Event: Women’s 800m.
Who is she? Ireland’s fastest woman over 800m on an indoor track. In May 2015, at an IFAM meeting in Belgium, she ran 2.01.21 to record the sixth fastest outdoor time by an Irish woman over the same distance.
Where’s she from? Kilkenny, although she is based in Dublin, where she works as a physiotherapist.
Olympic CV: This is the 26-year-old’s first Olympics.
Road to Rio: The former UCD student qualified for Rio towards the end of 2015, after a revision of the qualifying standards meant that her time from the meeting in Belgium was quick enough to secure a spot in Brazil.
When does she start? Wednesday 17 August at the women’s 800m heats.
Where can I follow her? On Twitter and Facebook.
What she says: “I qualified for the Olympics based on my time from last year but I still have to show current form this year — it’s not just a case of sitting back and resting on my laurels.” (in ‘A Day In the Life’ piece with The42 earlier this year)
Medal chances? Reaching the Olympics is a massive achievement for Everard while advancing from her heat is probably a realistic goal. Barring a massive personal best it is hard to see her competing for medals.
To put it into perspective, her PB from Belgium last year would have put her in eighth spot in the 800m final at the European Athletics Championships in Amsterdam, a second and a half behind winner Nataliya Pryschepa of Ukraine. And Caster Semenya has run four seconds quicker than that this year.
So it’s two out of five for Everard on The42‘s scientifically-developed, patented Jerry Kiernan scale…
And here’s something you probably didn’t know… Her older brother Eoin Everard, 29, is also a physio and a leading Irish athlete. In February, he won the 1,500m and 3,000m in the National Indoor Championships in Athlone. He competed at the recent European Athletics Championships in Amsterdam but didn’t make it out of the heats.
It was his first European event and came just four years after he was considering giving up athletics for good.
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