CIARA MAGEEAN IS used to managing expectations but the difference now is that she goes into this weekend’s European Indoor Athletics Championships carrying the hopes of a nation.
Let’s be realistic: the 24-year-old is Ireland’s only medal chance in Belgrade over the next three days and that’s not to degrade the other nine athletes on a team mixed with youth and experience.
It’s more a measure of Mageean’s growing stature and spiralling reputation as a middle-distance runner and we saw that flash of brilliance at the European Championships in Amsterdam last summer.
In her first-ever senior international meet having been plagued by injuries for three years, the Portaferry athlete become just the third Irish woman to medal at the European Championships.
By storming to bronze in the 1,500m final, Mageean not only put to bed any doubts over her fitness after reconstructive surgery on her left ankle but demonstrated a prodigious talent which only served to further the validate the Sonia O’Sullivan comparisons.
“The Europeans was a big turning point for me,” she told The42 during the week.
“I came back from a big injury and hadn’t actually raced a major championships for Ireland. The last time I had raced for Ireland was at junior level so it was a big step back up onto the international stage as well as the senior stage.
“But it was a fantastic moment for me as it not only put the rumours that everyone else might have had to rest — ‘will she be as good as she was, will she be able to get back to where she was?’ — but it also put to rest any doubts I had in my own head.
“That’s the thing you have to worry about, whatever other people say it doesn’t really make a difference but if you’ve any doubts in your head that’s going to be harmful.
“That was the moment I realised I was able to race with the best in the world and I proved to myself that I was back where I was before the injuries and I am over that.”
There was a point, however, when Mageean wondered would she ever get back. After being told by the surgeon that an operation on her ankle had an 80% chance of working, it’s only natural to have doubts. There was a 20% chance she would never get back on the track. The doubts reverberate.
That was in 2012, when the then UCD student’s hopes of qualifying for the London Olympics were cruelly dashed. Going under the knife would rule her out for the guts of a year but then came the setbacks and 12 months turned into the best part of 36.
“If any athlete told you they didn’t have any doubts then they’d be lying as we all have our doubts even whenever we’re running well,” Mageean continues.
“After surgery the worry was that I’d never get back running pain free and those worries continued right through rehab and the road to recovery because you’re not properly back until you pull on the vest and step on the track again.
“Then there is the ‘will I have been left behind?’ worries. Those doubts are there and it’s something you have to contend with and a battle you have to have in your head sometimes on a daily basis. You have to get the the bad voices out of your head, and for me those voices were there for a long time.”
It puts her achievement in Amsterdam last July into perspective, but then again we shouldn’t really be surprised given Mageean’s record at junior level; 800m silver in the 2009 World Youth Championships, 1500m silver in the 2010 World Junior Championships and the 1500m silver in the 2011 European Junior Championships.
And then injury struck and a promising career suddenly hit a roadblock but Mageean wasn’t prepared to let her potential expire. She met adversity head on and embarked on a monotonous, and pain-staking, rehabilitation programme with her coach Jerry Kiernan.
“It was taking longer than expected to recover from surgery but when I got back to good health I then badly sprained my ankle,” she explains. “I was just out for a run and hit a tree root and had a slight fracture too. That set me back again and it was just so frustrating to do something silly like that.
“Sometimes the small injuries can be the most crushing because with surgery or a long-term one you’re given a timeline and you can at least accept and deal with that. With fractures and sprains, it’s just how it responds. It was hard coming back but right now I’m happy.
“That’s not to say there won’t be hiccups along the way but because of the injuries I’ve had and the strength I’ve had to have to deal with them, I think it will take a hell of a lot to shake my boat and rock me again. I’ve developed a good mental toughness from years of injury and disappointment.
“I don’t even think about the years of injuries anymore, my coach says they’re probably a blessing in disguise because I’m much healthier now as an athlete both mentally and physically because I’ve had that bit of a break. Hopefully it’s all behind me.”
Rio followed Amsterdam in 2016 and while Mageean admits she was disappointed by her performance on her Olympic debut (she failed to qualify for the final), she shaved five seconds off her PB at a Diamond League meeting in Paris a few weeks after.
It was another confidence boost on the comeback trail and put her in good stead heading into the New Year, which she began in style a fortnight ago with victory at the National Indoor Championships in Abbotstown.
On the face of it, Mageean’s victory at the new Indoor Arena was expected and hardly a surprise but with a quality field, which included fellow Olympian Fionnuala McCormack, and a difficult week of preparation, it was a fine start to the season.
“I was very nervous going into the race,” she says. “It had been a hard week as I was battling with a cold and my granny had passed away.
“I run no matter what happens in my life and sometimes it can be a nice relief but this time it was hard. That said going home with a national title and being able to show my family the medal was special and I know it meant a lot to them as well.
“They’re always so supportive of me, whenever I was messaging home saying ‘I can miss Nationals’ but the message from home was clear: go run your race and then get back up to Portaferry. It meant something special to go home with a medal.
“My aim is always to make my family proud whenever I’m stepping out there on the track, but there was that little bit of an extra inch in my step that day. It helped me focus for that nine minutes and then I knew I could get off the track and get back home to family.”
In a post on her Instagram account, Mageean — who has just finished her degree in physiotherapy from UCD — described her grandmother, Eilish, as ‘a woman who taught me to work hard and always look forward’.
She continues: “Someone else asked if my granny was sporty. My granny was 90, I always just remember her as being my granny and I never remember if she was sporty or not but she definitely was a big part of my life.
“Both sets of grandparents were a huge part of my life growing up, we lived very close to them and I’ll always remember tearing around my granny’s garden. She was always there, she wouldn’t have known a lot about athletes but she was always so supportive of me.
“I always used to come home and run into both my grandparents’ houses to show them my medals and tell them how I’d done. I went to my granny’s house before I went to my own and she was always a huge part of my life, them and my whole family have shaped the athlete I am today.
“I wouldn’t be here without them and I’ll definitely miss seeing my granny when I get home and telling her about my travels all around the world because I know she was very proud of me.”
Mageean will step onto the track at 4.05pm Irish time later with her grandmother watching over her and a quiet confidence which comes from battling adversity, coming through the other side and smiling right back at it.
“I know what I’m capable of,” she adds. “I always prefer to go into a championship as an underdog but now I’m going in and people will know I’m a previous European medallist from last summer. That adds extra pressure but that’s a good pressure and I always put those expectations on myself anyway.”
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