{"id":613144,"date":"2026-09-03T11:54:28","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T11:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/613144\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T11:54:28","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T11:54:28","slug":"murphy-refreshed-and-revitalised-on-return-to-sailing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/613144\/","title":{"rendered":"Murphy refreshed and revitalised on return to sailing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ten years on from winning a silver medal at the Rio Olympics<\/a>, Annalise Murphy has returned to sailing with a fresh perspective on sport and life.<\/p>\n

Much has happened since she stepped away. The 36-year-old from Rathfarnham, Dublin had retired five years ago and has since moved into a new phase of life, which has included the advent of motherhood in the last eight months.<\/p>\n

But that among other things has given Murphy a new perspective on life and she has since returned to high performance sailing with a splash.<\/p>\n

Last month, she won the Irish National Championships and next up are the ILCA 6 Worlds which will be held in the familiar surroundings of D\u00fan Laoghaire from this weekend.<\/p>\n

While the competitive juices are flowing again, the initial plan hadn’t been to get back into the boat again until recently.<\/p>\n

“I was out with Finn Lynch and Ewan McMahon back in June in their coach boat, just helping them out a little bit on the water one day out in D\u00fan Laoghaire,” Murphy told RT\u00c9 Radio 1’s Inside Sport.<\/p>\n

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“I was watching them and there was a lot of sailors over from countries all around the world. And I was like, ‘That looks lovely. I’d love to get back in my boat.’<\/p>\n

“My boat was out in my husband’s parents’ house. So he went and picked it up and brought it down to D\u00fan Laoghaire. He’s like, ‘All right, you’re going to get out in your boat’.<\/p>\n

“I 100% wouldn’t have done it myself. The effort of going and driving the boat and everything.<\/p>\n

“But then I went out sailing and the summer has been so nice. It was glorious out there, just out in Dublin Bay.<\/p>\n

“You’re just completely kind of uncontactable when you’re out on the bay. So I was just like, ‘This is great. Maybe I’ll do the Nationals and see how they go.’<\/p>\n

\"Olympic
\nAnnalise Murphy with her daughter Juliette<\/p>\n

“I wasn’t expecting to do so well. I won the Nationals and then I thought, maybe I should give the Worlds a go if I can get a spot because how often do you get a chance to compete against the best in the world in your own back garden? So that’s sort of how it happened.”<\/p>\n

The time away from sailing has allowed her to look at the sport and her successful career with fresh eyes compared to when she was 26 and about to defined as one of Ireland’s select few Olympic medalists.<\/p>\n

“I went back to basics trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life going forward,” Murphy said.<\/p>\n

“I went and got a real job. I actually enjoyed it. I’m now on maternity leave – I’m probably not doing a normal maternity leave by training 30 hours a week – but yeah, it kind of gives you perspective.<\/p>\n

“I also did a lot of bike racing just at a national level in Ireland and that sort of reignited my love for competing without the pressure or expectation of trying to do really well.<\/p>\n

“And that’s why I got good at sailing in the first place was because I loved it. I loved the sport. I loved being out on the water.<\/p>\n

“And then as you start to do well, there’s more pressure, there’s more expectation. You need to keep on doing well and you start to not enjoy it as much because you have to perform.<\/p>\n

“It becomes your job and I’ve been able to sort of get back into cycling and then now back into the boat and I’m just doing it purely for the enjoyment.<\/p>\n

\"Olympic
\nAnnalise Murphy, centre, in cycling mode during the National Criterium Championships in May<\/p>\n

“And then the funny thing is when you’re really enjoying yourself you actually do quite well because you’re not overthinking things. You’re making quick decisions and you’re getting a thrill out of it.<\/p>\n

“Then for me, I’m five years out of the boat, so I get a great buzz out of doing well in training races because I’m like, ‘Ha ha, I’ve still got it’.<\/p>\n

“But also if I don’t do well, I’m not too annoyed at myself. I’m like, ‘I’m up against full-time professionals here’, that their goal is to win Olympic medals and that’s no longer my goal.”<\/p>\n

While she is no longer setting personal targets, she is keen to help the next generation of Irish sailors to reach the lofty goals that she achieved.<\/p>\n

“I’ve really enjoyed training with Lucy Ives and Sienna Wright – they’re two of our young girls coming up – and trying to give them some advice,” Murphy said.<\/p>\n

“And then of course, we’ve got Eve McMahon, who’s our big star. Eve has a chance to win an Olympic medal in LA and beyond.<\/p>\n

“She’s one of the main contenders to actually win these world championships in Dublin. So it’s kind of cool.<\/p>\n

“These girls, they got into sailing because they saw me going to the Olympics and racing. And now we’ve got this whole new generation coming through and not just coming through, but actually being the best in the world.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ten years on from winning a silver medal at the Rio Olympics, Annalise Murphy has returned to sailing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-613144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}