Where are they now? Juliette Drysdale

There are two aspects of Juliette Drysdale (nee Haigh) that stand out about her post-rowing life; she still absolutely loves rowing and she hasn’t slowed down.

“I’m keen to chat but I am currently studying and have three assignments due,” is the response when World Rowing contacted Drysdale to make a time to talk.

Since announcing her retirement at the end of 2012, following her third Olympic appearance and an Olympic bronze for New Zealand in the pair, Drysdale has been busy. She married fellow rower Mahé Drysdale in 2013, honeymooned in the Seychelles, welcomed their first child in 2014, went on to have two more children, kept her hand in rowing at the board level, worked as a journalist and photographer and that’s just what her Wikipedia page tells us.

Initially Drysdale says she kept the competitive drive going, getting back into swimming, her original sport.

“Then I thought, ‘what am I doing?’ I backed off. Retirement is a time for fun and there was so much I hadn’t been able to do because I didn’t want to get injured and impact my rowing. So when I retired I did it all.”

She competed in a half ironman, went cross country skiing, spent time in Kenya as a volunteer, then back to Africa climbing Mt Kilimanjaro to raise money for World Vision and competed in ocean swimming races.

So how did Drysdale first get involved in rowing? This highly motivated action-woman says competitive rowing did not come easy to her. She played a lot of different sport before a teacher at her high school shoulder tapped her for rowing.

“I had no concept of it at that time although friends had older siblings that had rowed. I started the season a couple of weeks late as a 14-year-old. On my first row (in an eight) the crew spent the session counting my crabs – 20 plus. Then there was flipping the boat at the pontoon. I’d tied my feet in too tight and one of my crewmates had to swim under the boat to untie my feet.”

Drysdale wanted to quit not because of the experience, but the expense.

“I tried to pull out but Mum said, ‘absolutely not!’ It took me until the end of the year, by then I had totally fallen for rowing.

“I loved the people I rowed with. It was a great bunch of girls and great coaches. It also felt adventurous being out on the harbour or on the river.”

Drysdale may not have realised her talent, however others did. Her coach put her name forward for a Rowing New Zealand (RNZ) development camp.

“I was accepted because I had a good erg, but I didn’t want to go. So my coach came with me.” Drysdale was part of a group of 15-year-olds listening to a talk from some RNZ coaches. “They said, ‘it’s very hard to get to the Olympics, it’s likely only one of you (if that) will make it’. I remember thinking ‘wow, there are so many talented athletes here, it won’t be me’.

“I really loved rowing and I was quite good. But I wasn’t amazing, I wasn’t confident. I had coaches that encouraged me and over time I became very focused and dreamed of getting to the Olympics.”