Doing it for the mums! LUCY & BROOKE'S SECRET STRENGTH

Our Olympic golden girls reveal how their friendship is even stronger as they take a year offrowing

- Fleur Guthrie

She’s only just turned two but little Keira Francis knows the value of a gold accessory. If she spies anyone trying to touch or wear her mother Brooke’s Olympic gold medal, she’ll tell them with that special toddler tone of authority: “That. Is. Mummy’s!”

But for the most part, Keira and her bestie, 22-month-old Rupert, are too young to register their mums’ win at the Paris Olympics. Because while they sat in the stands with family, and joined in with the crowds cheering and clapping during rowing double Brooke Francis and Lucy Spoors’ nail-biting race, rumour has it the two gorgeous tots were more interested in their ice blocks.

Brooke, 29, and Lucy, 33, never saw having a family as a barrier to their dreams. They became our first-ever crew of mothers to win an Olympic rowing medal in the women’s double scull.

Shortly after powering across the finish line – beating the reigning Olympic and world champions from Romania – the elated Kiwis picked up their toddlers from the stands to hug them.

Photographs of the touching moment made headlines around the world and the winning mums were globally celebrated as an example that motherhood was no barrier to elite sporting success.

In fact, for Brooke and Lucy, it was their kids, they say, which provided the motivation for their hard-earned victory and made it all the more rewarding.

The Cambridge sportswomen gave birth three months apart in 2022 and acknowledge there were tough days in their return to international competition.

Expectations had to be lowered, perfection was thrown out the door and their ethos became “small steps in the right direction”.

Lucy explains, “For me, it’s not the medal that I’m most proud of. The beginning and the middle of this journey to the Olympics is what I’m most proud of because I know what it’s taken.