THERE’S A LINE from Kate O’Connor that says plenty about why she left the World Indoors last month with bronze, a national record, and a sense she was somehow still dissatisfied.
“If you don’t medal, it feels like a bad day,” she says.
It also says something about the mindset that has carried the 25-year-old from promising talent to genuine global contender in the heptathlon and pentathlon – a mindset that showed itself years earlier when she made a call that changed the course of her career.
Two weeks before she was due to move to the University of Texas on scholarship, O’Connor pulled the plug.
“It’s actually a funny story,” she says. “I met this girl I was supposed to room with and we had it all organised. Then they put me in with someone else.
I thought, ‘I’m moving halfway across the world and the one request I had wasn’t met,’ so I decided I wasn’t going to go.
Allianz ambassador Kate O'Connor. Dan Sheridan / INPHO
Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
The rooming issue was really just the final nudge. Even at 18, she was making hard-headed decisions based on what she felt would make her the best athlete possible.
That same instinct has helped her become an all-in competitor who has medalled in her last five international events across pentathlon and heptathlon, an athlete who says she thrives under the stress and expectations her results have produced.
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“There were definitely points where I wondered, ‘Should I have gone to America?’,” she says. “But I’m happy with what I did.”
Instead of Texas, she headed to Sheffield to spend time in the set-up around Jessica Ennis-Hill’s former coach, before Covid sent her home again – which is where everything clicked into place.
Working with her father Michael, O’Connor built a support system that has helped drive one of the most impressive rises in Irish athletics. The Newry-born star has a Commonwealth Games and European Championships double on the radar this summer, while the Los Angeles Olympics are now just over two years away.
Crucially, she was able to build on last year’s success by contending at the World Indoor Championships in March. She broke the national record in Toruń with 4,839 points, finishing behind winner Sofie Dokter of the Netherlands and the favourite from the US, Anna Hall.
“It was definitely nerve-racking because I had done so well last year and, like, how am I supposed to replicate winning four medals? That’s insane,” she recalls.
“Now there’s a lot of expectation from other people, but also from myself, because I’ve now pushed myself into this realm of, ‘If you don’t medal, then it feels like a bad day’.
“I thrive under stress. I love that feeling of when people want me – or don’t want me – to do something, and I do it anyway.
There was definitely a sense of relief when I won another medal because it was, ‘Right, last year wasn’t just a one-year thing, I’m actually an athlete that’s here and here to stay.’
“I want to continue pushing on and keep winning medals. It was definitely a really nice way to start the year.”
Kate O'Connor with her World Championship bronze medal. Dan Clohessy / INPHO
Dan Clohessy / INPHO / INPHO
O’Connor reflects on her appearance at the Paris Olympics – a first for an Irish heptathlete – as the moment she went from “95% committed” to the full shebang in terms of her career.
She felt she needed that extra step to get to where she is now. “I came away with this sense of, do I need to change something? I knew within myself that I could be a great athlete,” she says.
“I could be one of the best athletes. I just knew it. Maybe lots of the other girls feel that too, but I knew I could win a medal. So I made that decision.
“I poured so much of my life into sport. My whole life has been sport. But I think up until that point, probably 95% of my whole life was sport. I probably held on to that 5% of normality too much.
“I made the decision that I was going to 100 per cent commit myself to sport and do everything right. I got myself into better shape. I recovered better. I was training better because I was doing all those things better.
“I wasn’t getting injured as much. This is the longest I’ve ever gone without picking up a bad injury and I think that comes down to doing all the other things really well.”
O’Connor’s conviction has guided her to the top and maybe you can trace some of it back to that Texas call, when she decided to ditch one plan and went with another.
Rhasidat Adeleke sought her thoughts before taking her own scholarship to Texas a year later, and O’Connor points out the American route can work brilliantly too.
“It works for some people and not for others,” the 25-year-old says. “When I was 18, I thought it was this huge life-defining decision.
“But in reality, even if I’d gone to America and come home at 22, you’re still so young. I don’t think going away or coming home should ever be the end of anyone’s career.”
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'I’ve now pushed myself into this realm of, ‘If you don’t medal, then it feels like a bad day’'
THERE’S A LINE from Kate O’Connor that says plenty about why she left the World Indoors last month with bronze, a national record, and a sense she was somehow still dissatisfied.
“If you don’t medal, it feels like a bad day,” she says.
It also says something about the mindset that has carried the 25-year-old from promising talent to genuine global contender in the heptathlon and pentathlon – a mindset that showed itself years earlier when she made a call that changed the course of her career.
Two weeks before she was due to move to the University of Texas on scholarship, O’Connor pulled the plug.
“It’s actually a funny story,” she says. “I met this girl I was supposed to room with and we had it all organised. Then they put me in with someone else.
The rooming issue was really just the final nudge. Even at 18, she was making hard-headed decisions based on what she felt would make her the best athlete possible.
That same instinct has helped her become an all-in competitor who has medalled in her last five international events across pentathlon and heptathlon, an athlete who says she thrives under the stress and expectations her results have produced.
“There were definitely points where I wondered, ‘Should I have gone to America?’,” she says. “But I’m happy with what I did.”
Instead of Texas, she headed to Sheffield to spend time in the set-up around Jessica Ennis-Hill’s former coach, before Covid sent her home again – which is where everything clicked into place.
Working with her father Michael, O’Connor built a support system that has helped drive one of the most impressive rises in Irish athletics. The Newry-born star has a Commonwealth Games and European Championships double on the radar this summer, while the Los Angeles Olympics are now just over two years away.
Crucially, she was able to build on last year’s success by contending at the World Indoor Championships in March. She broke the national record in Toruń with 4,839 points, finishing behind winner Sofie Dokter of the Netherlands and the favourite from the US, Anna Hall.
“It was definitely nerve-racking because I had done so well last year and, like, how am I supposed to replicate winning four medals? That’s insane,” she recalls.
“Now there’s a lot of expectation from other people, but also from myself, because I’ve now pushed myself into this realm of, ‘If you don’t medal, then it feels like a bad day’.
“I thrive under stress. I love that feeling of when people want me – or don’t want me – to do something, and I do it anyway.
“I want to continue pushing on and keep winning medals. It was definitely a really nice way to start the year.”
O’Connor reflects on her appearance at the Paris Olympics – a first for an Irish heptathlete – as the moment she went from “95% committed” to the full shebang in terms of her career.
She felt she needed that extra step to get to where she is now. “I came away with this sense of, do I need to change something? I knew within myself that I could be a great athlete,” she says.
“I could be one of the best athletes. I just knew it. Maybe lots of the other girls feel that too, but I knew I could win a medal. So I made that decision.
“I poured so much of my life into sport. My whole life has been sport. But I think up until that point, probably 95% of my whole life was sport. I probably held on to that 5% of normality too much.
“I made the decision that I was going to 100 per cent commit myself to sport and do everything right. I got myself into better shape. I recovered better. I was training better because I was doing all those things better.
“I wasn’t getting injured as much. This is the longest I’ve ever gone without picking up a bad injury and I think that comes down to doing all the other things really well.”
O’Connor’s conviction has guided her to the top and maybe you can trace some of it back to that Texas call, when she decided to ditch one plan and went with another.
Rhasidat Adeleke sought her thoughts before taking her own scholarship to Texas a year later, and O’Connor points out the American route can work brilliantly too.
“It works for some people and not for others,” the 25-year-old says. “When I was 18, I thought it was this huge life-defining decision.
“But in reality, even if I’d gone to America and come home at 22, you’re still so young. I don’t think going away or coming home should ever be the end of anyone’s career.”
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Athletics kate o'connor