Who dares and wins is whoever can hold their hand in the fire the longest. Editor at Large Louise Evans meets the kevlar-coated rower who is making herself heat resistant.
A crippling, all-consuming burn is all that’s stopping Tara Rigney from crossing the finish line first.
She’s all alone in her slim shell of a boat, racing against the best rowers in the world.
Rigney describes her 2000m single scull event as running up steep stairs for seven minutes non stop.
The burning kicks in at about halfway. It starts in her gut and keeps building. But she can’t slow down. She has to push harder.
“My body is screaming ‘stop’,” the 25-year-old Sydney University student said.
“The halfway is the pinch point, you are really feeling that burn. I’m not looking at what other rowers are doing because everyone is in pain and I’m maxing it to the line. It comes down to who can keep their hand in fire the longest.
“We train in the fire, battle paddling against the best in the country. So when the burn hits it’s ‘hello old friend’. I know I can deal with it. My edge is believing I can handle it better.
“It sounds like we’re all sadists but it’s a lot of fun. I wouldn’t commit so much time to it if I didn’t enjoy it.”
Rigney is an accidental Olympics rower who slipped back into the sport after blowing the anterior cruciate ligament in her knee on the netball court – twice.
She’d rowed at her Sydney school Loreto Kirribilli and at Sydney University where she’s studying commerce, but netball was her first calling. Being a talented defender who was 1.82cm (just shy of six foot), she was aiming to be a Sydney Swift when injury crippled her career.
After a frustrating two-year cycle of rehab and surgery she limped back to rowing to stay fit.
Following in the wake of Australian rowing heroes – including Kim Brennan, the 2016 single sculls Olympic champion and 2013 and 2015 world champion – became Rigney’s new passion.
“I did running and netball at school and rowing is a sport that combines the pure physiological side of running and the technical strategy of netball, so for me it felt like the best of both worlds,” she said.
“You don’t have to be the biggest or physiologically the most impressive athlete. But you do have to be mentally strong and physically tough.
“I’m working on getting bigger and stronger in the gym. My best is probably a 95kg squat and 118kg deadlift, which is not that impressive compared to some of the other girls. It took me a long time to get to that. Back in 2019 I was squatting with just the bar. It’s been a long climb.
“My strength is on the technical side. I like rowing the single. The smaller the boat the bigger the focus on technique. I like the challenge that everything is just you. It’s incredibly rewarding.”
Just three years after switching sports, Rigney was lining up with Victorian rower Amanda Bateman in the double sculls at the Covid-delayed 2021 Tokyo Olympics where the pair finished seventh at their first Olympic outing.
The taste of competing as part of her first senior team was delicious. But the ache of the defeat was heavy. “I was disappointed not to make the A final in Tokyo. I hated that feeling. So I didn’t have a break after Tokyo. I started training while I was in hotel quarantine. I wanted to train harder, train longer. That hurt from Tokyo has been driving me.”
It drove her to win two bronze medals at the World Rowing Championships in the single sculls in both 2022 and 2023. But she wants to enhance the hue in her trophy cabinet.
She’s now heading to the Lucerne World Cup II (May 24-26) in Switzerland with the Australian rowing team to test herself against the best ahead of Paris. She’s looking forward to the start of her first big pre-Olympic race, lining up against the world’s best and yes, even the burn.
“I love being at the start line,” she said. “You hear ‘New Zealand’, ‘America’, the roll call of nations. And I’m ‘hell yeah, I’m doing this’. It’s crazy I get to represent my country.
“After we get announced my whole focus turns to the boat and the race. I picture a metal box around my heart and brain. My approach is – take the emotion out and race with ruthless execution. Right before the start I feel a complete calm. I’m ready, just do it.”
The burn she suffers is so debilitating that at the end of a race she struggles to stand.
“You don’t see us for 5-10 minutes after a race. Rowing looks effortless but we look dramatic after we finish. For me I’ve got the burning and I can’t stop puffing. Moving hurts, just turning my wrist is painful, my muscles are just so done. It takes a while for your heart rate to drop and for the lactic acid to clear. Getting back to land is a challenge.”
After Lucerne, Rigney heads with the Australian team to World Cup III at Poznan, Poland (June 14-16) where conditions are expected to mirror those she’ll encounter at the Olympics.
“The water in Poznan is meant to be quite lumpy, like what we’ll get in Paris. I’ve been doing drills and grip strengthening to handle the bad water and wind and measuring myself against other athletes in those conditions will be amazing. Every race leading up to the Olympics doesn’t have to be perfect, until Paris.”
Rigney predicts her biggest challengers for the medals at Lucerne, Poznan and ultimately Paris will be Dutch world champion Karolien Florijn and New Zealand’s reigning Olympic champion Emma Twigg.
Can she keep her hand in the flames long enough to beat them?
“I have faith in myself and my ability to perform and do my best. Let’s see how far that gets me. But I have no doubt in my ability to keep my hand in the fire.”
NOTE – Australia has at least six strong rowing medal chances in Paris. You can read about the other Olympic medal contenders here: women’s double sculls | women’s pair | men’s eight | women’s eight | men’s four
Louise Evans is an award-winning journalist who has worked around Australia and the world as a reporter, foreign correspondent, editor and media executive for media platforms including The Sydney Morning Herald (eight years), The Australian (11 years) and Australian Associated Press (six years in London, Beijing and Sydney).
A women sports’ pioneer, Louise was the first female sports journalist employed by The Sydney Morning Herald and the first female sports editor at The Australian. Louise went on to work at six Olympic Games, six Commonwealth Games and numerous world sporting championships and grand slam tennis events.
Louise is the Founding Editor of AAP FactCheck, the Creator of #WISPAA – Women in Sport Photo Action Awards and national touring Exhibition and the author and producer of the Passage to Pusan book, documentary and exhibition.
In 2019 she was awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) Queen’s Honour for services to the media and sport and named an Australian Financial Review Top 100 Woman of Influence for services to the arts, culture and sport.
In 2020 she won a NSW Volunteer of the Year Award plus the NSW Government Community Service Award for her women-in-sport advocacy work.
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