Louise Shanahan has little to fear in biggest race of her career

Yesterday morning, Shanahan was supposed to be in a group meeting for her PhD and she told her colleagues her availability would depend on whether she made the semi-final

Sat, 20 Aug, 2022 - 07:15

Cathal Dennehy

Sometimes it’s worth breaking the rules. If Louise Shanahan had followed them, she would have walked off the track in Munich’s Olympic Stadium yesterday, made her way through the mixed zone, and the first person she’d have spoken to – at the highpoint of her career – would have been a journalist.

But in the spur of the moment, she felt the need to see someone else – those who’d been with her on every step of the journey. Before the 800m semi-final, Shanahan had caught sight of her family in the stands, sitting about 30 metres from the finish. After she finished third, advancing automatically to today’s European 800m final, she simply had to go see them.