Life as an elite athlete begins (again) at 40 for Lizzie Lee
Lizzie Lee and her family, daughters Lucy, aged 6, Alison, aged 3, Jessica, aged 17 months and her husband Paul during the Irish Life Health Family Mile Challenge in Cork.
Lizzie Lee thought her days as an elite athlete were done.
The Cork runner gave birth to her third child just eight weeks before Leo Varadkar closed the country down in the face of the pandemic and turned 40 a few months later.
Lockdown redrew life’s boundaries for Lee and her family, as it did so many others. A project manager, she was now working from home. So was her husband and there was no more babysitting help with Lucy (now 6), Alison (soon to be 4) and Jessica (almost 18 months).
An Olympian in the marathon at the Rio Games, the prospect of earning another Irish singlet was the furthest thing from her mind through all this but now here she is just days away from competing in the European Cup 10,000m in Birmingham.
It will be her first time wearing the green vest in three years, her place booked two weeks ago when she recorded the qualifying time at an elite meet in Cork. It will be, she admits, the “sweetest singlet” of them all.
“I was more nervous at the start line of that 10k (in Cork) than I was in Rio in the heat for the marathon because any woman who has been through having a baby, you really think you're running is done, that your competitive side is done.
"Then lump the pandemic onto that for a year with no races, add in no physios, no babysitters, the whole lot, turn 40 and make it so long since your singlet that you begin to just say, 'Nah, I'll just stay here in my comfort zone and do my training and I won't bother racing'.”
This journey back to the pinnacle of her sport is exceptional through any lens but maybe not least because Lee found the recovery so much more difficult with Jessica than it had been with her first two daughters.
For Lee, the key to it all was planning. Work and a young family is a demanding double act in itself but a routine of dawn runs got her into a groove both mentally and physically.
She spoke last year about the possibility of making a go for Tokyo given the 12-month postponement and the fact that it gave her time to get in tip-top shape after Jessica’s arrival but that didn’t happen and she was asked today if there is any relief in that given the risks.
"No, because if you think back to Rio, didn't we have Zika, and I was very much planning on having a baby as soon as I could after Rio. In fact, I would have found Zika scarier than Covid at that time because very much wanted to have a child and I knew well that if I got Zika I was going to have to wait an extra year to have a baby.”
The reality is that there have been too many Olympics burdened by some unforeseen events. Lee mentioned the fact that her coach, Donie Walsh, competed at the 1972 Games which were devastated by the terrorist attack which left 17 people dead.
Athletes are at the centre of the Games and, at the same time, removed from the majority of these associated matters. Theirs, after all, is an existence which is built on tunnel vision regardless of the external noises and debates
Keeping that focus has been particularly difficult this time around, not just because of the postponements and cancellations and lockdowns, but the ongoing doubt being expressed over whether the Games will even go ahead.
“I do feel sorry for them because you just don’t need that level of stress when you are preparing for the Olympics. You will put your head down and pretend it's not happening but they have probably done that about five times at this point.
“Every single athlete has had some competition moved, cancelled or postponed this last year and it is just an extra stress. My dad always says to me: everything takes energy. It’s just extra stuff they don’t need so I do feel sorry for them.
“It’s not been an easy situation but nothing has been easy for anyone this last year and resilience is the key here. The athletes who are now qualified and going, they are resilient. It’s not like it came out of leftfield, they prepared like they believed this was happening.
“That’s all they can do right now.”
That said, she’s confident of a good showing from Team Ireland.
“I have seen Paul O’Donovan hammering seven shades of things out of an erg all winter. I’m not just talking athletics, I think we have some really exciting prospects in Tokyo. I hate when people talk about silverware in advance. The athletes are doing their absolute best.
“We have some really exciting prospects, not just in athletics. I can’t wait to see what our hockey women do. Then obviously my own heart… Ciara Mageean and people I roomed with in Rio and Ciara has stepped up.
“I think we will be seeing our athletes in Olympic finals. I know the question is about silverware but that will come. Olympic finals are definitely in prospect and we will be looking at the rowers for potentially some silverware.”
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