World Cup rowing: Finnola Stratton joins Olympic champion Hannah Scott for new season

Stratton almost fell out of love with the sport during Covid-19 lockdown but her progress accelerated when she began her studies at Reading University in 2021.

Five years later, she has a bronze and gold medal tucked away from the world under-23 championships and is about to make her senior debut for Great Britain with the Olympics in Los Angeles just two years away.

“I think it’s something that even when you’re five years old, you’re very aware of. I remember the London Olympics in 2012, and I must have been eight or nine.

“I never thought it would be a possibility for me ever, just because of I wasn’t very sporty at all but it was something that I always really wanted, just in the way that kids dream, but it was never something I thought would actually be possible.

“And then under-23s came along, and then to come into the senior team, the only thing really we’re all working towards here is the Olympics.

“That realisation hits you all at once. It’s only since I’ve got here in the last six months that it might genuinely be a possibility and not just a dream.”

Stratton now finds herself alongside Scott in the Olympic gold medal boat from Paris.

“Yeah. I mean, it is crazy because I see some of the people that I’m now working with as celebrities. I think Hannah was a big one for me,” explained Stratton.

“I sort of knew her journey and her pathway from Princeton and so I’d interacted with her to some extent before I joined the team. I mean, that was one of the most incredible races I’ve ever seen in my life, that quad final in Paris.”