Article: How our female rowers ate more and triumphed
Written by Suzanne McFadden for the LockerRoom
After discovering most of our top female rowers were at risk of RED-S syndrome, Rowing NZ and its coaches helped the athletes take up a challenge to eat more. The glittering results in Tokyo speak for themselves.
With an Olympic silver medal draped around her neck, Brooke Donoghue felt content. “I knew I couldn’t have given any more over five years. Even though we wanted gold, I felt completely content.”
When she had lined up for the final of the women’s double sculls on Tokyo’s Sea Forest Waterway with Hannah Osborne, Donoghue knew she couldn’t have been fitter or stronger.
And she credits that feeling to a change in mindset around female health and eating, at the top echelons of her sport.
Three years ago, Donoghue was found to be in danger of under-fuelling her body for the amount of intense training she was doing on the water and in the gym.
