As all eyes turn to the Paris Olympics, Wesley’s Archivist, Mrs Zoe Mailer, talked to some Old Collegians who have a special relationship with the Games.
Glen Loftus (89-93)
Rowing Legend
Silver Medallist, Athens Olympic Games 2004
Mr Glen Loftus vividly remembers the moment he fell in love with rowing. He was in his fourth term of Year 9 at Wesley and had been practising training drills on the river. The coach decided to let the boys stretch their legs on the way back to the boat shed, and they took off as a team of eight for the first time.
“The training wheels were off, and the boat came alive,” Glen recalls. “I’ll never forget the exhilaration of hurtling across the water backwards in the fading light that evening. I was hooked immediately, and I’m still addicted to that feeling all these years later.”
Following his school years, Glen began to row at an elite level, training approximately 12 hours per week, though this could increase to 25 hours per week before regattas.
Glen doubled down on his training as the 2000 Sydney Olympics approached, recalling, “The country was at a fever pitch. Every young Aussie athlete harboured dreams of performing at the Games in front of a home crowd.” Glen was in the thick of the selection process for the lightweight four but when the selections were confirmed, Glen had ranked fifth. He had missed out by just one place and was a reserve — a massive blow.
Months later, sitting in the stands watching the race unfold in Sydney, Glen knew his journey needed another chapter. The devastation of missing out by a hair’s breadth in 2000 proved a powerful motivator, and Glen set his sights on Athens.
While the road to Greece wasn’t smooth — Glen felt an ever-present mental strain at the prospect of narrowly missing out on selection again — his resolve was unwavering. He committed to the preparation and the journey.
“I learnt to trust myself to perform when the time comes,” Glen recalls. “If you prepare in a professional manner, that becomes your standard. When it’s time to compete, you don’t need to do anything exceptional — do what you trained to do, and the result will take care of itself.”
Glen recalls the moment it all came together at the Athens Games: “I was sitting in the bow of the boat. The weather was calm, and the water was perfect. We had nailed our warm-up. I remember looking over my shoulder at the finish line two kilometres away — I could hear the roar of the crowd celebrating a medal ceremony for an earlier race. Waiting there, I had a moment of realisation: this was the biggest stage in our sport, and it was time to get to work.”
And work they did, rowing their way to a silver medal!
This article, by Wesley’s Archivist, Mrs Zoe Mailer, was originally published in the Winter 2024 edition of The Wesleyan. To read more, click here.
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