When she came to Trinity as a wide-eyed first year, Caoimhe Dempsey had never rowed before, but wandering through the freshers’ fair in Front Square that didn’t stop her from deciding to sign up to Dublin University Ladies Boat Club (DULBC) – a decision she hasn’t looked back from.
Since starting out her rowing career as a novice for DULBC – from representing Ireland at the under-23 level in the European Championships to, most recently, being on the winning Cambridge crew in the prestigious Boat Race against Oxford – Dempsey has plenty of impressive achievements to boast of.
Dempsey is now a rower for Cambridge University Boat Club where she is also studying for her PhD in developmental psychology, focusing her research on children transitioning into school.
For Dempsey, winning the Boat Race last month ranks among the highlights of her life. “It is definitely up there with the best things that I’ve done”, she tells me.
With all its historical and cultural significance, the Boat Race is the pinnacle of student-rowing in Britain. In non-pandemic times it attracts crowds of around 250,000 people, with millions more tuning in to the television broadcast.
It is definitely up there with the best things that I’ve done
The victory was all the more gratifying for Dempsey and the Cambridge crew given last year’s last minute cancellation due to the sudden outbreak of the pandemic after a year of intense training. But seven of the nine members of the crew, including Dempsey, returned for the long awaited 2021 Boat Race. “There was a real sense of unfinished business, that we’d been training together for so long. So I think that made it even sweeter”, says Dempsey about the victory.
But while the win was even sweeter, the pressure in the lead up was all the more intense, as for both crews when it comes to the Boat Race, you either win or it’s a failure.
“There’s no well done for coming second, there’s nothing”, says Dempsey. “So it makes the highs and the lows really extreme because if you win it’s the only thing that matters and if you lose, like the commentary was saying, your whole year of work was for nothing – like that’s how people view it.”
Part of what fuels the extremity of the wins and losses in the Boat Race is the massive following and alumni support that exists for both university teams. “The following means that there is more pressure”, says Dempsey.
“People care about whether Cambridge wins or not and you have almost a responsibility to all of the rowers that have come previously and the amount of support because there’s so much support with the club like the alumni really care about the current squad and how the season is going to play out.”
“It’s really nice on the one hand to have all that support and you want to do it for all those people but on the other hand it is a lot of pressure. I definitely felt that personally in the days coming up to the race.”
Even without all the outside noise the lead-up to the race was an intense affair. A typical day for the elite student rowers involves waking up at 5:10am to be on the water for 5:50am for a rowing session of anywhere between 16 and 22 kilometres. Then after a full day of College, Dempsey and the crew are either back on the water or in the gym at 5:30pm to lift weights or do an 18km erg workout. And after all that, as Dempsey says, “go home, have dinner, go to bed and do it all again”.
It sounds exhausting for sure – but for Dempsey, having been a high-level student rower for the last seven years, this is how it has always been. When asked how she manages the balancing act of being in a gruelling rowing regime while also in a top-flight academic program, Dempsey shrugs: “It’s hard. It’s forced me to be very organised with my time which maybe I just wouldn’t have been otherwise, but I suppose I’ve never had anything different because the entire time I’ve been in university I’ve been rowing. So I don’t really know what it’s like to be studying in university and not rowing. But for me I think they kind of balance out each other very well.”
There was a real sense of unfinished business, that we’d been training together for so long. So I think that made it even sweeter
“I suppose during the day when you’re studying all day or doing your research as soon as you’re kind of getting a bit fed up with it you can just go training then. Or if you’re getting very tired from training then all of a sudden you can kind of switch off and do your work for the day and not have to think about it too much.”
“So yeah whilst it’s very time consuming and you have to be very organised I think having something else to focus on helps in a way because otherwise you can just get kind of all-consumed by your studying or your rowing.”
To put in such a grind for seven years, one would think an unwavering passion for rowing is key, but for Dempsey it is the comradery more than the actual sport that keeps her motivated. “I’m not someone who loves urging. And I don’t think I ever will be”, Dempsey says. “But what I really like is the team aspect of the sport and I suppose just the comradery and everything and I think that was something that was really instilled in me in Trinity.”
“And that’s what keeps me going. Just a love for the actual feeling of rowing and how the boat moves and just being really in tune with that”, she adds.
Dempsey repeatedly credits her time at DULBC in shaping her to be the rowing athlete she is today. It was the laid-back and fun ethos of the novice set-up combined with the mentorship of the senior squad which Demsey believes enabled her to excel, going from novice to an international standard rower within just a couple of years.
Rather than lauding her own talent or work ethic, Dempsey praises the coaches at DULBC for making possible her rapid acceleration in the sport: “The coaching was fantastic. It was so good and so it’s a testament to the coaching that I was able to go from being a novice to be able to race at an international level and compete for Ireland within the space of a few years and that really says something about the quality of the coaching in Trinity and I’d say that to anybody that would listen.”
After just three years of rowing Dempsey was representing Ireland at the under-23s European Championship and winning gold at the home international regatta between Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales. Even for Dempsey there’s a certain disbelief when speaking about her accomplishments and the opportunity to row for her country came almost incidentally when her ability was recognised on the water: “Someone just had a look at me and one of the other girls rowing and they invited us to come down and do some trials for this event and we did it and we were lucky to be selected.”
“So yeah looking back I’m kind of like how did I manage to do that at all. I mean I had so little experience and so little knowledge. So I’m proud of my resilience at the time and the ability to stand up to the challenge when I felt like I was a bit out of my depth.”
I suppose during the day when you’re studying all day or doing your research as soon as you’re kind of getting a bit fed up with it you can just go training then
“But I think that again stands to the basic skills I’d been given at Trinity and the foundations in rowing were solid enough to allow me to do that”, Dempsey adds.
Since acquiring those foundations at Trinity, Dempsey has skyrocketed to the peak of the rowing world with her victory in the Boat Race. Well maybe not quite the peak. The only echelon Dempsey could climb to next would be the Olympics. When asking Dempsey about potential olympian ambitions it is clear she has at least given it some thought.
“I mean, never say never. The standard for the senior girls is definitely higher than where I’m at now and I would need a level of progression to get there. But to do that you need to be in a programme that’s pushing you forward and that’s definitely what cambridge is.”
“I’m going to spend another two years here doing a PhD and I’ll see how close I can get to that standard and this is the best place for me to do something like that because it’s a perfect set up. They want to see how close people can get to the top standard. So I’ll guess we’ll see.”
Given the rapid track she’s been on since starting out in DULBC seven years ago, nobody would be surprised.
