Victoria Thornley has been battling loneliness over the past couple of months but the Olympic medal now in her sights would provide sweet solace.
In some boats, rowing can be the most sociable of sports – if you’re part of an eight, then there’s seven other people, plus a cox and any reserves, that you’re training and living with.
The single sculls is a different existence however, especially in a Covid bubble where interaction with other athletes on the team is largely forbidden, and that’s what the Wrexham rower has endured.
But Thornley is now into an Olympic final after qualifying second from her women’s single sculls semi-final at the Sea Forest Waterway on Thursday, with the showpiece set for Friday morning.
She already has an Olympic medal – a silver won alongside Dame Katherine Grainger in the double sculls at Rio 2016 – in her back pocket but with sculling in the single having always been her dream, the 33-year-old claims any downsides have been worth it.
“I loved my experiences in the crew boats, in the eight in London and then with Katherine in the double was an amazing time,” explained Thornley, whose Tokyo tilt is being broadcast live on Eurosport and Discovery+.
“The lessons I’ve learned from rowing with those women over the years has led me to this position where I am now in the single.
“It’s different and I must say, the last two months, I’ve felt lonely at times. A lot of it is driven by Covid.
“In training camp, I’ve had to eat on my own at every meal – I don’t even have the social side of things off the water at the moment because we’ve had to be separated.
“It has been lonely – I haven’t seen my friends or family for such a long time because we’ve been so, so careful.
“Obviously it’s absolutely worth it and absolutely what we needed to do to get here in the best shape but it has been lonely at times.
“I’ve embraced it though and it hasn’t been for one minute not wanting to be in this boat. It’s just great to be able to race in an Olympic final in it.”
Thornley finished second in her semi-final behind New Zealand’s Emma Twigg, with the top three advancing to the showpiece.
She was out in lane 6, after only just negotiating the quarter-final stage, but against a high-quality field, the Welsh star showed her class and now has a shot at a medal.
“I’m really happy to have executed the race I felt I was capable of,” added Thornley. “It was a really good race and I’m really pleased with the outcome.
“When I saw the semi-final draw, I thought ‘right, this is final standard just to get into the final’.
“To wait three days to race that race, and semi-finals are always nerve-wracking anyway, and most of my teammates have raced their final but I haven’t even done my semi – it was mentally a real challenge.
“There was a lot of mental gymnastics in the last three days, so I wanted to just get it out there and it’s a huge relief to have done the job.”
Stream every unmissable moment of Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 live on discovery+, the Streaming Home of the Olympics.
