Politics and her own base of operations prevented single sculls rower Frances Cryan from going to a second Olympics in 1984, according to Cryan herself.
Cryan took home seventh place for Ireland in the Moscow Olympics in 1980 in the single sculls event, being the first woman to represent Ireland in a rowing event at the games.
However, despite spending four years training after that, and still being in her prime and even going through all of the preparations, the Leitrim native did not end up going to the following Olympics in Los Angeles.
When asked on Tuesday’s OTB AM what prevented her from going over to Los Angeles in 1984, Cryan explained that she was all set to go until about six weeks out.
“Politics in the sport unfortunately,” Cryan said. “The rowing wasn’t very strong that year, so I was the only one that would have represented [Ireland].
“I was measured for the uniform, I was ready to go, and six weeks beforehand I just got word that I wasn’t travelling.
“I couldn’t guarantee I’d be in the top six, so their standards were very high back then.”
According to Cryan, a rower is at their peak in between their mid-20s to their mid-30s, meaning that at 26-years-old, she was yet to reach her full potential as a rower in 1984.
However, in spite of this, Cryan was not able to guarantee a high finish, and so it was voted that she would not be travelling to that year’s game.
“They said that I had reached seventh in Moscow, so they wanted to maybe guarantee that I’d be in the top six,” Cryan said.
“That is impossible to do, but I was looking like I was seventh or eighth still, so after spending four years training for the Los Angeles Olympics, it was very hard.
“I had just felt that the writing was on the wall that unless I could guarantee a medal back then [I wasn’t going to go].”
At the time, the majority of Irish rowing training was based in Dublin, meaning that Cryan was an outlier in the rowing system as she remained in Leitrim.
She believes that this was also a contributing factor to the ultimate decision to keep her from going to Los Angeles.
“I wasn’t part of the Dublin scene, and that wouldn’t have helped,” Cryan said. “But I enjoyed it as long as I did it and I have no regrets.”
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