London
Double Olympic champion Helen Glover has been named in the Great Britain rowing squad for the European Championships in Varese, Italy.
It will be her first competitive race since the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. Glover, 34, who won coxless pairs gold at London 2012 and Rio 2016, decided to make a comeback after spending time on a rowing machine during last year’s first national lockdown.
She is in the Women’s Pair with Olympic silver medallist Polly Swann. The pair have previously won world and European titles together, in 2013 and 2014.
Glover, who is a mother of three, is now setting her sights on becoming the first woman to make a British Olympic rowing team after having children.
She had previously said a comeback for Tokyo 2020 was “highly unlikely”, but enforced time indoors and a desire to get fitter after the birth of her twins combined to bring her back to the sport.
Glover’s Tokyo 2020 comeback bid inspired by children “I’ve been back full time for three months now and being selected for the Europeans is the first step on my mission to become the first woman in British rowing history to make an Olympic team after having children,” she said.—AP