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FIONNUALA McCORMACK MADE history in Paris this morning as she became Ireland’s first ever five-time female Olympian.
McCormack finished 28th in the women’s marathon in a season-best time of 2:30:12, recording her third consecutive top 30 finish at the Games.
The 39-year-old Wicklow native made her Olympic debut at the Beijing Games in 2008.
Sifan Hassan took gold, a remarkable achievement on the back of her bronze medals in the 5,000m and 10,000m events.
The Ethiopian-born Dutch athlete crossed in an Olympic record time of 2:22:55 after sprinting clear of Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa to win by three seconds.
Kenya’s Hellen Obiri won bronze, with McCormack seven minutes and 17 seconds down on Hassan’s winning time.
“It wasn’t what I came here for. It was not what I envisaged at all,” McCormack told RTÉ.
“I feel like I never gave up but it wasn’t what I was hoping for really. I suppose (I was hoping for), minimum, better than I’d ever ran before and I was 20th in Rio, so I suppose better than that really.
“The course was great. We should have more courses like that maybe. Although at the end I think I would have nearly preferred more hills and less flat. I found the hills break it up and almost give you something to focus on, whereas when you’re on the flat it just feels like it’s going on forever.
“I hung on in there for as long as I could. On the first big hill I could feel I was gaining back into where I wanted to be but I don’t know, like I wasn’t in the race, which I was really hoping I would be this time.
“It’s hard when you’re in a race and just kind of watching everything move ahead of you, but the marathon is a bit like that and you have to just dig in and hold on as best you can and hopefully have something at the end to maybe make it respectable.”
McCormack was asked how she will reflect on becoming Ireland’s first ever five-time female Olympian.
“I suppose I can’t yet,” she said.
“It’s been mentioned a lot over the last while and to be honest most of the time it just makes me feel old, but I didn’t want to just be a participant in five Olympics, I wanted to perform, and I’m not sure I really did that today.
“I’ll look back on it eventually but at the moment it’s too soon. But out there on the course it was unbelievable, even the amount of people I could hear cheering for me from Wicklow and the amount of people that knew my name.
“You know it’s Irish people out there because so many people can’t pronounce my name and when I hear ‘Fionnuala’ I know I’m the only Fionnuala in the race and it is great to hear, even when you’re struggling, you almost up your game a bit because the support was unbelievable out there.”
Written by Ciarán Kennedy and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won’t find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women’s sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here.
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How the other half live eh?
But seriously though, doing well for a 28 year old, keep it up!
@Mary Walshe: indeed. Bring home the bacon despite no bacon
Good job! That’s my base salary here and I surely don’t have 10k after the taxes (which are used for only god’s know what with poor healthcare, poor education, expensive childcare, poor public service overall).
@Yvon Queguiner:
Poor Education?
@Yvon Queguiner: Education is the only service we’ve had that is decent, but yea slowly it’s being torn apart by misguided Irish opinion. Also add Housing and Transport.
@thesaltyurchin: Despite unrealistic public expectation and far too much of the funding wasted in bureaucracy, Ireland’s Health service is world class.
Before anyone says anything about the salary it’s very average for the UAE. As a past resident if I can one piece of advice to the 28 year old consultant. DO NOT take out any loans or credit cards that’s how they get to keep you as you are stuck if you do
Riveting!! Zzzzzzzzz
For some odd reason Engineering consultants in Ireland get half the rate than on the continent. The average charge out rate for a civil Engineer in Scandinavia is the equivalent of 188 euros an hour.
1125 for rent in the UAE , you wouldn’t get a bed sit in Waterford for that
@David Chadwick: yea but we’re all living the dream here.
@David Chadwick: well your property here probably wasn’t built using slave labour like there.
A salary of 120k is just over 1% of workers in ireland. But 54% are college educated in Ireland. From Revenue’s “Analysis of High Income Individuals”
@Communist Party: Well, ~14% of workers in Ireland are above €100k according to recent statistics perpetuated by Newstalk. I doubt €120k is a hard ceiling for said individuals.
He’s a peasant with that salary over there when everyone and their grandma drives a Rolls Royce.
@Kieran Menon: and you’re point being?
@Fuji Hakayito: he is
@Kieran Menon: Certainly not a peasant, on that salary he has a good standard of living. Remember it’s tax free, his healthcare is paid for, and by the way the healthcare system here is world class. VAT is only 5%, the weather is incredible 8 months of the year and petrol is far cheaper than back home. I live here too so I can attest to this. So he’s definitely doing better than he would be back in Ireland, that I know for sure
Fair play.
Work hard, take risks, get rewarded.
In Ireland people who do this are vilified by the Left and taxed mercilessly to pay for the perpetually lazy.
@Paul: You really do need to get over yourself and stop blaming everybody but yourself for your bad decisions that left you paying for someone else to live in ‘your’ house. It’s not the fault of ‘the left’, it’s yours and yours alone. Be a big boy now and own it and stop stamping your feet like a child whose ice-cram just fell on the floor.
fair play to you, far away hills are not green, make sure you dont come home !!
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