Where Are They Now? Martha Garcia Mayo Never Really Left Rowing

It is over two decades since Martha Garcia Mayo took to the waters of Schinias for her final international race, the Rowing Regatta at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. Despite this length of time, Garcia is still deeply involved in the sport.

Garcia continued to compete in indoor rowing, including 13 consecutive years at the CRASHBs Indoor Rowing Championships. She remained active in her rowing club and is an international rowing official. She has taken the Mexican uniform around the world, in many shapes and forms.

Garcia’s start in rowing goes back to being an 18-year-old watching her brother go off to row, then discovering that her father had rowed. She adds, “In Northern Spain, my father did traineras, fixed seat, not Olympic rowing.”

Garcia joined Real Club España in Mexico City. The club began as a football club over 100 years ago and then grew into a multisport club including rowing. The rowing facility is the largest in Mexico, and the rowers train at the Xochimilco campus of the club.

Coming to rowing at 18 years old may seem late compared to most, but it was not Garcia’s first venture into sport.

“I always liked sport but,” she adds with hesitation, “I didn’t have the ability. I played volleyball and did gymnastics, but I wasn’t very good. Rowing, though, I found I could do well, and the club’s social environment was so much fun.

“When I began to do rowing more seriously, it didn’t matter because I was having fun,” says Garcia, who admits you have to be a masochist. “But the satisfaction of crossing the finish line is why we keep doing it.

“I still have friends from that time, and it’s where I met my husband.”

Garcia first competed for her country at the 1986 Central American and Caribbean Games, taking gold in the single and double sculls. She went on to win gold at the 1987 Pan American Games in the double sculls. In 1992, she lined up in the double at the Barcelona Olympic Games and described the feeling of lacking experience and how much more work it would take than she thought.

A year later, Garcia left the sport but was still driven to run marathons and compete in triathlons. It was a full nine years later when a coach asked her to row with an athlete who needed a lightweight rowing partner.

“We didn’t do so well, but I became curious about what I might be able to do with the small amount of training that I had. I went to selection trials and ended up winning,” says Garcia, who decided to keep going as long as she kept winning.

At 39, Garcia qualified and raced in the 2004 Athens Olympics. Back then, racing at 39, Garcia was considered old by some.

After Athens, Garcia retired – this time genuinely.

“It was partly because of my age (I was one of three who were 39 or more at Athens) and partly because of the other demands I had at that time.” Garcia was already an international umpire and involved with World Rowing.

“So I retired from racing but not from rowing.”

Garcia describes Athens as the highlight of her rowing career. “I was happy with my result, but more importantly was all of the support I received from the rowing community. Even though I was rowing against (Rumyana) Neykova, her coach helped me out. This friendship was something unforgettable.”

Garcia is now 61 and still rows some weekends, uses an indoor rower at home and runs at least three times a week. She likes road cycling and follows the big races like the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia. She is an international umpire and has been since her competitive rowing days.

Her husband, Santiago Fuentes, is part of World Rowing’s masters commission, so Garcia says, if she goes with him to regattas, they sometimes get to race together.

“Rowing is an everyday part of my life. It has given me the courage to do so much. If something in life really matters, it’s usually not easy, and I think then you cherish it more when it takes you a lot of effort to get. Rowing gives you that every day.”