EVERY MONTH, A YOUNG MARY PETERS TRUST ATHLETE SPELLS OUT HOW THE CHARITY IS AIDING THE PURSUIT OF THEIR SPORTING DREAMS
Molly Curry – Rowing
‘Lady Mary has such a positive energy and outlook – she has taken her success and fame and used it to help and inspire many generations of young athletes’
FOLLOWING a very good 2023 season, U23 GB squad rower Molly Curry had high hopes for a quality 2024 regatta season.
Despite a really promising start when in February 2024 she was 2nd on the water at the first GB U23 Trial, and then in March had a Personal Best in her 2k erg test, Molly’s hopes were dashed when she picked up an injury at the end of that month.
The result was Molly couldn’t take part in the U23 GB final trial in April, and missing it pretty much put an end to any possibility of GB representation during 2024.
“I was hugely disappointed, although one positive was making the semi-final on 24 June at the Championship Single at Henley’s Women’s Regatta,” Molly relates.
“I’ve been privileged to be a Mary Peters Trust athlete since 2018 and in 2024 was awarded a Hughes Insurance funding award which enabled me to travel to Henley for the Women’s Regatta and made the semis, followed by taking part in the famous Henley Royal Regatta last June/July. That gives me some comfort and is helping me drive forward to a better 2025.”
Molly is in her final year of dentistry at Queen’s University Belfast and is part of Queen’s Boat Club. Molly, however, was born and brought up in Coleraine, famed for its stable of Olympic rowers. Most recently Hannah Scott took a Gold in Paris following in the footsteps (or the stroke rate!) of the Chambers brothers’ silvers and Alan Campbell’s bronze at London 2012.
A competitive swimmer in her early sporting career, it was Olympic swimming that Molly and her family went to watch at the 2012 Olympics in London, but she came home inspired by Coleraine’s rowing medal haul.
However, it was only after her school, Coleraine High School, merged with the boy’s school (Coleraine Inst) to become Coleraine Grammar School, in 2016 that Molly got a real opportunity to take up the sport. “I got involved with the school rowing club and have loved it ever since. At school I was taught the basics right up to Junior World level. Not only did I get fantastic sporting advice but also life coaching and advice on my studies,” she explains.
Molly is still recovering from the injury she sustained in early 2024. Apart from a few weeks in June and July when she thought all was well, the injury unfortunately returned.
“I’m still training every morning and evening, but I have not been on the water since early July. However, I am on the ergbike and in the gym, as well as doing rehab work.
“I need to be patient and only fully return when my body is ready. I would really love to get back to representing GB. I’m always tempted to rush back as I want to be on the water and be planning for competitions, but for now I need to concentrate on making a full recovery.
“I keep reminding myself of the longer-term goals to help stay motivated. A typical day currently is usually a bike session at 6am, then I cycle to the School of Dentistry at 8.20am for clinics, then after clinics cycle back at 5pm and complete a gym session.
“I have finals in January and May of 2025 and then hopefully graduation this summer.”
Molly receives her Mary Peter Trust funding from Mary P
Molly is clear about how funding and support from the Mary Peters Trust has been vital to her progress, saying: “The Trust has been an amazing support and without it, travelling to trials and camps would be very difficult as due to undertaking an extremely busy degree, a part time job was simply not an option.
“Lady Mary is such an inspiration particularly because of her enthusiasm for all sports and young athletes in Northern Ireland.
“She has such a positive energy and outlook and has taken her success and fame and used it to help and inspire many generations of young athletes.”
Looking back over her sporting achievements to date Molly is proud of taking 5th place whilst representing Ireland in the U19 Double in the World Rowing Junior Championships in Tokyo aged 17, “It was amazing and something I will never forget,” says Molly.
Coming 8th in the Quad for GB at the 2023 World Rowing U23 Championships in Bulgaria was, she believes, a great experience even though she was very disappointed with the result. But Molly’s standout moment is winning the championship single at the UK National Schools Regatta near London in 2019 in a course record time. And it’s a record which still stands.
“That was so special to me because I didn’t know anyone I was competing against and had no idea how I would do. All my teammates were shouting and running along the bank beside me. It’s such a great memory.”
Meanwhile it’s heads down focussing on training and rehab as well as concentrating on becoming a dentist: “At the moment I’m not sure when I’ll be fully back, but as soon as I can, I plan to gradually increase the volume and intensity so that I can get properly back onto the water.”
