Fintan McCarthy confident 'kick in the ass' can spur him on again
Olympic gold medallist rower, Fintan McCarthy, pictured at the launch of the SPAR and EUROSPAR Community Fund 2026. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile ***
Fintan McCarthy believes that the success of other Irish rowers will be the “kick in the ass” he needs to rediscover the heights and spur him on to another Olympic bid in Los Angeles in 2028.
A two-time Games gold medalist with Paul O’Donovan, McCarthy has faced a new challenge since Paris in 2024 as, with the lightweight class dropped from future programmes, he has had to adapt to the open weights.
He prospered in 2025, winning bronze medals in a men’s double at the first World Cup regatta, as well as the Europeans and World Championships. This year has been far, far tougher for him.
McCarthy failed to make the A final in the single sculls at the recent World Championships and finished just fifth in the B final. It was a new experience for a man who has won 11 major medals, eight of them gold.
The Skibbereen man gave an emotional interview to RTÉ’s David Gillick after his fourth place in that semi-final, describing it as a “tough year” but he has had almost four weeks to let the experience sink in now and see it with a wider lens.
“A lot of the time, especially during the year, I was telling myself it would be okay because it's happened before. But sometime, I guess it's not okay, sometimes it doesn't work out the way you're hoping, the way you want.
“But it also made me realise that, for whatever reasons, I just didn't have that work done this year, whether it was training or maybe a bit of the mental side of things.
“I wasn't far off. I had a really good last two months leading into the World Champs and I thought that might be enough, but there's a difference between thinking you might be all right and knowing that you've got the work done.
“So I just have to put it down to that, really.”
Margaret Cremen is on the same journey as him, from light to open weights. She won gold in the recent Worlds alongside Zoe Hyde. Fiona Murtagh took home a silver from the same waters having won the gold last year.
"I had a really good time testing my ability in the single, and seeing the success of the women's double and Fiona was what I'm probably going to take most from the championships,” said McCarthy.
"It was one of the most inspiring displays I've seen in a very long time and it's really given the whole team a boost, knowing that we have everything we need around us, really, and it just is down to what you do yourself during the year is what's going to get that result.
“Looking at them, it's hard to fault anything they've done this year, especially the girls' double.
“I was training alongside Fiona for the last few weeks, even just to see how she's handled a lot of her setbacks this year and in the final few weeks, yeah, it just kind of gave me a kick up the ass, really, and showed me that there's a lot more I could be doing.
“Which is a good year to learn in, leading into the Olympic year and the qualification year this year.”
Next up for McCarthy is a first ever trip to Australia to compete in a mixed quad alongside Philip Doyle, Cremen and Kiwi rower Ella Cossill in the Golden Oar event before the annual turn into winter and its heavy training period.
The single is something he would love to return to in the future but the priority now is whatever boat gives him and Ireland the best prospect of success and the expected return to competitive rowing of O’Donovan will concentrate minds further.
“We're in touch a little bit,” said McCarthy of his erstwhile partner.
“At the moment we're just focusing on our own things, so there's no solid plans yet. But I think the eventual goal is that we'll all be back training in the centre together at some point. It will make for a really competitive group.
“There's a lot of quick men's scullers down at the centre at the moment, so I guess we'll all be going for the two seats in the double. And hopefully, if there's enough of us quick enough, we'll have a men's quad and a single sculler too that can be competitive.”
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