Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Britain's most successful female Olympic athlete, a rower who won medals at five consecutive Games including gold in 2012.
On the island
Eight records
I took my mum along to Tina Turner's last concert in the UK, 50 years in the business, and she rocked the stage. There's something about her performance that's triumphant and defiant and just joyful. And she was strutting around in those incredible heels and short skirt and huge hair. I'm asked all the time about role models in my life, and I thought, here's a woman nearly 70 having had the life she's had, and she can do it as if she's in her 20s. And I've gone for Proud Mary because my hardest training camp I do is one of the cycling camps. We go for hours and hours and hours in the bike. And two of the girls, Jess and Beth and I, used to sing this and they're rolling, rolling along the roads at times, and that kept us going.
The Olympic Games is just 24-7 assault on your senses. You know, it's light, it's sound, it's noise, it's wonderful, but in a way when I come back from it, I need to kind of detox somehow. And for me, since 2004 onwards, after every Olympics, I've gone out to Africa. And for me, I go on safari and I switch off and I go into those massive African skies. I sit by a watching hole and watch herds of elephants or lion come drink or whatever it might happen and and I just get perspective back. I just get reminded that, you know, sport isn't everything and I feel at peace and at calm and I really need that. So this is Pata Pata by Miriam Makeba.
Original London Cast of Les Misérables
This one is actually for my sister Sarah and my dad as well. Growing up, we always had music around, but my dad loved musicals. And in the car, we would have Evita, Joseph, and his technical dream coat, and Jesus Christ superstar, and we'd play it over and over and over again in the car. And my sister and I would be in the back seat fighting over the different roles. We took different roles when we sang it both quite badly. And I've gone for One Day More, Le Miserable, and I just love the story. And also, going back to training camp a little bit with rowing, then there were many days we just thought one day more, we'll get through it.
If I Can DreamFavourite
This is actually for my mum and my aunt. My aunt got married and moved away to the States. So every four years we got to this amazing trip to the USA and one year we got to go to Graceland. I was only 12, so I think I didn't really get to Elvis before that. And then going through those gates and seeing the jungle room and seeing his cars and hearing the stories from people who had been there, I kind of got what it was. I've gone for If I Can Dream and it's because I am a dreamer and I'm an optimist and I think, especially right now, I think there's so much in this world that is concerning and worrying and frightening. And I think there is hope when you listen to this song.
So this is while I'm back at school still. So I grew up, you know, in Glasgow in the 80s and it was a time of, you know, Delimiti and Deacon Blue and Wet, Wet, Wet and the Proclaimers and Fear Contraction and Simple Minds and Hue and Cry and all these amazing bands and the Barlands was infamous at that point and it was before I was legally allowed to go and drink and if you get into those clubs it was just the most exciting thing. I think I saw you there. ... But of all the bands, I think the one I could probably sing every word of every song to was Texas. And I saw them so many times live and I've chosen Halo and as soon as those opening sh bars start, then I'm back in Glasgow in the eighties and I'm happy.
Well while I'm still in Edinburgh and I'm learning about rowing and learning about life, this song just takes me back to, you know those nights in the clubs at university and everyone's like, you know, arms in the air and singing the words as if they really know what life is like and you have no idea at that point what life is like, but you sing it as if you know. And this is The Water Boys and the Hull of the Moon.
I moved down from Scotland in 1999 and I had to live at the time the rowing base was in Marlowe, which was just along the river from Henley on Thames. And I remember going into Henley. It was the first time I'd been there when it hadn't been the regatta on, but it was packed, it was absolutely packed. And then around the corner, this huge sort of black hearse came around the corner with these two black horses with the big plumes up. And then as the hearse drew alongside it, the side in flowers said Dusty. And I had by accident stumbled into Dusty Springfield's funeral and there was too many people to go into the church and they piped out the funeral across the people gathered. And I heard her a lot growing up. My mum used to play her. And you go back and hear the voice and you think there was no one who did it like Dusty. And this one is a nice good girl power song called You Don't Own Me.
Well, clearly for for the the Olympics has dominated my life. And I want to do something that somehow encapsulated all the Olympics. And this song was played at the closing ceremony of twenty twelve, which was my most amazing moment. And it's Elbow One Day Like This.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:44What is it about being out there in the dust and the dirt, to use your words, that makes you feel truly alive?
There's something about the challenge. I do love that it's hard and it's not for everyone and it doesn't get easier and it's you're trying to find perfection in sport a lot of the time and it is a constant battle against the elements, against your own mental strength, against trying to create something with partners and other people and it's never the same and I love it.
Presenter asks
2:15How would you describe your feelings about coming second?
I'm not a great loser, I have to admit. ... Well, it didn't used to be, to be honest. My first Olympics was a silver and that was the you know, the f the the I was in a crew with three other girls, it's four of us, it was the first ever Olympic medal for women's rowing in the history of rowing. So it was incredible. That that was an achievement, that was success. And it and it kind of showed where I got to mentally, where our sport got to over those next four or eight years that silver turned into, from my viewpoint, a failure.
Presenter asks
2:55How did your world change after [winning gold in London 2012]?
It changed, certainly externally, massively. You know, Anna and myself, we had a fantasy come to this dream of the Olympic gold, the ultimate in Olympic sport. We'd achieved what we'd been aiming for. And it's an incredible driving force in your life to be chasing something like Olympic success. But you are aware, you know, you're not saving lives, you're not doing anything that really could have impact and meaning. And that's always been important for me in my life. And I think the wonderful thing after London was actually the response from the public. You know, I got incredible letters and emails and messages from complete strangers saying that I had changed their lives and they'd been inspired and you know some people had got over depression and some people you know people who had very personal meaningful stories that actually watching me and Anna sitting in a boat going backwards actually did have a positive impact and it reassured me that maybe it's not just a selfish pastime.
The keepsakes
The book
I get teased relentlessly. I I live by quotes. I've I use them as inspiration, I use them as motivation, I use them as talking points. And it would just give me thoughts for as long as I was on the island. I'd have company with people and their amazing words.
The luxury
this luxury is because I generally, even even now, even off my island, I find this a luxury. I would love to take, if it's possible, the Sunday papers.
Presenter asks
14:30We often hear elite sportsmen and women say there have been so many sacrifices. Can you explain to me why that sacrifice is worth it?
I I have a thing where I I don't like talking about a sacrifice. ... Sacrifice is too grand a word for it. It's a choice. No one made me, no one forced me into it. It was absolutely my life choice, and I don't regret any of it. You know, I've missed weddings, I've missed birthdays, I've missed funerals, I've missed spending time with my family, especially when you feel it's important to be with them. And that's hard. It's not a regret, but you look back and you go, That's the thing that I would change if I could. But I know my family have been so supportive of me that they totally understood every step. You know, when I stood in the podium, it was awful not to be able to share it with my grandparents at that point, but I also, you know, part of me hopes they were part of that medal too.
Presenter asks
21:57Was there a point at which you decided this [sport] is all and nothing else matters?
There was a point when I was back in Edinburgh as a student. ... And it was still early on in my career before I knew I could become international, but I was going for the senior team, the university, and I was absolutely convinced I was good enough to make the senior team. And I went to the meeting, and they had 16 names who'd made the team, and they read it out in order. I remember hearing the first group, and I wasn't in that, and I thought I was quite disappointed. So I must be in the second group, and I didn't make that. And they went all the way down, and I didn't make any of the top 16. And then I said, well, what happens now? And they said, well, we've put together a fifth group of four who are sort of, I mean, at the time they called it a bit of a remedial group, who were just going to come and have fun. And that was me. And I started, I was in Edinburgh, stormed out of the meeting, a kind of combination of shame and rage and disappointment and frustration, walked up Arthur's seat. I kind of got to the top of this hill. It's very melodramatic now. And I was just in tears. And I remember thinking, I will never put myself in a position again where I got it so wrong. And I promised myself there and then I would never again overestimate my abilities or my expertise or how good I thought I was. And I generally came down Arthur's seat a little bit changed. ... It did humble me and gave me humility in all the right way, and I don't think I've ever lost that the rest of my career.
Presenter asks
31:02Are you somebody who you think, you know, you're pretty self reliant? You'll cope, you'll you'll manage [on the island]?
I I'm very self-reliant and I'm quite capable and I think I'll be fine. I'll enjoy a bit of peace and quiet for a little while and I will I think I'll cope with the the physical challenges on an island. I think you will. Well I'd be dead within hours of malnutrition because I'm an awful cook and I wouldn't cope with that side of things and everyone who's listening who knows me will be laughing and with understanding at that point.
“I'm not a great loser, I have to admit.”
“I don't like talking about a sacrifice. ... Sacrifice is too grand a word for it. It's a choice. No one made me, no one forced me into it. It was absolutely my life choice, and I don't regret any of it.”
“I will never put myself in a position again where I got it so wrong. And I promised myself there and then I would never again overestimate my abilities or my expertise or how good I thought I was.”
“I suppose I really have devoted myself in probably every way to my sport for the last twenty years, and I've had a personal life running alongside it occasionally, but not very successfully. So maybe that's the next area I can move into now.”
“The silver in Rio was without a doubt the hardest of my five Olympic medals to win. Now, absolutely, there's part of me that is a little bit dissatisfied because we almost pulled off the ultimate coup of actually winning the title. So it does irritate me a little bit, but I can live with it.”