IF Alan Campbell had not been persistent he might never have found the sport that made him an Olympic bronze medallist.
Before he tried rowing for the first time as a 13-year-old schoolboy his athletic endeavours certainly did not suggest to his parents they had a future Olympic star on their hands.
“His potential didn’t come through for a long time,” laughed mum Jennifer.
“In primary school he didn’t show any sporting potential. What he did show was tremendous enthusiasm for sport and tremendous determination to get into sport. He tried lots and lots of different sports – football, rugby, cricket, tennis, swimming, archery and volleyball.
“But he showed absolutely no potential and didn’t have any success in any of them. Then when he was 13, on my suggestion, he went down to the river and tried rowing. And he’s never looked back.”
Before he caught the sporting bug, he had given some consideration to more traditional vocations.
“In primary three he wrote that he would like to be a farmer or a minister,” said Mrs Campbell, herself a primary school principal.
Campbell, 29, was born and raised in Coleraine on the banks of the River Bann. Brothers and rowing silver medallists Richard and Peter Chambers are also Coleraine men.
After attending Irish Society’s Primary School, Campbell went on to the Coleraine Academical Institution grammar school, the same school as Richard Chambers.
In 1999 his potential really started to shine when he clinched an under -16 Irish title.
“Ireland would like to have claimed him as their own then but Alan actually headed off to sixth form college in England with a view to having a career in the Army,” explained his mum. After two years at Welbeck Defence Sixth Form College he went to military college in Shrivenham, Oxfordshire.
“In second year he gave up any idea of being an officer and then went into rowing full-time,” said Mrs Campbell.
Campbell competed in Athens in 2004 in the quad sculls, coming in a disappointing 12th. Having shifted his focus to single sculls, he was placed fifth in the 2008 Beijing Games after overcoming major health problems to even compete. He married wife Juliette last year and now lives in Richmond, Surrey.
The opportunities to return to Coleraine are now limited – his last trip was at Christmas.
“Like every Christmas Day I was up with him at 6.10am to make his porridge,” recounted his mother.
“He runs up and down the beach, through the water because it is tougher.
“His thinking is that when he’s training on Christmas he hopes his opponents will be having a restful Christmas.
“It was things like that he figured would make the difference come the Olympics in 2012.”