Every last Olympian needs to take interviewing lessons from Irish brothers, Gary and Paul O'Donovan. The O'Donovan brothers placed second in the lightweight double sculls last Friday, earning the Republic of Ireland its first Olympic medal of the Rio Games. While this in and of itself has made the two men national sporting heroes, their interviews have earned them just as much fame.
The first interview to catch the Internet's attention was tweeted by RTÉ, Ireland's largest news network, on August 8th after Gary, 23, and Paul, 22, won their heat leading up to the lightweight double sculls semi-finals.
The two joked about the cancellation of their race the day before because of wind. The winning line of this interview goes to Paul when he says, in true Irish fashion, "We were almost disappointed we couldn't race yesterday. We were looking forward to that, would have been a bit of craic."
Craic is Irish slang for "a good time" or "fun" for those that have yet to visit Ireland, which I'm sure you'll do after watching these boys. As the O'Donovans continued to dominate in their rowing semi, the interviews kept coming. RTÉ's interview with the brothers about their final race on August 12 was filled with even more quotable gold.
When asked what their next 22 hours leading up to the race would look like, Paul responded cheekily in his Cork accent, "Get a bit of shteak," which resulted in Gary praising the food at the Olympic Village and saying, "You can have steak for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and spuds if you like."
Gary continued by commenting on the final, "There was no point in us looking ahead to the final because we weren't there yet and now we can look ahead to it and get excited about it and go as fast as we can."
Paul comes back with another lighthearted response when the interviewer asked if going fast was the O'Donovans' only game plan, "It's to be as fast as we can go. Close the eyes and pull like a dog." These particular moments of charming banter resulted in the creation of an O'Donovan brothers T-shirt.
Even after placing second, the brothers remained in good spirits and delivered one of the most charming post-final interviews of the entire Rio Olympics thus far.
If these three videos aren't enough to convince you that the O'Donovans are naturals at the interview game, check out this adorable clip filmed before Rio where the boys praise their nana's cooking.
Gary and Paul have interviewing down to a science, but the true beauty of it is that they aren't even trying. The sheer banter the two men have in each interview they encounter reminded me why I love Irish people so much. Their ability to hold a conversation with such honesty and lightheartedness made me want to jump on the next plane to Shannon and stay on the Emerald Isle forever.
Along with the United States domination in the swimming pool and Figi's fairy tale finish in rugby, the O'Donovan brothers are one for the books. Thank you, Gary and Paul for not only making your country proud, but for also showing the rest of the world how wonderful the people of Ireland truly are. I can't wait to see you both again in 2020. Cheers!
