Derval O'Rourke: 'It's been a huge honour to guest edit the Irish Examiner's Weekend magazine'

We invited Olympian, business woman and columnist Derval O’Rourke to be our guest editor for this Saturday's special edition of Weekend. Here, she outlines her vision for the magazine

Derval O'Rourke: I needed a theme for the whole magazine. That theme is taking care of yourself, and being your own authentic genuine self, and for that to be enough. Picture: Patrick Browne

When I started out in my athletics career, my goal was to get to an Olympic games. Once I got to those first Olympics, I was driven to get to a second. Then, my goal became winning a medal. I kept raising the bar for myself, setting my sights higher and higher.

There were two reasons for this and the first was my genuine ambition, but the second was I felt a lot of external pressure that if I didn’t win that medal, all the effort and time wouldn’t have been worth it. I internalised that pressure: my value as a person became very attached to winning that medal.

The 2008 Olympics, my second Olympic Games and my best chance to win a medal, came and went: lo and behold, I didn’t win one. There were lots of reasons why: I was sick, I was injured. But not winning that medal fundamentally changed my life trajectory and became one of the biggest and hardest lessons I have ever had to learn. 

Afterwards, I remember having a long hard look at myself and realising that I would have to learn that athletics was what I did, not who I was. I had to go away and figure out who I was, that regardless of other people’s opinions, I had to be happy with who I was myself.

Success, medals, and records weren’t going to be the thing that defined me. I lost my fear of failure. Now I feel that nothing is a catastrophe or unmanageable if you have your health and if the people you love are healthy. Everything else is what we do, not who we are. 

Derval O'Rourke: Not winning that medal fundamentally changed my life trajectory and became one of the biggest and hardest lessons I have ever had to learn. Picture: Bríd O'Donovan

Two months after I retired from being a professional athlete, I published my first cookbook. I really believed there were too many extremes in the world of food at the time: everything seemed to be either very chef-oriented food or else weight loss books, and I didn’t think there was much out there that was just about empowering people to get into the kitchen and enjoy the simple pleasures of home-cooked healthy meals.

I had pitched my book to the publisher and they weren’t very keen on it. They wanted me to do a diet book, but I stuck to my guns and fought for my idea. I really did not want to do a book that didn’t align with my values, didn’t want to just equate success with sales and be pushed beyond my comfort zone because I had internalised a sense of pressure to succeed.

I always felt that a cookbook was very authentic to who I was and even if nobody had bought it, I’d still believe in it. I had spent three years putting it together and even went to cookery school: so much time and effort went into it. Regardless of how it did, it would have been good enough, for that reason.

Derval O'Rourke: I always felt that a cookbook was very authentic to who I was

But, happily, it became a best-seller and started me on a trajectory of working in the area of health and wellbeing. Success had become a by-product of me doing what I loved and believed in. I’d be lying if I said there still aren’t pressures, of course there are. But they don’t define me.

It’s been a huge honour to be invited to guest edit this edition of Weekend. I have been writing in the Irish Examiner for years, in the Food and Lifestyle section and in the Sports section, but this time I have the opportunity to put my own stamp on the whole supplement. 

I felt like I needed a theme for the whole magazine. That theme is taking care of yourself, and being your own authentic genuine self, and for that to be enough. We live in a crazy digital world now where that can be quite difficult.

I love the idea of people getting this edition of the paper on a Saturday, putting the kettle on and sitting down in their kitchens or their living rooms and having a read. I really think there’s something for everyone, from all walks of life, in those pages.

I was really interested in the feature on Instagram because I spend a lot of time on the platform so I thought pulling back the curtain on it was a really strong idea. It’s too easy to portray a filtered version of your life that isn’t real and I always try to come back to that: is that who I am, is this who I want to be?

Jacqui Hurley, Derval O'Rourke, Mairead Ronan in conversation. Picture: Nina Val @nvksocial

I loved doing the conversational piece with Máiread Ronan and Jacqui Hurley, two amazing women who, to me, epitomise what it means to be your genuine self. Whenever I spend time with either of them I really feel like they are the best possible versions of themselves, whether that’s at home with their families or in the professional careers they choose to go after. 

They always inspire me and make me think about how I can do things better, but at the same time, how being yourself is always enough. I hope they’ll inspire others too.

It’s become so clear to me, more than ever since I learned to let go of the internal pressure that went along with my athletics career, that health is wealth and that your most important asset is always yourself — I hope that message shines through this Weekend.

• To read this special edition of Weekend, subscribers can simply log in to the Irish Examiner Paper tomorrow or you can grab a copy in this Saturday's Irish Examiner. Discover more from our Feelgood Season here or subscribe to enjoy unlimited access to all of the Irish Examiner.