Imogen Grant reshaping her body and diet to pursue Los Angeles 2028 after Paris gold

Imogen Grant, the British Olympic rowing champion, is rebuilding her body and changing her diet as she targets a place at Los Angeles 2028 after winning Olympic gold in Paris when she briefly considered retirement.

Grant had been a lightweight specialist and returned to work as a doctor immediately after Paris, with retirement a genuine possibility; lightweight women's double sculls required her and partner Emily Craig, who retired last year, to average no more than 57kg at pre-race weigh-ins. At 5ft 6in and aged 30, Grant now faces the task of moving into open-weight rowing, where many competitors are usually at least four inches taller and 20kg heavier — factors the article notes can translate into greater power in the sport.

Rather than cutting weight, Grant is attempting to add mass while retaining the technical efficiency developed over years as a top lightweight. "It's not just about the raw power in a rowing boat," she explains. "It's about all of those other things, how well you can row with each other, how well you can move the boat." She accepts she will not be the biggest athlete in the boat: "I'm never going to be the strongest person in the boat."

Gaining size has required a fundamental shift in how Grant approaches food: "As a lightweight rower, a lot of the fuelling was really focused on making sure that you were fuelling well for the sessions, but also making sure that you were targeting a specific weight," she says. Now free of that restriction she reports being "heavier now, I'm bigger now, I'm stronger now and I think all of those things are really positive." The change has been gradual as she learns how to gain weight and muscle while maintaining endurance fitness.

Grant follows a vegan diet connected to her commitment to climate activism and environmental sustainability and is managing the high energy demands of elite training on that plan. "We do so much training and eat so frequently that as long as we're getting three good meals a day, what we're eating around the sides, that doesn't really matter so long as it's energy dense," she says, adding "We're an endurance sport, so carbs are king." She estimates consuming around 3,500-4,000 calories a day in training compared with the average woman's 2,000, and relies on tofu, chickpeas, beans and vegan protein shakes for protein.

Results and selection have followed her return to full-time rowing after a period balancing the sport with work as a resident doctor in the NHS. Grant travelled as a reserve to the 2025 World Rowing Championships in Shanghai, helped Britain's women's quadruple sculls win World Cup gold in Lucerne in June and has been selected alongside Lola Anderson, Hannah Scott and Finnola Stratton for the World Championships in Amsterdam from 24-30 August. "It's been going well," she said, adding: "I feel like the momentum has been really building."

Grant frames her return not only around personal goals but also around changing perceptions about who can succeed in rowing, particularly for athletes who consider themselves too short or small. "A lot of people think they're not built for rowing because they're too short or too small," she says. "Showing that that's actually not the case and you can still achieve if you're a little bit smaller is also really important." She concluded on her Olympic hopes with a smile: "It would just be amazing."