It’s a sweat but Bryan Keane ready for the biggest show in the world

It’s been four years in the making, but his wait is almost over.

In a little over a fortnight, triathlete Bryan Keane will learn if he’s done enough to secure qualification for the Olympic Games, which, at the age of 35, would be his first. This time around, thankfully, his fate is in his own hands.

Keane is currently ranked 49th in the world on the International Triathlon Union’s qualification list, but with only the top 55 athletes set to make the cut on the May 15 deadline, that’s a position he’s desperate to maintain.

“It’s much tighter than I wanted it to be,” says Keane. “That’s down to injury, but there’s nothing you can do.”

The injury he speaks of was an Achilles tendon problem which cost him valuable races last year and valuable points in the race for qualification. Compared to what he went through on the build-up to the last Olympics, though, this has been a doddle.

Back in 2010, Keane was one of the world’s top triathletes, cracking the top-10 in the circuit’s most prestigious races. Then one day, while cycling down the Cork to Cobh road, it all came crashing down.

A car on the opposite side of the road made a right-hand turn, veering into Keane’s path, and he ploughed straight into its passenger door, catapulting himself onto the concrete and cracking his helmet open. As for his kneecap, which bore the brunt of the fall, it was smashed to pieces.

Keane tried his best over the following year to make it back in time for London, literally learning how to run again under the guidance of strength coach Martina McCarthy, but in late 2011, he accepted defeat.

“At that point it hit me: ‘maybe I’m not going to get back, maybe it won’t happen at all,” he said. “I’ve been dogged, though. I didn’t accept it, and did everything I could.”

Over the past few years, Keane has made his way back to the top level, globetrotting with a carbon fibre bike, clawing his way back into reckoning for Olympic qualification.

In recent months, he’s raced in places like Abu Dhabi in the UAE, Mooloolaba in Australia and Chengdu in China, gathering the precious ranking points that may allow him to start dreaming of a slightly more attractive destination: Rio de Janeiro. Right now, he’s back on Irish soil, based in Castleknock as he prepares for his final two races: Huatulco, Mexico on May 8 and Yokohama, Japan on May 15.

He knows when it comes to the triathlon, this is his last shot at an Olympics, a burning desire which was first sparked during the 1992 Games in Barcelona.

“I was swimming with Dolphin club in Cork at the time and was just a naïve little kid who wanted to go to the Olympics I had no concept I was actually just a shit club swimmer. In your head, though, you want to go to the Olympics. It captures the imagination of the whole world. You can’t help but be drawn in.”

Given where he’s come back from, it will make it all the sweeter if he can be one of those 55 names announced next month.

“The Olympics doesn’t define you as an athlete. There have been world champs who haven’t gone to the Games, but, at the same time, the biggest show in the world will be in Rio. Having missed out in London, it’s about being able to come back and say: ‘no, I can do this.’”