Olympic heartbreak has made Sharlene Mawdsley stronger

“I didn’t have a sports psychologist and once I started going to one, things really started to look up."

Sharlene Mawdsley (Newport A.C) celebrates winning the Women’s 200m final at the 2022 Irish Life Health National Indoor Championships,

When it comes to sports psychology, there are some things you can’t glean from a book. Like learning to ride a bike, some things just need to be experienced, the falls endured, before the penny finally drops.

Heading into 2021, Sharlene Mawdsley knew all the shtick about trusting the process, staying in the moment, but she never really understood how her mind worked until an Olympics hung in the balance, a fraction of a second separating utter elation from a feeling – however misguided – of abject failure.