Celebrating Victorian Olympian Ria Thompson

Celebrating our Victorian Olympians

The Victorian Rowing Community are very proud of all of our Olympians and particularly our Victorian rowing Olympians that have recently competed in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. 

This week we are celebrating Ria THompson who race in the Women's Quad winning a Bronze medal at Tokyo 2020! 

What was your favourite highlight or moment from attending the 2020 Tokyo Olympics?

• My highlight from the Tokyo Olympics was when I saw the result flash up on the screen, when we crossed the line I was in disbelief that we had come in third so didn't want to celebrate until I knew for sure that we had got the Bronze medal. Then it just became more and more exciting when we got off the water and found out that the women's and men's fours had both won gold and the men's quad also got bronze. It was just a whirlwind of excitement and such an exciting thing to be part of the hour of power.

What do you wish you knew before attending the Tokyo 2020 Olympics?

• I wish I knew that things were going to go wrong but everything was going to work out. Everyone always said that nothing is smooth sailing at the Olympics but I wish I had been a bit more relaxed when things happened (like being accidentally sent all the wrong oars.. luckily that issue got sorted out)

What was your motivation to keep you training over the last 18 months?

• The last 18 months was definitely challenging, especially when the NTC got closed down, the olympics were postponed and we were all sent home to train by ourselves. The main thing that kept me going was the hope that we would be able to race again sometime soon. I love competing, especially on the international stage and I just kept training so that I could hopefully row in the green and gold again.

What words of encouragement would you like to say to the next generation of rowers coming through about pursing their dreams of making the Olympics?

• There will always be more challenges than you could possibly imagine but it is worth all the hard work and sacrifice because there is nothing quite like becoming an Olympian.

All photo credit thanks to Rowing Australia