IT was one of those magical mornings in Paris when Philip Doyle and Daire Lynch battled to bronze beneath a blazing blue sky.
Clonmel man Lynch had overcome a bout of sickness to take his place in the boat, while Banbridge doctor Doyle almost dropped his oar 50 metres from the finish line in the double sculls final.
The summer might feel like a lifetime ago now, but this medal emboldened an electrifying start to Ireland’s Olympics, with Daniel Wiffen and Mona McSharry already pocketing medals in the pool with the promise of more to come the following day when the lightweight pair of Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy took to the water.
Up in the stand at Vaires-sur-Marne, family and friends strained their eyes against the sun to cheer Doyle and Lynch home.
Niall Lynch, Daire’s father, estimated around 50 had travelled, including the parents and brother of Daire’s Ecuadorian girlfriend, Martina Roman. Doyle’s mother, Una, sat with his girlfriend, Tiffany McDonald, and spent the first half of the race with her hands clasped in prayer.
Yet, once the line had been crossed, the widest grin was worn by a fellow rower who - had things been different – might have been out there too.
Draped in green, white and gold, Konan Pazzaia watched proudly as the medals were placed around the Irish pair’s necks, and beamed when journalists were pointed in the direction of the training partner who had helped push Doyle and Lynch all the way.
“That was amazing… amazing – it’s so good to see my team-mates do so well,” he says.
“Working with them all year, you could really see they’ve done every session the way they were supposed to. They had a few setbacks, a few times where they weren’t too sure, but they really handled it so well today.
“I couldn’t be more delighted for them.”
Pazzaia knew better than anybody what Doyle and Lynch had gone through to get there, especially in the gruelling final few months leading into Paris.
Yet while his elation was entirely genuine, don’t be fooled - beneath the warm smile and friendly demeanour beats the heart of a serious competitor. One who, by the time the Los Angeles Games roll around in 2028, intends to be on the water rather than watching from the wings.
It wasn’t a given, though, that he would be chasing his Olympic dream with Ireland. Konan Pazzaia isn’t a typical Belfast name, after all, but then little about his story follows the norm – so we’ll start from the start.
The 23-year-old’s mum, Sarah Tohill, is from Finaghy where her parents Maura, former vice-principal at St Bride’s PS, and Pearse, who taught PE at St Mary’s CBS, still live.
Sarah swapped Belfast for Geneva to study for a Ph.D in organic chemistry - she is now a doctor of organic medicine – and met “part-Swiss, part-Italian” Pascal Pazzaia. The rest, as they say, is history.
Konan was born in Geneva but the family moved just across the French border, to Andilly, two years later. That is where they remained until he was 15 and, despite the disarmingly broad Belfast accent, French is his first language.
“I’m just putting on a really good act now,” he laughs.
“We would always have been back and forth to Belfast, which was great, then I’ve lived in France for most of my life. But, because I always swapped schools when I was younger, I never really felt grounded…”
It wasn’t until they settled in Nyon, after returning to Switzerland, that his social circle widened out – and with that came a first introduction to rowing.
Always pursuing outdoor endeavours, whether that was mountain climbing or cross-country running, with the odd bit of table-tennis thrown in for good measure, Pazzaia was always destined for something different.
And, although he hadn’t lifted an oar by the time the O’Donovan brothers were pulling like dogs at Rio 2016, something grabbed at him as the Skibb siblings sped to silver.
“I remember watching the whole final session thinking ‘that looks cool’, and my parents were like ‘what are you doing?’ I had never watched rowing before, I was just intrigued.
“I only heard about their interviews after… I mean, I didn’t know Paul was Paul - I really loved the sport for itself. The Swiss women’s four medalled in Rio as well, so it was like ‘Switzerland aren’t bad, Ireland aren’t bad’, I shouldn’t be too bad at this!
“I went into it thinking it’s just a wee hobby, then I was sort of forced into doing a competition because they didn’t have any room in the club for any kind of social rowing – and from there I just fell in love with it.
“The camaraderie you get in rowing, the feeling on the water, gliding there, going as fast as you can, using as little energy as you can… it’s a class feeling. It doesn’t take long before you’re hooked.”
Three years on from Rio, Pazzaia represented Switzerland at the Coupe de la Jeunesse, an annual international regatta for European U19 rowers European. Held in Cork, this was the first time he came to Irish attention, and the first time he got to see the national rowing centre.
“It made sense to try rowing for Ireland after that, because in Switzerland they don’t really have a system in place for sports and studies, and study is really important for me. So from a strategic perspective I thought it would be best to go to Belfast.
“During Covid year I went over to spend time with my grandparents, that’s when I started rowing a bit more seriously, and got scouted by the Irish team the year after.
“I don’t know why, but I always felt like the Irish team was calling me, in a weird way, because I was seeing Phil and Ronan [Byrne] start to do well in 2019 [they qualified for the delayed Tokyo 2020], then the lightweight double [O’Donovan and McCarthy] were flying it too.
“I was also a lightweight then, so they were inspiring. I wanted to be like them.”
After beginning a degree in human biology at Queen’s University, Pazzaia hooked up with respected coach John Armstrong. Indeed, the first person he rowed with on the River Lagan was Ciaran Purdy, the reigning World U23 champion.
However, with lockdowns restricting training opportunities, and military service compulsory for all Swiss nationals, Pazzaia decided to bite the bullet and take a gap year in 2020/21.
“It was a tough few months through the winter, I can tell you.
“January in Switzerland, temperatures of minus 20 in the Alps… early mornings, freezing cold, then I was with the Swiss-German section and I didn’t speak a word of German at first, though I learnt a bit along the way.
“You start off with the basics; under law you have to respect high ranks, if you don’t you go to military prison. Then gradually you’re taught how to use your weapon, taught how to take care of it. I was also a driver for a four-by-four tank, this big thing with a machine gun on top, which was class.
“Of course you had to be really aware in terms of safety, especially during shooting sessions – after the US, Switzerland is the country with the most weapons per person because everyone who is able to has to do their military service.”
Brought onto the Queen’s elite athlete programme upon his return to Belfast, Pazzaia started moving through the gears, following World U23 bronze in 2022 with gold 12 months later alongside Sligo’s Brian Colsh in Belgrade.
With Paris moving slowly into view, his degree was put on hold after former Irish high performance director, Antonio Maurogiovanni, wanted athletes based in Cork full-time.
It was here that some of his experiences in the Alps would come in handy, as the Olympic qualification race hotted up.
“It definitely helped me with nerves.
“In Cork, you’re in such a stressful environment all the time. I feel like my military service helped me stay calm in those situations and not really care too much on the outcome, focus instead on doing the best you can.
“And Paris was the goal. At the 2023 World Championships I entered the quadruple sculls with Ronan Byrne, Andrew Sheehan and Brian Colsh, we were going quite well until we all got sick, a really bad food bug, before the regatta started - I lost six kilos overnight.
“I’ll keep it PG, but it wasn’t pretty. It hit everyone the same way, other boats too. We didn’t perform the way we wanted, but were still training the quad through the year until that project was abolished, and I was entered in the single for the final Olympic qualification regatta because I was the fastest sculler on the team….”
But, after a flying start in Lucerne, Pazzaia’s qualification bid drifted off into the distance. Months on, the hurt has subsided, replaced instead by a realisation of what went wrong – and what is needed to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
“I was doing well, won the first two races, third in the third race to get to the final, but it was very tough for me to do a quarter and semi-final in same day - I wasn’t ready for it really, shot myself in the foot, came sixth in the A final.
“Seven seconds from going to the Olympics...”
That’s why August 1, 2024 at Vaires-sur-Marne was a day of mixed emotions.
Pazzaia was the spare for that boat and, had Lynch’s illness forced him out of action, the Belfast boy would have been plunged into action. Half in, half out – it’s a trying, restless sort of a place to be.
Yet, no matter what happened once the starting gun sounded, he had played his part.
“I was obviously delighted for the guys, for them to go there and bring back a medal.
“I was getting emotional because I was the one that was next in the boat if something had happened, so it really mattered to me that they took home a medal because it made me feel that I pushed them on.
“I knew at that point Daire and Phil were in the mental space, doing the numbers and that they would be in contention. I was ready to go, we had the best camp we ever had in Varese, I was telling myself I was going to the Olympics and competing at the Olympics.
“That’s the mental process you need because you’re preparing for something you might not be doing, but you might be. You need to be in that position where, if you are called up, you can do a really good job.
“Of course I wanted to compete, but it was their time, and they did what they needed to do.”
The weeks and months that followed have allowed for quiet reflection after the chaos.
Rowing has taken a back seat because it had to, in order for the batteries to recharge, and the brain to recalibrate. If Paris is starting to disappear from the rearview mirror, LA’s time on the horizon is yet to come.
When it does, though, Konan Pazzaia will be ready.
“That’s my fuel - there’s a big fire in me now.
“I just put so much into rowing that I feel I sort of have to do it, or else it’ll drive me nuts. The fire is ignited, but the break was definitely needed because I tried so hard to get to that qualification regatta and get through.
“Like, my peak wasn’t the Olympics, my peak was at the end of May because I was trying so hard to get to the Olympics. There were a few times I didn’t want to do a spare role but my coach talked me into it because it served as experience for the next time.
“Thanks to that, I can really feel what the lads would’ve felt when they were racing, what an Olympic final is like… it’s like no other race. It’s just a different game, the Olympics, and it makes you even more hungry to get back there.
“Plus,” he smiles, “my grandpa was saying he’s going to stay extra fit so he can go to LA as well.”
