Rowing: Marton's Georgia Nugent-O'Leary home with 15 months to wait for Olympics

Georgia Nugent O'Leary (left) and Jackie Gowler in action on the Whanganui River. Photo / Bevan Conley

The prospect of adding an extra 12 months to your Olympic Games preparations and fitness regimes would be daunting for any athlete, but Marton rower Georgia Nugent-O'Leary has the mental toughness to take setback in stride.

After all, three years ago she didn't even know if she would ever row again.

The 23-year-old Nga Tawa Diocesan old girl and Aramoho Whanganui Rowing Club member had been selected at the start of the summer for the NZ Rowing Elite Women's quadruple scull crew, and was preparing for regattas leading to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

But now the young athlete is home on the family farm from her base at Lake Karapiro, after Rowing NZ shut down the programme as the Covid-19 pandemic took hold, leading to a snowballing of events where the Olympics themselves have been postponed until July 2021.

The NZ Men's Eight, including Mahe Drysdale and Hamish Bond, training on Lake Karapiro. New Zealand had hoped to qualify their boat for Toyko at the final qualification regatta in Switzerland in May.

"It was last Monday [March 23] when we all went into isolation mode," said Nugent-O'Leary this week.

"I got to weights training, thinking that we actually had training, because I missed the whole announcement by Jacinda [Ardern], and then everyone was like, 'see you in four weeks'."

The athletes were advised to head back to their Cambridge flats, but Nugent-O'Leary knew the best place for her was the Marton farm.

While it's "many hands on deck" helping mum and dad on the property while in isolation, she is still keeping up a rigorous training schedule with three sessions per day.

"I made the call to come home for that time, because being in that limbo, four weeks at least, being at home is quite good.

"I've been lucky enough to get the ERG [indoor rowing machine] from Aramoho and then the weights obviously from Rowing NZ, and then I've got my bike.

"I'm lucky enough to be able to run out on the farm as well, so I'm pretty sorted for land-based options at the moment, which is a big help.

"Rowing NZ have been giving us programmes, and still very much keeping us informed.

"I feel like we're in good hands."

Nugent-O'Leary's unflappable positivity in the face of such an unprecedented setback probably comes from the journey she had already been on in the past three years, just to get back to the elite level.

"The last probably six months, having made it back into the summer squad again, it's really just sort of being one step to the next, to the next.

"The end of 2016, I made the summer squad, the NZ training squad, and then the second week I came off my bike and broke my arm and knocked my head.

"I was out of rowing for about 18 months with the concussion symptoms, so about two years ago I was learning to row again.

"It's been some pretty dark days with the concussion, just the length of the time it took to come right, and just not knowing if it was going to come right."

She feels that battle has just given her the tools to cope with the current situation.

"That injury was beneficial in showing me that sport, or anything, is not permanent, and also anything can happen.

"Like this experience, where there's a bit of limbo and stuff that you're not sure what's going on, having had that already through injury, it's sort of helped, where I feel like I'm in a better position now [to cope].

"At least I can train still, which is good."

Nugent-O'Leary's last competition was the NZ Rowing Championships on Lake Karapiro back on February 18.

She came fifth in both the Women's Premier singles sculls and the double sculls, teaming with Sophie MacKenzie.