fairly unique for Ireland all right because
generally the rowing stronghold was Dublin it’s the whole
Kerry Dublin thing with the jackeen versus the Kerry man. I feel
very proud of where I’m from and I’m really glad there
is a Kerry man in the four pioneering for future Kerry men maybe
to come out of the county and to get into boats and go rowing
and nail it at the Olympics.
W.F: Are the Olympic Council looking after you
well financially and otherwise?
P.G: Yeah they are giving me a grant which I
got for the past three years and that was based on results I have
got in the past two or three years. They are also financing the
rowing union who are developing the camps for us and setting up
camps for example Sweden sending us to general camps and things.
W.F: Briefly Paul talk to us about the boat we
are going to be watching on television are ye rowing in that particular
boat now is it specially made for ye and tell us about it.
P.G: The boat is an impacer boat. It’s
yellow, it’s from Germany. It’s made from carbon fibre.
It’s about 18 inches wide. The seats are on wheels and they
slide up and down. There are two pairs of shoes fixed into the
boat so we sit in onto the seat put our feet in they’re
strapped in. In my seat I have a little digital clock telling
me what stroke rate we are doing how much time we have done and
how many strokes we have done. I also have the steering mechanism
up in my seat as well so I don’t know what way the Olympics…
I presume Ireland will be written across the back of it and our
boat is basically our tool so we have to be very careful with
it and we are careful with it we have been using it all year and
we’re very comfortable and happy in it and generally it’s
like an old shoe you wear yourself into it and it’s our
instrument to win and to compete so we are happy with it I suppose
W.F: A few quick one to finish with Paul. What’s
it like to be an Olympian?
P.G: I don’t know yet like. I don’t
think I’ll reflect on it until I come home or maybe for
another year or ten years but that said its an enormous amount
of pride for my family my friends and all who have been involved
with me throughout my career to this date and I think really it’s
more of an honour to them that I have gone on and progressed.
I mean I owe so much to them people.
W.F: You have a long-suffering girlfriend.
P.G: Yeah Clare suffering is right waiting for
me to come home every time.
W.F: But madly in love
P.G: Hopefully anyway the last time I checked
we were anyway (laughing)
W.F: Finally Paul the eyes of the world and of
Ireland but in particular of Kerry will be on you what would you
say to the listeners of Terrace Talk?
P.G: Don’t expect too much. Just be careful
with the times we’ll be good but we’ll have to see
I’m not saying much because I want it to be a surprise (laughing)
W.F: Paul Griffin Kerry’s first ever Olympic
oarsman it was a great honour and a great privilege to have you
on Terrace Talk and the very best of luck to you win lose or draw
as the fella says your well prepared ye have put in the work and
you are going to be a credit to Ireland and to Kerry and to Barleymount
P.G: Right thanks Weeshie good luck
Paul Griffin
