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Local twins were inspired to take up rowing by movie about social media
T
NATHAN TAYLOR
he hit 2010 fi lm ‘The Social Network’ made a huge impression on movie goers all over the world but it also had a major impact on two local teenage brothers, Tom and Joseph McMahon. After watching the fi lm, the 16-year-old identical twins were inspired to take up rowing after watching real-life characters, the Winklevoss twins, portrayed in the fil m. The American-born Winklevoss twins, Cameron and Tyler, competed at the 2008 Beijing Olympics but of course were most famous for suing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for $140 million, claiming he stole their idea to create the popular social media network. “We both saw the movie and that had a huge impact on getting us started in rowing, it looked really cool in the movie,” Joseph said. “We also did some research on the Winklevoss twins and watched some of their races, and thought it was really cool, so we decided to take up rowing.” It’s only been a matter of months since the pair began their rowing careers, four to be exact, and they’re already competing at the Rowing Nationals to take place at the Sydney International Regatta Centre next week. “We always had an interest in rowing from age 12 and always thought the sport was cool watching it at the Olympics,” Joseph said.
Sport
Seeing double on double scull
Joseph (front) and Tom (back) will be competing in the Rowing Nationals after taking up the sport just four months ago. Photo: Melinda Jane.
“We always talked about joining before a friend from our school, St Paul’s Grammar, invited us down to the Nepean Rowing Club one Saturday to have a row and see how we liked it, and we’ve been coming back ever since.” Despite their strict training schedule, where they only get one day off a week,
the boys absolutely love their newfound sport and are already excelling far beyond people’s expectations. The Year 11 students said being identical twins was very beneficial in rowing. “It helps being twins in one way because I can be a lot more honest with Joe if he makes a really stupid mistake,” Tom said.
“Also we are benefitting from being identical because we’re able to compete in time and in-sync.” The pair will compete at the upcoming Nationals in the under-17 double sculls event. They hope to use the event as experience as their rowing careers continue to grow.
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