Pulling power: World champion Sanita Puspure sets her sights on 2020
TOP-CLASS rower Sanita Pušpure may have returned from the world championships in Bulgaria with a gold medal for Ireland last month, but she’s not about to rest on her oars.
“In everyday life, nothing much has changed, you go back to your routine you forget about it all,” says the 36-year-old, who was born in Latvia and now lives in Ballincollig, Co Cork.
A mum of two — Patrick, 11 and Daniela, 10 — there is little time to bask in the glory. Not only is she busy with her family, she also has Tokyo 2020 in her sights and with it back-to-back training sessions along with cooking marathons to prepare the food needed to fuel her demanding schedule.
“I try to have two to three dinners a day because I need about 5,500 calories a day. It would be nice if someone had it all ready, but you have to cook it yourself,” she says, adding that her husband Kasper takes charge when she’s tired.
It’s no surprise to hear there are times when there are simply not enough hours in the day.
“I can get caught out on food preparation if I’m very busy. It’s a bit of a struggle because I’m playing catch-up all the time. Things happen in life and it doesn’t always go perfectly.”
I wouldn’t be as fit as the rest of the year because we are just coming back from competing. We usually train every day, apart from Sunday which we have off. It’s two to three sessions a day — on the water, in the gym where we do weights, strengthening and exercise. On a hard day, we could be training up to six hours.
I could eat salad all day and all night! Sometimes I have to cut down on salad and eat proper carbs and protein. I try to make sure I’ve a balanced diet. It gets a bit tricky at times — if you have three training sessions a day that means you have to fuel up properly the day before.
I like my snacks. I go through stages, sometimes it’s chocolate and other times it’s crisps. But not every day. When we hit a really hard block of training then I don’t feel guilty about it — I’ll just chug away with whatever I want. Milka and Cadbury’s chocolate go down well. And I love my Tayto — cheese and onion all the way.
There can be stages when the load is quite high and you’re tired but you can’t sleep well. Or sometimes when you are going through a phase when something is not working well or something stressful is happening in life. Most of the time, the hard work I do during the day will help me to sleep.
Usually, it’s Netflix.
My closest friends who I haven’t seen in a while — we could catch up properly. It sounds very basic, but I am a very simple person. What’s the point in having celebrities over if you don’t really know them?
I like hyacinths — I could smell them all day. I like nice perfume as well. I wear Dolce & Gabbana’s Light Blue.
My nose. I think it’s very big, especially when I see pictures taken from the side. Also, I’m 5ft 11in and I can’t complain but sometimes it’s hard to find tracksuit pants that fit, they all seem to be very short.
I was rewatching the medals ceremony alone at home recently and I got teary-eyed. I didn’t cry at all on the day. I was so happy I was nowhere near tears, apart from the medals ceremony. You look at yourself on the telly and you say ‘Oh my God it’s actually me who did this’.
Lack of sympathy toward others.
I’m suspicious. If there is a change I’ll adapt very slowly and ask ‘why do I need to change now?’ This is more related to training than to daily life.
I definitely believe in something but I can’t say I’m a religious person. I would go into a church but not very often.
I don’t think there’s anything particular, but sometimes small happenings can cheer you up for the rest of the day. Let’s say if Kasper comes home early from work and I’ll be like “oh yeah that’s great”. Or if I met someone on the street that I haven’t seen in a while and have a nice chat.
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