Rower Zoë Hyde: How a champion prepares for the world’s biggest sporting stage

The Paris Olympic Games will be the biggest sporting event of 2024. Starting on Friday, July 26th, it will dominate international media as millions around the globe tune in to watch the best of the best compete for those precious gold, silver and bronze medals. Team Ireland is on course to send its largest Olympic team ever - a team of which rower Zoë Hyde is proud to be part. Putting her professional career at Deloitte, the world’s largest professional services firm and an official partner to Team Ireland, on temporary hold while she strives for the greatest prize in sport, Zoë offers us a glimpse of what it takes to make the grade as the best in the world.

When did you first try rowing as a sport and who introduced you to it?

“I started around age 13 in my hometown of Killorglin, Co Kerry. My uncle, who did a lot of coastal rowing when he was younger, was a big influence. Both he and my father encouraged me into the sport.”

Where do you train?

“At the moment we are based at the National Rowing Centre at Inniscarra Lake in Co Cork. We will move to a training camp in Italy for a few weeks in early July, and then we’ll locate to our team base just outside Paris for the duration of the Olympics.”

How do you juggle work and life commitments?

“When I was initially called up to the Irish team, I was working full-time at Deloitte’s graduate programme, the Future Leaders Academy. It was a challenge to juggle work and rowing in the beginning - but worked well in that rowing was a break from work and vice versa. I then transitioned down to part-time. Deloitte gave me all the flexibility I needed.”

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What aspects of your life have been sacrificed to qualify for the Olympics?

“Being part of a sport at this level means you’re away for half of the year, so you don’t get to see your family or friends much. It is a very intense training programme. Even when we’re based at the National Rowing Centre, near Farran, in Co Cork, I really would have very little time to get to Co Kerry and see my family. Training is pretty much seven days a week, three sessions a day - there’s no going out or socialising, and that goes double for the months leading up to the Olympics.”

How has training to this elite level informed your approach to working life?

“While rowing can be an individual sport, you are part of a whole team operating toward the same sporting goal. There is a lot of communication and teamwork involved to achieve a successful outcome, it is not just about yourself. That translates into my working life at Deloitte, being part of a team working together toward a specific goal. Work helps my rowing, and rowing helps my work.”

Tell us more about your professional career journey at Deloitte?

“After college I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do, only that I really enjoyed accounting. Then, when Deloitte indicated that they would support me doing a master’s, I could see right away that it was a good way to dip my toes into that world. A year later that led to becoming a member of Deloitte’s Future Leader’s Academy, so I could see much more clearly the career direction that most appealed to me. It all fell together for me from there onwards.”

When did you start to take rowing seriously?

“Covid hit during my master’s so there wasn’t a whole lot to do during that time. I began exercising in my kitchen on a rowing machine every morning at 6am, and then again, every evening at 6pm. I built up a really good routine, and so when the world started opening up again after the pandemic, I was ready to really get into rowing full-on. Then, when I got taken onto the Irish team, everything moved on very quickly from there.”

You are part of a group of more than 30 dual-career Deloitte professionals and elite athletes from across the world who have either qualified or are vying for qualification for the Olympic and Paralympic Games 2024. As an elite athlete employee, how are you supported?

“I knew the Olympics was going to be a once in a lifetime opportunity and asked Kevin Butler, the partner I report to in Deloitte for his advice. He was so hugely behind me to go as far as I could with my rowing career, there was never any problem with work. Even now, Deloitte continues to allow me maximum flexibility to give rowing my full attention - letting me give it my best shot.”

What does your support network look like and what advice for those seeking to find new lines of support within their working life?

“When we’re in the water at that starting line, we’re there because every one of our team has helped us to be there. People see us in the boat at the start line, but probably have no idea of the team that’s behind us. My women’s pair team-mate Alison Bergin and I have our coach Ashlee Rowe who’s always there for us, dealing with those times when we’re tired and cranky. We also have our high-performance Antonio Maurogiovanni who’s very involved, as well as physios, nutritionists, doctors and a long list of other people helping us. I wouldn’t be here without them.”

Are there any similarities between the experience of working in a high performing environment and your sporting ambitions?

“The discipline and resilience needed in my sport also applies to my working career. When you are part of a team whose objective is a successful goal, there are similarities between the job and the boat. Rowing together is a kind of a marriage in a way, you’re constantly listening to the other person and making sure they’re cared for and ready to go. It’s the same at work - being aware you’re part of a team and being focused on the common objective.”

What’s your motto for life?

“My motto would probably be that ‘hard work pays off if you’re patient enough to see it through’. To get to where I am today took a lot of years, and required a lot of patience. I have learned that if you keep grinding away at it, the results will come.”

How do you relax?

“After a hard day on the water, Netflix is a big one. We have to eat so many carbohydrates and fibre, I’m constantly looking for people to eat with. With food it always better to have good company. I have started reading again, and love sports autobiographies - everybody has a different way of getting to where they wanted to go.”

When you don’t achieve your goals how do you re-motivate or re-calibrate?

“I’ve been doing this now for a number of years and there have been times when you don’t get the results you want, and there are learnings to be taken from that. I often get my best gains following a poor performance because you learn a lot about yourself after an unsatisfactory result.”

In terms of diet, is there anything those in business could take from how your fuel body and mind for gold medal glory?

“An important lesson I’ve learned over the years is that food is fuel. Whether it’s sport or work, you have to support your body and that means eating good food and eating enough of it.”