Rhasidat Adeleke
Age: 21
Event: 400m/women’s and mixed 4x400m relay
Club: Tallaght AC
First Games
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Controversially left off the mixed relay team for the delayed Olympic Games in Tokyo, Adeleke has seen her star status simply soar ever since. After cutting short her eligibility at the University of Texas last year to race professionally, weeks after winning the NCAA 400m title in an Irish record of 49.20, she finished fourth at the 2023 World Championships. Her 2024 season has gone better again, Adeleke winning three medals at last month’s European Championships in Rome, her 400m silver clocked in another Irish record of 49.07. She then won the Irish 100m title in another national record of 11.13 (her 52nd so far, giving her the complete set of sprint records across every age). Signed off for Paris will a stunning win at the Monaco Diamond League, clocking 49.17 seconds, her second fastest time ever.
Ciara Mageean
Age: 32
Event: 1,500m
Club: City of Lisburn AC
Third Games (2016, 2020)
Cruelly injured a week before competing in Tokyo, the ever-resilient Down athlete bounced right back in 2022 when winning 1,500m silver at the European Championships and Commonwealth Games, before winning a magnificent gold in Rome last month, completing the full set of European medals, only our second ever individual gold medal winner after Sonia O’Sullivan. Took back the Irish 800m record this year, running 1:58.51, after improving her own Irish 1,500m record to 3:55.87 last summer. Mageean also finished fourth at last year’s World Championships in Budapest, and arrives in Paris with enough experience and confidence to put herself in the medal mix once again.
Mark English
Age: 31
Event: 800m
Club: Finn Valley AC
Third Games (2016, 2020)
A four-time European 800m medal winner, twice indoor and twice outdoor, English has timed his Paris run to perfection, improving his own Irish 800m record twice within four days last month, taking it down to 1:44.53 in Madrid, twice inside the Olympic qualifying time to boot. Coached by Feidhlim Kelly at the Dublin Track Club, the Donegal athlete and doctor took another break from his medical career to maximise his Olympic chances, underlining his form when winning a ninth Irish 800m title last month, to sit with his nine indoors. Vastly experienced and quietly confident, he will go in an 800m event that promises to be one of the most competitive in Paris. His recent 400m best of 46.19 is a good show of his readiness.
Andrew Coscoran
Age: 28
Event: 1,500m
Club: Star of the Sea AC
Second Games (2020)
From Balbriggan in north county Dublin, Coscoran delivered on his promise last year when breaking both the national outdoor and indoor records over 1,500m. The outdoor mark had belonged to Ray Flynn since 1982, and Coscoran beat it with a truly world-class 3:30.42. His season best of 3:32.68 is a little off that, but he made the final at the European Championships in Rome last month. Also coached by Feidhlim Kelly, he last won the Irish 1,500m title in 2021, missing this year through illness. With the experience of the last two World Championships, he knows what is required to make the final is what will also be one of the most competitive races in Paris.
Sharlene Mawdsley
Age: 25
Event: 400m/women’s and mixed 4x400m relay
Club: Newport AC
First Games
Unquestionably among Ireland’s most improved athletes of recent years, Mawdsley was another to miss out on the mixed relay selection for Tokyo. Undeterred, she ran 51.70 seconds later that summer, underlining her potential after briefly drifting away from the sport while attending the University of Limerick. Since then, she’s been coached by two-time Olympian Gary Ryan, also a Tipperary native, who put her on a path of steady progress. After anchoring both the mixed and women’s 4x400m relay in the final of last year’s World Championships, she did likewise in Rome last month, winning gold and then silver. After improving her best to 50.72 in May in Chorzow, Poland, she also earned her individual Paris berth.
Sarah Lavin
Age: 30
Event: 100m hurdles
Club: Emerald AC
Second Games (2020)
Now a model of consistency after overcoming a few years of illness and injury, the Limerick sprinter achieved a rare double last summer when first taking down Derval O’Rourke’s 13-year-old Irish 100m hurdles record, clocking 12.62 in her semi-final of the World Championships in Budapest, before improving the 100m flat record to 11.27. Rhasidat Adekele took that record when beating her to the National title last month, but Lavin had earlier added her ninth hurdles title, having won six more indoors. A finalist at the European Championships in Rome last month, and the 2023 European Games bronze medallist, Lavin’s partnership with her coach Noelle Morrissey has also seen her finish fifth in the World Indoor 60m hurdles earlier this year.
Sarah Healy
Age: 23
Event: 1,500m
Club: UCD AC
First Games
After a brilliant junior career that fast transitioned into senior level, Healy gained fresh ground again last summer when breaking the sub-four barrier for 1,500m, her 3:59.68 at the World Championships also qualifying her for Paris. Now based in Leeds with coaches Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows, in the group that contains Britain’s 800m gold medal hope Keely Hodgkinson, she moved down to 800m to win that national title last month. A week later she improved her best to 3:57.46 for seventh place at the Paris Diamond League, moving to second on the Irish all-time list, ahead of Sonia O’Sullivan, now only behind Ciara Mageean.
Brian Fay
Age: 25
Event: 5,000m
Club: Raheny Shamrock AC
First Games
A relatively late developer after an underage career that always held promise, Fay studied at DCU and later at the University of Washington in Seattle, where his progress was immediately notable. Improved his 5,000m best to 13:16.52 in 2022, and then ran a stunning 13:01.40 last summer, breaking the Irish record that had stood to Alistair Craig since 2011. Coached at the Dublin track club by Feidhlim Kelly, he’s a true student of the sport too and won a second successive National 5,000m title this summer with a searing 53-second last lap, having also run an indoor mile of 3:52.03 last year. Renowned for giving his all, he will relish the Olympic stage.
Sophie O’Sullivan
Age: 22
Event: 1,500m
Club: Ballymore Cobh AC
First Games
Makes Irish athletics history in Paris by following in the footsteps of her mother Sonia, a four-time Olympian and 5,000m silver medallist from Sydney 2000, only the third mother-and-daughter to compete in Olympic athletics history. Raised in Melbourne, she first showed her potential when winning 800m silver at the 2018 European Under-18 Championships (behind Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson, the favourite for gold in Paris), and last summer won the Under-23 1,500m title. Has spent the last four years at the University of Washington in Seattle, coached by Maurica Powell, making two NCAA 1,500m finals, her 4:02.15 at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest inside the automatic standard for Paris. Claimed her first senior 1,500m title in June, signing off for Paris with a season best of 4:05.77 at the Morton Games, then running 2:00.28 for 800m in Italy, faster than her mother.
Sophie Becker
Age: 27
Event: 400m/women’s and mixed 4x400m relay
Club: Raheny Shamrocks AC
Second Games (2020)
Ireland has three women in the 400m for the first time in Olympic history, with of them being this Wexford athlete, who will be making her first individual appearance, having been part of the mixed relay team that made the final in Tokyo. She qualified in 46th from the 48-athlete event quota, after improving her best from 51.83 seconds to 51.13 in May. Coached by Jeremy Lyons and Gerard O’Donnell, she also boasts the experience of two World Championship finals in the mixed relay, and in June ran the opening leg of the women’s 4x400m that won silver at the European Championships in Rome, where she just missed the individual final.
Cathal Doyle
Age: 26
Event: 1,500m
Club: Clonliffe Harriers
First Games
First joined Clonliffe as a 13-year-old, born in nearby Swords, Doyle has made steady progress in the 13 years since. This year he has made particularly exciting leaps, improving his best from 3:36.85 to 3:34:09. Also qualifying via the event quota (41 of 44), last month he won a third successive national 1,500m title, to sit with his one from indoors (where he dived over the line ahead of Nick Griggs). Spent a couple of years running for the University of Portland, having graduated from DCU, and signed off brilliantly for Paris by winning the Morton Mile on his home track in a scorching 3:52.06. Has developed a great knack of winning.
Kate O’Connor
Age: 23
Event: Heptathlon
Club: Dundalk St Gerald’s AC
First Games
Born in Newry and raised in Dundalk, O’Connor first took to the seven-event discipline at school at St Gerard’s in Dundalk, coached by her father Michael, and in 2019 she won the first international medal for Ireland in the heptathlon, nailing silver at the European Under-20 Championships in Boras, Sweden. After setting a national record of 6,297 points in 2021, in 2022 she won a Commonwealth silver medal, beaten by the defending champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson offrom England. Finished in 13th at last year’s World Championships, scored 6,244 points in Germany last month, and qualified in 23rd of the only 24 places for Paris.
Nicola Tuthill
Age: 20
Event: Hammer
Club: UCD AC
First Games
Tuthill won her first senior hammer title in 2020 at age 16, already benefiting from the hammer-training cage her father Norman built on their family diary farm in Bandon. Won silver at the European Throwing Cup in March, then in June became only the second Irish woman to throw over 70m, after 2008 Olympian Eileen O’Keefe, with her brilliant 70.32m. Backed that up with an excellent ninth-place finish at the European Championships in Rome, her first senior major international. Coached by a combination of Killian Barry, Kevin Warner and Roland Korom, she also finished fourth at the European Under-23 Championships last year. Qualified for Paris ranked 29th of the only 32 entries, with her career only beginning.
Eric Favors
Age: 27
Event: Shot put
Club: Raheny Shamrocks AC
First Games
A native of Rockland County, outside New York City, Favours took up his Irish eligibility via his grandmother Margaret Kerr, from Ballina in Mayo, who lived in New York for more than 50 years. In high school he was coached by Dubliner Paddy McGrath, who competed in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, and Favors has now broken the Irish shot put record multiple times, improving it from 20.66m to 20.93m in April of this year. A graduate of the University of South Carolina, he won European Team Championships Division Three last year, and in June won a third national senior title. Qualified for the last two World Athletics Championships, he made Paris ranked 30th of the 32 athletes who reached the event.
Fionnuala McCormack
Age: 39
Event: Marathon
Club: Kilcoole AC
Fifth Games (2008, 2012, 2016, 2020)
Makes Irish Olympic history as the first women to compete in five Games, and in four different events: the 3,000m steeplechase in Beijing 2008, the 5,000m and 10,000m in London 2012, then the marathon in Rio 2016 and the delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Back-to-back European cross country champion in 2011-2012, she finished fourth in that event again last December, just a week after running 2:26:19 in Valencia, inside the required 2:26:50 for Paris. That was also just five months after giving birth to her third daughter. The incredibly consistent Wicklow athlete now boasts 44 senior international appearances, more than any other Irish woman. Ran her lifetime best of 2:23.58 just four months after Tokyo, and will relish another shot at the classic distance in the streets of Paris.
Jodie McCann
Age: 24
Event: 5,000m
Club: Dublin City Harriers
First Games
After a promising young career that began at age nine, winning a series of Irish underage cross-country titles, McCann’s running then took a back seat to her teaching studies in Dublin, before a brave move to Australia over the winter. There she joined the On Athletics Club Oceania, and that paid huge dividend. Guided by Australian Olympian Craig Mottram, McCann smashed her best times over the 1,500m, mile and 3,000m. Then, in June, she improved her 2023 best of 16:18.23 for 5,000m to 15:20.93. She also qualified for the European Championships in Rome, her first senior track appearance. She continues to be coached by her father Clark, a former international swimmer. She made Paris ranked 39th of the 42-athlete quota in her event – joining older brother Luke, who qualified in the 1,500m
Luke McCann
Age: 26
Event: 1,500m
Club: UCD AC
First Games
By his own admission a late bloomer. McCann had dabbled in cross-country running in Blackrock College, briefly flirting with rugby too, and started his engineering degree in UCD in September 2016 with a best well outside four minutes – for 1,500m. In 2021, he improved from 3:53.72 to 3:36.81, then set his sights on the Paris Olympics. In 2022, he joined On Athletics Club Europe, based in the Swiss Alps under former German national coach Thomas Dreissigacker, and last year he qualified for the World Championships in Budapest. A stress fracture in his sacrum in December threatened to end his Paris dream, but McCann never gave up, running 3:33.60 in Stockholm in June, and he qualified 35th of the 45-athlete quota. With his sister Jodie, he is part of only the second Irish brother-and-sister set to qualify for the Olympics in athletics, after Thomas and Jessie Barr (2012).
Thomas Barr
Age: 31
Event: 4x400m Mixed Relay
Club: Ferrybank AC
Third Games (2016, 2020)
Eight years after finishing fourth in the 400m hurdles in Rio, where he set a still-standing Irish record of 47.97 seconds, Barr fell just .09 short of qualifying in that event for a third time, running 48.79 in June, before missing out on the ranking quota by just one place. He still gets his shot with the mixed relay, running a brilliant third leg (with a 44.90-second split) when the Irish quartet struck gold at the European Championships in Rome in June. He was also part of the team that won bronze at the World Relays in May. Since winning bronze in the 400m hurdles at the 2018 European Championships in Berlin, he has been one of Ireland’s most consistent performances on the international stage, and one of the most popular too.
Phil Healy
Age: 29
Event: Women’s and Mixed 4x400m relay
Club: Bandon AC
Second Games (Tokyo)
Formerly Ireland’s fastest woman, Healy was on the verge of retirement last year when the debilitating Hashimoto’s disease, a thyroid gland disorder, left her unable to train or race to her full potential. Encouraged by long-time coach Shane McCormack, she slowly bounced back this year, part of both the mixed and women’s 4x400m teams that qualified for Paris at the World Relays in the Bahamas in May. Also part of the mixed relay that made the final in Tokyo, Healy then ran a brilliant third leg with the women’s 4x400mn team that won silver at the European Championships in Rome in June, before winning another National 200m title in Santry, her 17th in all across a range of sprint distances, indoors and out. Also competed in the 200m and 400m in Tokyo, the first Irish women to compete in three Olympic events at the same Games.
Chris O’Donnell
Age: 26
Event: 4x400m Mixed Relay
Club: North Sligo AC
Second Games (Tokyo 2020)
Last month O’Donnell fell just short of winning a sixth National 400m title in seven years, fading on the line, in part due to recent illness, just as Jack Raftery powered past, but gets another Olympic shot after his model of consistency with the mixed relay, also part of the quartet that made the final in Tokyo. A former underage soccer player from the Sligo hamlet of Grange, he ran the opening leg of the gold medal winning mixed relay team at the European Championships in Rome in June. Coached by Stewart Marshall at Loughborough University, his 400m best of 45.26 is second only to David Gillick on the Irish all-time list
Jack Raftery
Age: 23
Event: 4x400m Mixed Relay
Club: Donore Harriers
First Games
Won his first National 400m indoor title in 2023, before running his best of 45.89 seconds to make the final of the European Under-23 Championships last summer. Already part of the mixed relay quartet that made the final of the last two World Athletics Championships, in 2022 and 2023, Raftery ensured his selection for Paris when winning the National senior outdoor title in June, running 45.95 seconds. Coached by Jeremy Lyons and Gerard O’Donnell, and studying Mechanical Engineering at DCU, Raftery becomes the first sprinter from Donore to represent the club at the Olympics since 1956.
Lauren Cadden
Age: 24
Event: Women’s and Mixed 4x400m relay
Club: Sligo AC
First Games
After a breakthrough win over 200m to win a first National senior title in 2022, Cadden has made huge strides over the 400m this season, starting with the Inter-varsity championships back in April, when she ran a championship record of 53.38 seconds, improving the mark that had stood to Karen Shinkins since 1999. With a degree in Health Science from Athlone TU, and coached in Sligo by Dermot McDermott, she then broke 53 seconds for the first time, clocking 52.87 in Salamanca in June, before running the heats with the women’s 4x400m relay that claimed silver at the European Championships in Rome. Was just beaten into third in the 400m at this year’s National Championships, behind Sophie Becker.
Rachel McCann
Age: 22
Event: Women’s and Mixed 4x400m relay
Club: North Down AC
First Games
After winning several Irish under-20 and under-23 titles in the 200m and 400m, running 55.54 seconds back in 2019 and also showing early promise in the long jump and high jump, McCann made her big breakthrough over the one-lap event this year when improving her best to 53.60 seconds when finishing second behind Sophie Becker at the National Championships in Santry in June. She finished second in the Inter-Varsity Championships in April, running for Queen’s University Belfast and improved her 200m best to 24.92 in Brussels in May. Part of the new generation of Irish 400m runners, she will take part in her first senior international event in Paris.
Kelly McGrory
Age: 27
Event: Women’s and Mixed 4x400m relay
Club: Tir Chonaill AC (Donegal)
First Games
A five-time Irish champion in the 400 metres hurdles, and partner of fellow Paris-bound sprinter Thomas Barr, McGrory is also coached by the husband-and-wife team of Drew and Hayley Harrison in Limerick. A native of Laghy in Donegal, she improved her flat 400m time to an excellent 52.62 seconds in Brussels in May, putting her in the frame for the relay selections. Ran another lifetime best of 57.10 over the 400m hurdles at the European Championships in Rome, only to miss the 4x400m relay though injury. She also ran the women’s 4x400m relay in the final of the World Championships in Budapest last summer, and after finishing fifth in the 400m at the National Championships last month, running 54.39, she sealed her Paris berth.
