Athletes must come first for a golden future

She probably won’t go on to win a medal like Katie did, she may not even achieve her primary goal of running a national record and personal best, but yesterday Derval O’Rourke proved again what a champion she is.

There were so many barriers she had to overcome other than the 10 in her path. Her indifferent form all season, the baggage from the disappointments of Athens and Beijing, the shadow of her boyfriend Peter O’Leary’s betting controversy, and then, Kevin Ankrom. A man whose job it is to assist athletes like O’Rourke instead decided to impede it by questioning O’Rourke’s preparation schedule on the eve of her biggest race in four years.

It was an unnecessary distraction that could have proved the athlete’s breaking point and a lesser athlete would have literally or figuratively tripped up yesterday. But while we should be grateful the Douglas woman had the grit to clear it, the question remains: why did she have to contend with the hurdle placed in her track by her sport’s performance director? According to Ankrom, O’Rourke should have been in training holding camp with the majority of the Irish team in recent weeks, instead of just breezing into the Olympic village on Saturday, only 48 hours out from her first race.