Olympic Medallist Hannah Osborne Planning to Switch from Rowing to Mountain Cycling in the 2024 Paris Olympics

Another episode of Marco and Erica #TALKSHOW with another Olympic Medallist: it’s 7:30 am in the morning back in Cambridge, New Zealand and Rowing Athlete Hannah Osborne joins Marco and Erica to talk about the challenges she faced during the Olympics, how she trained alone in her garage before winning her Silver Medal, her plans for the future, her newly found passion for pottery and environmental planning studies and the secret tools behind staying happy and healthy.

Rowing in her garage was a part of her preparations to win the Olympic medal 

To kick off the episode, Marco and Erica congratulated Hannah for winning the silver medal in the Olympics. As Hannah thanked them, she peek-a-boo-ed the silver medal on the screen. You can tell how happy and proud she is for winning this medal.

We all know that athletes take months to train for a competition, and Olympic athletes take years just to participate in the Olympics. For Hannah, she had 6 years of training to prepare for the Tokyo Olympics. Usually, preparing for the Olympics takes 5 years, but since the pandemic stopped it for a year, Hannah had an extra year to train.

The training never stopped even during quarantine! She said that during quarantine she had her garage set up with a rowing machine to train. Not only that, but she also has free weights equipment.

As Marco said “All the good things start in the garage! Microsoft and Apple started there!”. Therefore, if you want to succeed in something, follow Marco and Erica’s plan and buy a garage!

Watch the episode to know how she trained in the garage and for how long.

What is more interesting, Hannah started rowing when she was 15, she used to try different sports until she was introduced to rowing in high school. Another sport Hanna plays is netball, a sport similar to basketball. The main difference between these sports is that in basketball a player can move around the court, while in netball a player needs to stay within an area depending on the position. 

Changed category a year before the Olympics

In 2019, she was selected as a reserve for the women’s double “my double’s partner at the time and I were training partners for that women’s double, and we did quite well during training”. Then they were asked if they want to do a women’s quad for the reserve pair. “It is quite different, the women’s pair got one oar and the women’s double has two” she explained for Marco and Erica the difference between them and how they were not able to combine the two reserve boats to make a quad.

Luckily for Hannah, the Olympics was postponed for a year and she was in the quad while the chosen double was not performing, so they said they will try Hannah against one of the current girls. And she made it!

This was not the only challenge Hannah faced “There were so many different challenges going on at this Olympics”. She told our presenting duo how COVID-19 was the first challenge as the athletes did not know what the new rules and regulations are.

One of the regulations is family members were not allowed to be in the Olympics. That is why Hannah’s family canceled all their flights, accommodation and tickets they have booked. “In our race, there was nobody in the stands, it was so quiet. All you can hear was the sound of a drone, the sound of oars and what other people were saying”.

Hannah told Marco and Erica how she got messages once she won the race and how her life changed. Watch the episode to know how people celebrated and supported her!

Participating in Paris 2024 Olympics, but not in rowing

Marco and Erica asked Hannah if she still works out after the Olympics, she said that she is having a few months off from rowing, but she is doing other workout like running and mountain cycling. She also said that she might participate in mountain cycling in the Paris Olympics 2024!

Changing sports in the Olympics is not something new, many athletes have done that. As Hannah explained “There were many people who went from rowing to cycling or swimming to rowing”. She also gave an example of Hamish Bond who is a three-time Olympic gold medallist rower. Hamish won the gold medal in the 2012 London Olympics and the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. He then switched to road cycling for the 2016 summer Olympics, and went back to rowing in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics winning a gold medal in the men’s eight.

Growing up in a farm and surrounded by forest

Hannah told Marco and Erica about her childhood and how life is in New Zealand “I grew up in a big farm in the middle of nowhere, it is just steep hills and lots of rocks and lots of native forests”. She also enjoys New Zealand’s nature as there are many lakes and rivers to row in.

Speaking of New Zealand, the New Zealand women are the happiest, which makes Erica asks Hannah about their secret. Hannah opened up about the psychological challenges she went through in the recently published book called “How we Got Happy” which talks about 20 Kiwis who have beaten depression “It is like a tool book for people who have beaten depression and they talk about the tools that helped them get to where they are now”.

Another interesting fact about Hannah, she does pottery in her daily life! “I have got a wheel in the garage!” She told Marco and Erica how she is practicing pottery after she came back from the Olympics.

Train, study at university then train again!

Marco and Erica were curious to know what is Hannah’s daily routine. She told them that she wakes up and then trains in the water around 7am in the morning rowing for 20 to 30 kilometers. When she is back home, she does some university study as she is a part-time student, then she does some free weight in the midday for an hour to an hour and a half. If you thought this is enough training, it is not for an Olympian! Hannah then goes back to rowing for 60 to 80 kilometers during the afternoon.

Hannah is an environmental planning student. Watch the episode to know more about her specialty!

This rower has a lot under her belt! She is an Olympic winner, an athlete that plays 3 sports, talented in pottery and an environmental planning student. 

Head straight to Britalians TV and get inspired by this fresh new episode with Olympic rowing medallist Hannah Osborne!