Kieran Shannon: Kate O’Connor proves she belongs among the world's best all-rounders

Kate O’Connor’s silver medal in the Tokyo heptathlon was more than a podium finish. It confirmed her place among the world’s most complete athletes, in a discipline that demands speed, strength, endurance, and resilience in equal measure.

Kate O'Connor of Ireland celebrates after winning silver in the women's heptathlon at the 2025 World Athletics Championships. Pic: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

That wasn’t just any world medal Kate O’Connor won in Tokyo – because the heptathlon isn’t just any event.

When Jim Thorpe, the remarkable native American multisport star later portrayed in film by Burt Lancaster, won the first-ever Olympic decathlon at the 1912 Games in Stockholm, Sweden’s King Gustav V grabbed his hand, shook it and supposedly declared, “Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world.”