For some, reaching the Olympics is simply a by-product from success in their field.

For others, it is the culmination of a lifelong dream.

Becky Wilde dreamed of representing Great Britain at the Olympics ever since watching the games at Athens aged six.

Wilde grew up in a sporting family. Mum, Sharon, represented Wales in hockey, while Dad, Dick, played rugby for English students.

Additionally, brother Dan now plays Rugby League in Australia and sister Naomi played hockey for Wales at age grade level.

Becky however dreamed of taking part in the Olympics, initially through swimming.

“I first remember the Olympics in 2004 and, by 2008, I was obsessed with swimming,” says Wilde.

“Michael Phelps, Rebecca Adlington, they really captured my imagination, and I loved it.

“The dream was always the Olympics, but along the way I wanted to go to the Commonwealths with Wales. In 2014, at 16, I went to the Commonwealth trials and missed out by one place, half a second.

“That was pretty devastating, I don’t think I realised at the time how hard it hit me. I was young, trying to qualify whilst I was doing my GCSEs, had an injury earlier in the season so there was a lot going on.

“I was determined to make the Gold Coast team in 2018, but I was so motivated that in the end I overtrained and went into a spiral where during A levels, alongside all the academic stress I got myself into such a hole and ended up falling out of the sport nine months before the Commonwealths.

“It was really gutting and hard to go through. A lot of lessons were learned but it was very sad to go through.”

Rowing Idols Inspire New Hope

Whilst the swimming dream might be over Wilde was not ready to give up on her Olympic dream without a fight. This time she is attempting to make her dream a reality on the water, rather than in it.

“I remember Helen Glover and Heather Stanning winning the pair in 2012 and then Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins in the sculls,” says Wilde.

“Around that time there was a lot of talk around talent ID in rowing and how they’d taken people who were a bit older on fast-track programmes.

“I loved being an athlete and I didn’t want to give that up. It was a big reason why I chose Bath University because of the World Class Start programme that was available there.

“I was quite literally a swimmer one day and a rower the next. I started rowing in June 2017 and I was good on the rowing machines but once out on the water it was a bit different. Admittedly, I was falling in for quite a few weeks!”

‘I didn’t care if I rowed again’

Wilde’s aerobic ability, gained through hours in the pool, set her in good stead but her move to the boat was far from smooth sailing.

“I progressed quickly in the first year, some domestic competitions went quite well but then I developed injury problems about a year after I started,” says Wilde.

“Initially they thought it was a back issue, but then I had a scan and they found there was a labral tear in my left hip which is when the cartilage has worn away and bone is rubbing on bone.

“Eventually the only option was surgery, and I had that a year and a half after starting rowing.

“At that point I didn’t care if I rowed again, I couldn’t sit for long periods, couldn’t walk without pain. It was horrifically debilitating, and I just wanted to live.

“Then in the lead up to the operation my right hip started having the same problems so six weeks after the first operation I had the same one on my right hip.”

Despite the setback, Wilde did return to the boat, with the help of her coaches at Bath and was almost immediately thrust into European competition.

“I had surgeries in January and March and didn’t get back in the water till June, by August or September I was in the European U23 team,” says Wilde.

“It was a whirlwind which was an incredible experience and filled me with a lot of confidence going forward.”

Financial Difficulties and Further Injury Setbacks

Like many athletes, Wilde then faced the complications of the pandemic and, whilst the hours of training on the rowing machines improved her fitness, missing out on key competitions and time out on the water held back her development.

The pandemic, combined with a decrease in National Lottery funding for rowing, meant Wilde didn’t receive funding from British Rowing until November last year.

“Welsh Rowing funded me for I think the last two years but they’re a lot smaller and can’t give athletes enough to live off,” says Wilde.

“When the pandemic came, I wasn’t at the level before Covid to get the funding and with the decrease in lottery funding for British rowing I wasn’t able to be funded at all until this year.

“My mum and dad helped me out so much but also it involved a lot of part-time work in and around training and trying to be a rower, make the Olympics and have enough money to live.”

There was still time for another uphill battle. Wilde needed surgery in September 2023 due to a condition called compartment syndrome in her forearms meaning that her muscles had become too big for the muscle sheaths.

“My muscles would seize up and I couldn’t grip anything, which is quite crucial as a rower,” says Wilde.

“They cut into my arms to make the compartments bigger, so the muscles have more room to grow. It was quite a quick recovery process and now I don’t get the same issues whereas before I couldn’t hold onto the handles.”

Qualification from the Regatta of Death

With the injury troubles behind her, it was now the not so small matter of being selected for a boat and qualifying. Like most of the battles Wilde had fought, this was for from straightforward.

“This year with the quad being world champions they were going to stick with the same boat, but the double hadn’t qualified, and I was fast enough to be in with a chance,” says Wilde.

“I think back to my earlier memories of rowing, it is the smaller boats which stand out, so it does feel like I’ve come full circle in a way.

“With my now partner Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne, we were thrown into a boat together for the double sculls in January and we ended up doing really well but they kept testing other combinations until we were confirmed as the boat for qualifiers in March.

“World Champs the year before the Olympics is where the first 11 crews get a chance to qualify. The British crew that year missed out and then you have your final chance to qualify in May.

“That’s nicknamed ‘the Regatta of Death’ because you’re either going to the Olympics or not and you have to place in the first two. It’s the first and only race in your career where you are content with coming in the top two.

“We were so relieved when we crossed that line. I had imagined it and dreamt of that moment so to finally be able to say, ‘I’m going’, it was disbelief and I’d never seen my mum cry happy tears before that moment.”

Not there to ‘Make up the Numbers’

Whilst competing at the Games is the fulfilment of a lifelong dream for Wilde, it is only the first step in her career, with the possibility of further GB rowing success on the line.

Great Britain topped the medal table for rowing at Beijing, London and Rio but had an underwhelming 2020 games where they finished with only one bronze and one silver medal.

“We’re definitely a boat that doesn’t just want to be there for the experience or to make up the numbers,” says Wilde.

“A British double hasn’t made a Worlds or Olympics A final since 2018 so we’d like to change that and from there you don’t know what will happen.

“Romania were unbeaten till Europeans this year since 2019 and are the big dogs in women’s double skulls, after that it’s quite an open field.

“The Americans are pretty solid as are the Aussies and Kiwis but I’m just exciting to compete against the rest of the world.

“Being on the British rowing team, medalling is almost ‘the norm’ so we’re hoping for a medal. We’re enjoying it and as we say, ‘a happy boat is a fast boat’ so long may that continue.”

📷 – Benedict Tufnell for British Rowing

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