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The Olympic gold medalist and medical doctor from Skibbereen discusses how his parents shaped his career, why he refuses to pick his best win, his views on setbacks and his ambitions heading into the LA 2028 Olympics.
Olympic champion Paul O'Donovan, a qualified physiotherapist and medical doctor from Skibbereen in County Cork, has built an extraordinary career in competitive rowing marked by Olympic medals and a relentless drive for improvement.
Together with his brother Gary, he claimed silver in the Men's Lightweight Double Sculls at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, and then went on to win gold at both the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Games alongside Fintan McCarthy. While based in Dublin for his medical work, O'Donovan continues to draw on the values his parents instilled in him during his upbringing in rural Cork.
His father, a small dairy farmer who also worked in a boat shed, introduced him and Gary to the sport from an early age and used farm chores such as chasing cows, sweeping the milking parlour, and lifting bags of ration and manure as informal strength and endurance training. His mother, meanwhile, kept the household running, driving the brothers to school and training sessions and preparing meals to fuel their athletic development.
O'Donovan has often credited that work ethic for shaping his own approach, noting that neither he nor his brother would have achieved a fraction of their success without their parents' constant support. In a wide-ranging interview, O'Donovan reflected on the childhood dreams that set him on his Olympic path, recalling that from the age of six or seven he and Gary shared an unshakable goal of competing at the Games and winning medals.
He said they never questioned that ambition and treated each year as a stepping stone toward it. When asked whether winning silver in Rio with his brother carried an extra emotional dimension, O'Donovan downplayed the brotherly narrative, explaining that they approached the regatta as two athletes with shared objectives rather than as siblings. He expressed some frustration at not winning gold at the time but ultimately regarded the result as a strong and meaningful achievement.
Looking back across all of his major victories, O'Donovan said he refuses to rank them, arguing that every win stands on its own merits and that new experiences constantly reshape how those memories are valued. He also spoke candidly about his school years, admitting he did not apply himself early on because of his intense training schedule, but found his appetite for learning once he returned to college as a mature student and began to see the results of greater effort.
Away from rowing, O'Donovan described himself as someone who enjoys simple pleasures, including a good breakfast, exercise, time with friends and an early evening, and he stressed the importance of relaxation in maintaining performance. He discussed his approach to setbacks, describing them as a necessary part of growth that allows athletes to identify mistakes and refine their preparation for future competitions.
He also spoke about his interests outside sport, including classical music, with a recent evening spent listening to Madame Butterfly, and his well-known fashion preference for wearing a high-factor sun cream regardless of the conditions. O'Donovan is currently serving as an ambassador for the National Dairy Council's High-Performance Breakfast, Powered by Irish Dairy partnership with the Sport Ireland Institute, a role that ties directly into his preparation for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, where he intends to compete for further medals.
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