How Sarah Healy stopped her mind from sabotaging her body

For Sarah Healy, a crossroads was reached in 2022. Much has changed since that Munich disaster.

Tue, 11 Mar, 2025 - 06:50

Cathal Dennehy

There’s only so many hits you can take. So many times you can walk off the track disillusioned about a sub-par run at a major championships. Suffer enough of those and you’ll eventually be backed into a corner with two choices: to give up or start fighting back.

For Sarah Healy, that crossroads was reached a few years ago. She was just 21 when she raced at the European Championships in Munich in 2022, but that event went the same way as the three previous major track championships she’d raced: with a performance devoid of her true, undeniable class, her mind sabotaging her body.