Watching the O’Donovan brothers row to glory at the Rio Olympics in 2016 spurred on Fintan McCarthy to claim Ireland’s first gold medal in rowing, according to his twin brother.

Jake, also a competitive rower with the famed Skibbereen rowing club, whose Tokyo Olympic aspirations were sidelined due to a herniated disc, said watching Paul and Gary O’Donovan take home a silver medal in the men’s lightweight double sculls at Rio was a pivotal moment for his brother.

“I remember us kind of watching the Rio Olympics four years ago and talking about it,” he told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland radio programme yesterday.

“And I think ever since then, something – it was like a seed of belief or something that was kind of planted in his head.

“And ever since then it’s kind of been daily, you know.

“It’s been kind of working on it day in and day out to get there.”

The O’Donovan brothers’ success in Rio was also an inspiration for his own Olympic ambitions, he said.

“Without a doubt, literally watching that, it was almost like something flicked inside me, you know, just this desire, something I’d never even experienced like it, you want to be there and you want to be experiencing it.”

After his brother and Paul O’Donovan made history, winning gold in the same category as the O’Donovan brothers in 2016, he said he is more than motivated to get back in the boat once his back injury heals. 

“Hopefully, once I get the injury right and I can hopefully go and do that,” he said.

As for his brother’s victory in Tokyo, he said he is still in shock.

“I can’t really believe it, to be hones,” he said.

“Speechless, really, overjoyed, like emotional.

“I can’t wait to get him home now, you know. I can’t wait to see him.”