Olympic champion nips home for haircut

A ROWER from Henley came home for a haircut before travelling back to Paris for the Olympic closing ceremony.

Rory Gibbs, 30, who lives in Greys Road, sat in the second seat of the men’s eight as they powered to win gold for Team GB.

Following the win and days of celebrating with friends and family, he travelled on the Eurostar back to Henley on Monday last week.

Gibbs came home to visit his grandfather Michael Friend, who lives in Surrey, and could not make it to the games due to mobility issues.

He then went for a haircut at Cut UK in Duke Street, where he has gone for around five years.

Gibbs said: “I got my five minutes of fame, so I have to keep the hairline fresh but where it is starting to retreat, I only trust my girls at Cut UK to do it well.

“I’ve built up a great relationship with them and they all do a great job. They’ve been following my journey a little bit, too. I was quite excited to bring the medal in and show them and they loved it.

“A bloke there had a rowing background who was sitting in the chair next to me. He also went to Oxford Brookes University and won at Henley Royal Regatta.”

Gibbs, who rows for Oxford Brookes and trains in Caversham, said that returning to Henley before the closing ceremony was a peaceful retreat amid the “madness” of winning gold.

He said: “Coming back for a few days to catch up with my grandad was nice because there’s no real commitment over those days. Otherwise, it’s been a whirlwind couple of weeks, and I can’t believe it has been over a week since the final.”

At the delayed Tokyo Olympic games in 2021, the men’s eight were in contention for a medal but missed out to Italy in the last 500m, landing them in fourth place, and Gibbs was pleased to make amends.

“It’s a massive sense of pride but my overriding emotion is peace,” said Gibbs. “To be racing after Tokyo is a great experience because we didn’t get the result we wanted.

“I think the key part of the three years and the success came through when it mattered in Paris. I felt at ease and like I completed the sport.”

After the narrow miss at Tokyo, Gibbs questioned whether he should carry on his rowing career. He said: “Getting home and having some time off I realised I wanted to keep going.

“Change is quite a daunting prospect, certainly for me when I was going into the Tokyo Olympics and with the coronavirus lockdown.

“I had a bit of anxiety but the last three years have made me more bulletproof and comfortable with what comes next. I’m not scared that if I put the oar down, everything is going to change.

“I haven’t really thought about what comes next. But now, at 30 years old, I’m ready to move on. Never say never, but there’s the likelihood that I might step away.”

Despite the reduced covid restrictions this year, Gibbs said that the fears he experienced during the Tokyo Games drove him to forfeit the chance to visit the French embassy and meet royalty.

He said: “As a whole, it does cause a little bit of anxiety because I don’t know how I would deal with catching something last minute.

“We had a lot of covid cases on the build-up and three from my crew, Morgan, Charlie and Harry, all had it within two weeks of the final.

“There could have been a lot of people that were catching it but at this time it’s just another cold, but it depends on how badly it’s going to wipe you out.

“There was anxiety there, especially on the build-up to the races, but we were doing everything to mitigate it. I was even taking a protein isolate supplement to boost my immune system, which seemed to work for me. It was a shame I couldn’t go to the embassy, but in my head, it wasn’t worth the risk.”

While out in Paris, Gibbs was supported by several family members and friends, who stayed in an Airbnb together for around 10 days, exploring Paris and visiting the sights, including Disneyland Paris.

Gibbs said: “Warming up to the race, I tried to block it out of my mind that I had so many people out there watching me. I wanted to do them proud and race to the best of my ability and replicate what we had done so well at the championships.

“The Games are a different gravy, and you have to rise to it, but I was trying to keep my emotions in check. It was very emotional for my friends and family, but for a lot of athletes in the eight it has been emotional.”

After the race, Gibbs said he was “absolutely destroyed” and made a trip to the medical tent before heading to the podium to collect his gold medal with his teammates.

He said: “For a good half an hour, until we got on to the podium I was absolutely destroyed, it took everything out of me. We were like ‘We’ve done it’, I was trying to stay alive but at that point, the emotions started to sink in and I was at peace.

“That night we went to the Team GB house, and I was still on my hands and knees and had a snooze on the bus and met my family and girlfriend before we got shipped off at 9pm to do interviews — we didn’t get back until midnight.”

After a night’s rest, Gibbs reunited with his family and spent the day sightseeing in Paris. He also enjoyed watching the men’s 100m final, which saw American runner Noah Lyles take victory by five-thousandths of a second in a time of nine seconds and 79 milliseconds.

Gibbs said: “The last couple of weeks have been really cool, especially seeing other sports. Rowing isn’t really in the spotlight unless you’re in Henley, so it’s like you’re a celebrity during the games.

“Only when you get your medal out, then everyone takes photos and want to put it around their neck. It’s quite cool if you want a bit of attention and want to soak up the moment.” Gibbs joked that while out celebrating in Paris, he managed to get free champagne for himself and his teammates after showing his medal, despite two failed previous attempts.

He said: “I was like ‘I wonder if we get our medal out will we get free drinks’, so I pulled it out and had my arm stretched out, but he didn’t notice it and walked away and completely ignored it.

“I did it a second time and again he walked away but on the third time he was ecstatic and apologetic, and we did get some champagne, which was a really fun way to celebrate.”

Gibbs said coming back to Henley to see his grandfather, whom he he affectionally calls “Mike-Pa”, was important to him.

He said: “Grandad has got very poor mobility, so getting to Paris would’ve been very logistically hard.

“But he was able to get into the car and go to his local pub, which is a minute or two down the road. He organised a party with him and 20 of his close friends. He didn’t really have many words, he was proud and speechless of me really.”

After getting his haircut the following day he made the journey back to Paris on Thursday last week so he could attend the Olympic closing ceremony on Sunday with the rest of Team GB which he didn’t want to miss out on. He spent the time until then sightseeing with his girlfriend Holly Stack.

Gibbs said: “The closing ceremony was very long. There was a lot of shepherding, and queueing in the sun, but because there are thousands of athletes it’s expected.

“It was pretty special to be on the track in France in the full stadium with around 90,000 people.

“The light show was quite cool but it was all a bit odd, although I really enjoyed the bit where the rings got elevated. It was quite empowering and I got slightly teary eyes because it’s what I committed the last seven years to.

“We were given a heads-up where actor Tom Cruise would come in and I managed to stand in exactly the right place and I gave him a little handshake before he charged on to the stage and left on a motorbike.”