Ciara Mageean: 'I find it a bit frustrating, a bit insulting, a bit annoying. I know I’m clean'

BIG STRIDES: Ireland’s Ciara Mageean. ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy

Given the altitudes she now inhabits, she knows this comes with the territory. There are sports where big breakthroughs are met with blind eyes, but Ciara Mageean knows that in athletics, people will ask this question. So when the topic of doping is raised, she takes no offence.

In New York on Sunday, the 30-year-old closed her season with a sub-par showing at the Fifth Avenue Mile, fading to finish 17th in 4:30. It was a run beset by fatigue from recent efforts, with Mageean smashing Sonia O’Sullivan’s Irish 1500m record to clock 3:56.63 and win in Brussels followed by a superb runner-up finish at the Diamond League final in Zurich.

Amid the wave of congratulations on social media after those runs, there were some pockets of scepticism. Mageean largely stays off Twitter as “that’s where the demons lie” but those close to her told her was said by those doubting how she’d taken 3.5 seconds off her personal best. But Mageean knew those shouting the loudest knew next to nothing about her career.

“You’ve seen my athletic career since I was a junior,” she says. 

“It’s people I look to who know our sport intimately that are looking at me running four-flat and going, ‘She’s probably not running to her potential.’ That criticism hurts too because I know it’s true, whereas this criticism, I find quite funny, obviously a little insulting, because I’m like, ‘Look, I’m there, I’ve been a fantastic underage athlete, a world silver medallist at junior. I had a terrible run of injuries in U-23, and along my career you could see glimpses of what Ciara Mageean should be. I know I’m doing everything I can to be the best athlete, cleanly, and I don’t need to worry about what others say as I know that to be true.” 

How does she feel knowing some won’t believe her?

“I find it a bit frustrating, a bit insulting, a bit annoying, but look, f**k it, it is what it is. I know I’m clean. Through (Sport Ireland) I’ve been tested since I was 17. I’m on whereabouts since I was 17. I’ve a very long line of tests and my blood passport is very thorough so I know it to be true. It’s another thing as a clean athlete: I always welcome the people coming to test me. When they come I say, ‘Thank you so much, you’re doing me a service.’” 

Mageean is tested five to 10 times a year by Sport Ireland, with at least one out-of-competition test each quarter. She believes the landscape is improving at global level. 

“The work the Athletics Integrity Unit are doing is great because that’s the side that’s going to clean up our sport the most. I’m not stupid, I do believe there’s people out there that will cheat. It’s the same in any area of life. I’m not going to let that get me down. I don’t think about it come race day. I know that I can hang up my spikes at the end of my career and that I’m a clean athlete.” 

Mageean can’t pinpoint one thing that’s led to her breakthrough, though she’s benefiting from a consistency that was long missing due to injury. She also feels her psychology has hit a new level under coach Helen Clitheroe, who took over from Steve Vernon in April. 

“We don’t really know what the magic is, but we’ll keep doing it. What Helen has done for me mentally is probably the biggest thing and what’s most visible on the track.” 

As she takes her end-of-season break, she’s excited about what lies in store as she and Clitheroe plan for 2023: “Together, as a team, we’ll try to conquer the world.”