Derval O’Rourke puts foot down on Choo shoes

Track queen Derval O’Rourke says not even a serious achilles operation was going to stop her walking up the aisle in her wedding-day extravagance, a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes.

The Cork athlete fellow Olympian, sailor Peter O’Leary, recently and spoke of her race against time to be ready for the biggest day of her life.

“The four weeks post-surgery were very tough in terms of wedding preparation. I was on crutches and unable to drive,” she says in tomorrow’s Weekend magazine.

“I cancelled all my appointments for two weeks and sat in my house trying to recover. I got really down about how my 2013 season had turned out.

“Before the surgery, I had never thought about what would happen afterwards, I had only thought about getting through the surgery. I found myself wondering if my career was done. Rather than getting excited about the wedding, I was very sad about my foot.

“[But] Peter said I was allowed be as sad as I wanted, but that it would pass and that our wedding day would be great, no matter what.”

O’Rourke also reveals her Swedish surgeon didn’t fully appreciate the importance of Jimmy Choos.

“I asked him about this most amazing pair of Jimmy Choos, and he told me I could wear them if I cut out the back of them. The nurses started laughing and told him no-one takes a pair of scissors to Jimmy Choos, even if they’ve had surgery.”

Of her special day, she gushed: “The best day of my life, better than all the times I’ve won medals or broken records.”