Arthur Lanigan-O’Keeffe: 'I cried for like two hours. It hit me really hard'

Olympian Arthur Lanigan-O’Keeffe’s sporting career came to an abrupt in a surgeon’s clinic last June. Slowly but surely he has found peace with retirement from modern pentathlon at 29, writes Cathal Dennehy

Injury prevented Arthur Lanigan O’Keeffe from competing at the Tokyo Olympics. Now retired, he has begun a masters in filmmaking at the London Film Academy. Picture: Brendan Moran

Sometimes you retire from the sport. Sometimes the sport retires you.

In the latter case, you can rage all you want against the dying of the light, but when your body cries its last surrender, all the willpower in the world won’t change a damn thing.