Doctor Doyle undecided over possible LA Games tilt

Olympic medal winning rower Philip Doyle says he will concentrate on his medicine career in 2025 before deciding whether to aim for the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

The Banbridge man, 31, clinched double sculls bronze for Ireland along with partner Daire Lynch in Paris earlier this month.

Doyle was competing in his second Olympics after representing Ireland in Tokyo three years ago.

“I’ll take some time and maybe race a bit this year and then next year, I’ll do a full year of medicine and then I’ll make a decision whether to come back or not for LA,” Doyle told BBC Northern Ireland’s Good Morning Ulster.

If Doyle does decide to prolong his rowing career, it will mean him relocating once more to the Irish National Rowing Centre in Cork.

“It’s a different tax, a different currency…..you have to import your vehicle. It’s a hassle.

“Next time if I do it, do I have to move my entire life down there because I was half back in county Down? It’s a bit more of a complex decision.”

Doyle added that his medical career “has obviously suffered massively” because of the commitment he has given to rowing.

“Rowing takes a lot more than it gives. It’s a six-and-a-half days a week sport.

“I need to focus a little bit more on gaining a bit more medical experience. I put my GMC [General Medical Council] application if anybody is listening and they can hurry it up.”

The county Down man was one of three Northern Ireland rowers to clinch Olympic medals in Paris with Coleraine woman Hannah Scott dramatically securing gold as part of the Great Britain quadruple sculls boat and Belfast native Rebecca Shorten earning silver with GB’s women’s four.

Scott was the first of the Northern Ireland rowers to win a medal and Doyle joked that the “pressure was now on”.

“I said to myself, ‘if Hannah can get a medal, I’m getting a medal’. Then I got a medal and when I was waiting for the podium, I saw Rebecca cross the line and I was cheering for her.

“People were wondering ‘why is this Irish guy cheering for GB?’. It was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve had of my life so far. Tokyo was quiet. No one there. Paris was 15,000 fans.”

After winning his Olympic medal, Doyle decided his achievement to his late father, the BBC Northern Ireland cameraman Eamon Doyle, who died in 2015.

The rower revealed he watched a video that his father recorded with the help of another stalwart BBC Northern Ireland cameraman John Otterson shortly before his death.

“I’ve watched it three times in my life. The first time was on my own. Second time was with my mum the week after he died and the last time was the night before the Olympic Final. I haven’t watched it since because it’s too much.

“I brought him my first ever medal in rowing when he thought I was a lunatic and was saying ‘why are you I training twice a day. You’re obsessed with it’.”

Doyle laughed as he recalled his dad finding found protein powder in his room and “thinking it was drugs”.

“I used to have to sneak out of the house in the morning to go for a run so he wouldn’t shout at me for training twice a day.

“[But] He came round to the idea then when he saw the success. We watched the University Boat Race together in the hospice in Newry.”