The Olympic dream "is what drives me every day"

The days are growing shorter, and Sive Brassil is "deep into the winter grind," putting some hard training in the bank in the hope that it will pay dividends next spring.

The local 26-year-old is an elite athlete in Modern Pentathlon - a multi-discipline sport involving running, swimming, show jumping, fencing and shooting - and her ambition is to compete at next summer's rescheduled Olympic Games in Tokyo.

"That would be a dream come true, really. It would be a culmination of a life's work to date. It would really mean everything, and hopefully if I do qualify and get the chance to represent Ireland I'll be gunning for the podium," she says.

The Ballinasloe native is speaking to the Westmeath Independent from Dublin, where most of her training takes place at the national sports campus.

The pandemic and its impact on sport is one of the topics for discussion, so it's perhaps fitting that the interview, like so much else this year, is being conducted remotely, via Zoom.

Sive's sport was put on hold early in 2020, meaning that she and other modern pentathletes will have been out of competitive action for over a year by the time events resume in late March of 2021.

Five competitions are scheduled from March to June, and how she fares at those will determine her world ranking and, with it, qualification for Tokyo.

"I basically have five chances to finish as high in those competitions as I can to get a good enough world ranking to qualify," she explains.

"Your best three results are taken into (consideration for) your Olympic ranking. I've only gotten to compete in two Olympic qualifiers so far, and they have been two strong results, but I'm really hoping to get three stronger results next year anyway.

"I think the extra time has given me a chance to come on in my technical events and my overall fitness. So I'll be looking for top ten or podium finishes, hopefully, next year."

While she hails from Ballinasloe, Sive went to secondary school in Our Lady's Bower, Athlone. "I'm a 'Bower flower', as they say!" she smiles.

"It's a great school and I have lots of happy memories and lots of friends I'm still in touch with from my Bower days. It was definitely a really positive experience."

So, how did she first get involved in modern pentathlon?

"As a kid I was in a pony club, and they had a sport called Tetrathlon, which was four out of the five (modern pentathlon) sports, so it was running, swimming, shooting and horse riding.

"When I heard that there was a sport that combined all of those, and added on one more, I was very drawn to that," she says.

Asked which of the modern pentathlon events suit her best, she replies: "I think the physicals are definitely strong for me - the run and the swim.

"I actually had a brief stint in the Athlone Swimming Club, when the Ballinasloe pool's roof collapsed back in the day!

"So yeah, running and swimming would be my stronger events, but I've also been horse riding from a young age and I really enjoy the mental challenge of the fencing and the shooting."

As someone who has been consistently active in sport from a young age, she admits the gap in competition this year has felt strange, but training challenges have helped maintain her focus and sharpness.

"I've been doing different trials and competitions within my training with my coaches, who have been setting me different challenges.

"So hopefully by the time I compete again I'll just be so hungry to get out and compete that I won't be worried about competition nerves or anything. I'll just be so happy to be able to do what I love again.

"I haven't struggled too much with my motivation, fortunately, because I have known from early on that the Olympics would still go ahead, they've just been postponed. So that drives me every day. It's all the motivation I need."

During the first lockdown, last spring, she wasn't able to use the swimming pool or see her coaches but the recent level 5 measures haven't affected her as much.

"Elite athletes have been allowed to continue their training, so my training has not been hampered, which is really good."

Sive is one of 25 athletes chosen as ambassadors for the Olympic Federation of Ireland's 'Dare to Believe' schools' programme, sponsored by FBD Insurance.

Tullamore boxer Grainne Walsh is another of the athletes featured in the programme, which involves each school learning about Olympic values and hearing from one of Ireland's Tokyo hopefuls.

"It's a really great schools' programme," Sive enthuses. "So far, it's been for primary schools, but we're looking to expand into secondary schools as well.

"The schools that apply get a curriculum, based around the Olympic values, then each school will get a visit from an ambassador, which at the moment is a virtual visit.

"We share our stories through sport with the students and get them thinking about their Olympic-sized dreams, which might not be sport but might be something else.

"It's just to get them thinking about what they love and what they'd like to do. I am supposed to be going in and inspiring them, but I find it really rewarding and inspiring myself to hear all of their ideas and their big, Olympic-sized dreams for the future."

What sort of questions do the children tend to ask her? "Oh, you get really funny ones," she replies.

"Some will ask who's your biggest inspiration, or what's your favourite sport, and then some will put up their hand, go up to the screen, introduce themselves, and ask 'do you have any cats?' Those are my favourite questions, because they're just so off-topic!"

Returning to the topic at hand, Sive is very much looking forward to 2021 and the promise it could hold in the Land of the Rising Sun.

"I'm getting all the hard winter training in, and hopefully then I'll be coming into competition season fit and ready, without any injuries.

"I just want to be able to build throughout the season, get stronger, and peak for Tokyo. That would be the dream season," she concludes.