IN ALMOST any other year Olive Loughnane would have been a certainty. But such was the calibre of contenders for the 2009 Sportswoman of the Year award, jointly sponsored by The Irish Times and The Irish Sports Council, that the overall winner was in doubt right up the announcement at Dublin's Shelbourne Hotel yesterday.

Loughnane had won alright, if only because she had done something truly exceptional.

In fact her silver medal at the 20km walk in the World Athletics Championships in Berlin last August was exceptional on several levels.

It was only the fifth medal Ireland had ever won in the history of the championships, and made her only the fourth person - after Eamonn Coghlan, Sonia O'Sullivan and fellow race walker Gillian O'Sullivan. But it had also come at a stage of her career, at 33, and a mother to three year-old daughter Eimear, that defied most expectations, and also after enduring several years of hardship.

"It was a great year not just for women's athletics, but for all of women's sport," said Loughnane. "So to win this award in a year when there was such a broad spectrum of achievement is extra special. I think in athletics as well we're starting to steal a march on the men, and hopefully that can continue."

Combining motherhood with being a full-time athlete is something Loughnane has clearly mastered, and she paid tribute to her daughter for her part in the deal: "She's bought into it as well," she joked, "so luckily everything is working out well."

Yet the judging panel of The Irish Times journalist Mary Hannigan, RTÉ's Greg Allen, and Lindie Naughton of the Evening Herald, had to carefully think their winner through, simply because of the standard of some of the other monthly winners.

Fellow athlete Derval O'Rourke, who had won the outright prize in 2006, also had an exceptional year, as did Katie Taylor in boxing - yet again - and some of the first-time monthly winners, Gráinne Murphy in swimming, and another athlete with outstanding prospects, the 17-year-old Ciara Mageean.

In presenting in overall award to Loughnane, the Minister for Sport Martin Cullen paid tribute to the work and dedication that go on behind the scenes of each such success, namely the parents and coaches.

"Sport as we know gives the whole country a lift," said Cullen, "and I think what makes today so special is the breadth and range of women's success that we've seen in 2009, from show jumping to athletics to golf, all of which says 'yes, we can do this'."

That was exactly the mentality that Loughnane brought to Berlin, and yesterday was fine acknowledgment of it.