HIGH ACHIEVERS: Rowing success didn’t follow a straight path for Carleton Ravens’ Rosie O’Brien

By Martin Cleary

The sun is still sleeping in the east at 5:15 a.m. when local rower Rosie O’Brien slips into her lightweight single and eases out onto the Ottawa River for another training session.

Despite the time, she’s thrilled to be visiting her ‘happy place’ to continue her development as a member of the Carleton University Ravens rowing team and the Ottawa Rowing Club.

“It’s my happy place. I enjoy the training more than the racing. It’s being outside, being active. There’s nothing like being on the water. It’s peaceful. It’s meditative. You focus on what’s happening,” O’Brien, 24, said in a phone interview this week.

While she certainly enjoys following her regular training schedule, she has reached the point where she’s reaping the benefits of her dedication, when it comes to the racing aspect of rowing.

The past two weeks have been a perfect example of how her love of training has brought rewards at the toughest of times.

At last weekend’s Canadian University Rowing Association national championships at the Olympic Basin in Montreal, O’Brien emerged as a double bronze medallist. They were the first medals of her three-year university rowing career.

After taking the sixth and final spot in Saturday’s time trial to qualify for the A final on Sunday, O’Brien survived a four-boat dogfight for third place and earned the bronze medal in eight minutes, 29.129 seconds over the 2,000-metre course.

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“In the final 500 metres, I just was a little ahead (in the race for third),” O’Brien said. “If I need to stay ahead, I have to give everything. I stopped looking. I didn’t think about the other rowers. I put my head down and gave everything.

“I had nothing left after the final 500. It was a close finish. I didn’t know how I finished.”

The difference between third and fourth place was three-tenths of a second. University of Victoria’s Elena Masyte narrowly missed the bronze at 8:29.423.

“It was extremely surreal,” O’Brien said about winning her first CURA medal. “Last year, I was fourth and I knew I was fourth, when I crossed the finish line. That motivated me.

“I didn’t think it would be that close, but I wanted a good result. Achieving the podium was shocking. It was a very tight race with strong athletes.”

In the final race of the two-day CURA championships, O’Brien and teammate Hayley Murray of Hamilton pushed for second place in the women’s heavyweight double, but finished an uncontested third in 7:58.185.

That was an equally satisfying result as O’Brien and Murray didn’t have a lot of time to practice together this season.

“We didn’t have any expectations and that allowed us to give everything,” O’Brien explained. “We held nothing back because we wanted to do something to be proud of.”

O’Brien set up her national championships the previous weekend by adding to her career OUA medal total at the provincial university rowing championships in St. Catharines.

She was the women’s lightweight single champion and it was her first OUA gold medal against the four silver medals she captured over three years.

“I was a bit more stressed in the head because I didn’t (reach the) podium last year. There was a bit of pressure, but not in a bad way,” O’Brien explained about her lightweight single final. “To win the event was above and beyond what I had hoped for.

“I wanted (to reach the) podium at the OUAs and I knew I was capable. I didn’t expect (a podium finish) at nationals. That was a dream. I wanted to see what I could do free of expectations.”

At the closing ceremony, O’Brien was shocked again, when she was named the OUA female rower of the year.

“I was surprised,” admitted O’Brien, who thanked her team for motivating her. “It was incredible. I was humbled and honoured. I didn’t expect it. It was wonderful.”

In the OUA women’s double, O’Brien and Murray were fourth.

O’Brien said there are many reasons why she has found success at the OUA and CURA championships.

“This year is the culmination of all my previous years, personally and as part of the team,” she explained. “We have a stronger and stronger support system.

“It’s the result of a lot of years of dedication from the coaches to keep the program running and the athletes motivated. We encourage each other in a positive way. There has been a lot of hard work by dedicated people, who want to succeed.”

O’Brien has been involved in and out of rowing for the past decade. She started on a whim as a Grade 9 student at Lisgar Collegiate Institute and stayed in the sport. Her mother and aunt had tried rowing, but found it wasn’t for them.

After graduating from Lisgar and being part of the Lords’ rowing program for four years, she took a double gap year, which also coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic. For two years, she worked at Life of Pie baking thousands of scones and not touching an oar.

“I was out of rowing for two years and didn’t row at all. I was very out of shape,” O’Brien said.

“When I went to the Carleton tryouts, it was a bit rough. After Grade 12, I was working and there was COVID.”

When O’Brien enrolled at Carleton to study geography, a friend asked her to accompany him to the rowing tryouts because he was nervous. She agreed and went with him, and although her friend took a pass on rowing after a few days, O’Brien stayed put.

“I started chatting with the coaches,” O’Brien recalled about her return to rowing. “I’ll give it a week. I’ll give it another week. I’ll row for the summer.”

Since that moment in the 2022-23 season, she moved full force into going backwards fast so she could move forward quickly in rowing.

And now, O’Brien has won two CURA medals, with the 2026-27 season on the horizon.