Rowing champion Katie O'Brien: 'There was a time when I thought my career was over'

I was born with Spina bifida. My first surgery was when I was four months old. I've had well over 20 surgeries at this stage.'

Sun, 08 Oct, 2023 - 17:43

Mary Cate Smith

I’ve lived in Clarinbridge since I was six months old. I had an amazing childhood. We always had sports in our household. My brother was a rugby player, and we did horse riding, camogie, and Gaelic.

We were always out in the trees or the fields with our neighbours who were our best friends.

My earliest memory is from when I was two years old. The doctor was facing me in his office with a needle ready to go into my bum. That really ‘stuck’ with me.

I definitely wouldn’t be the person I am today without the things I’ve gone through in my life. Sometimes it can be the traumatic events within your life that shape the person you are.

The greatest challenge I’ve faced so far is losing my dad. Myself and my dad were thick as thieves. He literally was my best friend and the person in this world who understood me the most. Losing him at 16 years old was tough. I guess it’s tough at any age but at 16, you are really vulnerable.

I was born with spina bifida. My first surgery was when I was four months old. I’ve had well over 20 surgeries at this stage. The hospital appointments are something that have just always been part of my life. I’ve never seen it as strange or different. I never saw it as a struggle because it was the norm for me.

My proudest achievement is a toss-up between becoming a vet, because that was something I always wanted to do, and just recently qualifying for the Paralympic Games.

When I’m looking for advice or comfort, depending on the topic, I’ll go to my brother or my sister. If I was looking for a bit more harsh advice, I’d go to my brother. We have some very real conversations and he’s someone I can really turn to when I’m struggling with something. My sister is more in touch with the
emotional side of things. Sometimes I struggle with that, so I go to her if I’m looking for advice in that area.

I fell away from rowing at the age of 18 or 19 because I was rowing in a single scull, but I could only go to the Paralympics if I was in a double scull. I had no rowing partner at the time.

I came back to the sport after three years because the single scull rowing came into the World Championships. There was definitely a time when I thought my rowing career was over but fortunately, I decided to get back into it.

If I ever had any doubts about myself or about my disability, something my dad used to say to me sorted it out very quickly. He always said; “Everybody has their problems. Some people’s problems are on the outside, and some people’s problems are on the inside. You’re very lucky that yours is on the outside.”

The message is that everybody has their struggles, so be kind to everybody you meet because you never know what’s going on. The way he phrased it to me was: “So many other people in the world have so much going on in their head and you know yours is quite simple, really. You’re so lucky that yours is physical.”

The best piece of advice I ever got was from Sanita Pušpure. She’s a multiple-time world and European champion and competed in the Olympics three times. I asked her for advice once and her two words were “relaxed aggression”.

That’s how I try and go into everything, with relaxed aggression. You have to heed the advice from these kinds of people.

Sanita has been amazing throughout my whole career. Back then, she was just this idol to me and now she’s one of my very close friends.

I’d like people to remember me as a friendly person that you could always trust.

I hate to live life with regrets. Obviously, there are loads of things I could change — like not losing my dad, but at the same time, I think that shaped the person I am today.

My greatest quality is that I’m a great judge of character, it’s a self-professed skill.

We’ve made small changes as a family and with my housemate [because of climate change] but I probably should be making a little bit more of an effort, to be honest.

I only have two fears: Spiders and the dark. Nothing really scares me. I don’t think of anything as daunting. I wouldn’t have to leave the lights on, it’s more about what could be in the dark. If I was in the house on my own and heard a noise, there’s no way I’d go outside to see what it was.

The turning point in my life was definitely watching the Paralympics in 2012 with my dad. I’m now a full-time athlete and only for I watched the Paralympics in 2012 and was inspired by those athletes, the trajectory of my life could be so different. I might not have ever found out about rowing and God only knows what I’d be up to.

Myself and my dad sent an email off that day to Paralympics Ireland and asked them how to get involved. They asked me back up to this sports day where you could try out all the different sports and one of those sports ended up being rowing. A month later, they asked me back to a training camp and that was the start of my journey.