Olympic medal hopeful Ciara Mageean on her super power: 'my Irish vest' 

The 1500m star is aiming to make an impact in Paris this year.

Ciara Mageean was launching the Flogas 'Energy Behind the Athletes' campaign to amplify support for Team Ireland athletes, and the launch of a docuseries on March 14th offering an intimate look into Team Ireland, the clubs and communities that inspire them. Pic: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Ciara Mageean has been only too happy to oblige requests for Irish singlets and training tops. So much so that she has turned up at races sporting a sheepish smile and a near-empty kit bag. Some vests, though, hold too much sentimental value to ever part with.

Among those under wraps are versions from the 2016 and 2020 Olympics and colours sported on days when major championship medals were won. There have been four of those at senior level: at European Indoors and Outdoors, and in the Commonwealth Games.

Some shirts are stored at home in Portaferry, more again at her base in Manchester. None are framed. “Not yet,” she explained. “They’re for when I retire.” The hope is that she can add one in Paris this summer that would demand pride of place.

An Olympic medal in the ultra-competitive 1500m would make for an astonishing achievement and any uniform worn would not be just some cool memento slated for a spot on a wall. For Mageean, that green geansaí is a propellant as much as a garment.

“I feel like my Irish vest is a special weapon for me, it’s like a super power.” 

It was the chance to run for Ireland that prompted her to quit camogie and go all in on athletics. She actually gets emotional thinking about it, the prospect of hearing Amhrán na bhFiann ring around a stadium serving as more of a fuel than any protein drink.

“It gets so much harder as you get older, getting to senior level at athletics. I genuinely believe when I step onto the track [that] I am running for Ireland, and it feels like this is the reason I run. I don't run to be a professional athlete.

“I am fortunate it is my job right now, but if I was doing it for free I would still be out there running for Ireland because I just love it. To represent your nation at the highest level is just such an honour. For me the vest has always had that special power, and it always will.” 

This mix of global ambition and national pride was visible yesterday in the shamrock ear-rings and the Olympic rings tattoo on her wrist, and this is an athlete that is poised to live her best life at the next Games.

Whatever comes of that is another thing.

Mageean finished fourth in the 1500m at last year’s World Championships. She did it by running an Irish record of 3:56.87, a mark that was promptly lowered to 3:55.87 at a Diamond League meeting in Brussels a few weeks later.

Named Irish athlete of the year in December, her indoor season just gone was a non-starter after an injury picked up at a Belfast Parkrun at Christmas, but then she had a similar tale to tell last spring and look how 2023 turned out.

A month-long bloc of training at altitude in Flagstaff, Arizona was compromised by that hamstring problem but she has another altitude stint planned for St Moritz and the intention is to get her outdoor campaign underway in late May.

The Europeans in Rome at the start of June are already pencilled in, even if she doesn’t expect to be at her peak for them. Then it’s one last altitude camp before the final turn and gentle trot towards the Games in the French capital.

So, where does she stand?

Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon, who set a world record of 3:49.11 in the 1500m in Italy last June, is running a race all of her own. Mageean’s best effort ranked ninth in the world last year and it is just 0.01 off the time Sifan Hassan put in to win bronze in Tokyo.

The Co. Down woman’s best is also a time that would have pipped Hassan for third at last year’s Worlds – and in a slow-starting race - but the then numbers on the clock ultimately mean nothing when it comes to the major championships.

The Olympics has been known to throw out odd numbers in that regard, and a slower, more tactical race would certainly suit the 32-year old, but she knows that there is no comfort to be found in hoping for that given the class in the field.

“So, if I get back into the realms of that 3:55 shape and then I think, ‘what could I do?’ If I ran 3:55, could I run 3:54? I would love that, but if I could in my lifespan run a 3:53 that would put you in a really good place for a medal.

“Slower has won major medals. It just seems to be that the women’s 1500 is shunting down faster and faster. We’re probably going to see less of those slow races simply because the fast people will want to keep it fast.” 

This is the thing.

Mageean could well produce another career-high run in Paris and still not medal. This, she said again yesterday, is the fastest 1500m field of all time, but there’s no benefit in scrolling on her phone this next while and reading about someone else’s red-hot session.

The next four months is about staying in her own lane and finding the tiny gains, whether physical or mental, that can take her that bit closer to an Olympic podium. And anyway, it’s not as if others won’t be sneaking a peak at her too.

“I've been coming out in the Diamond Leagues and been competitive with these global superpowers of our sport and now I'm one.

“Whenever they see me on the starting list they think, 'What's Ciara going to do?' and that's a joy to be there. It comes with its own pressure but I love it because I'm glad that they see the Irish flag and it strikes a little bit of fear in them.”