Paralympics
Athlete Reflections: Corné de Koning
Netherlands
PR2 Mix2x / Placing: Silver
Time off from rowing has helped my mental health. Rest feels good, perhaps I needed it more than I realised. Last year was tough for everyone. Tokyo was cool. A lot of exciting things have happened; during the season you can recover physically but mentally I’ve been running on adrenaline for a while now.
Less than twenty-four hours before we left for Tokyo our coach told us he couldn't make it. Personal circumstances meant he was needed at home. It was a stressful start to our campaign. We switched our mindset in order to deliver what we knew we were capable of. The federation supported us but having worked together for all those years and suddenly the team is split, and our coach wasn’t with us, that’s tough. We had to rely on ourselves.