'It's surreal, crazy, amazing, exciting' - Kate O'Connor on clinching European heptathlon gold

The 25-year-old finished the job in the 800m on Saturday evening.

Kate O’Connor of Ireland celebrates with her gold medal after winning the women’s heptathlon during day six of the European Athletics Championships 2026 at Alexander Stadium in Birmingham. Pic: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

It wasn’t just six medals Kate O’Connor accumulated from her six most recent championships. The learnings amassed across Apeldoorn, Nanjing, Bochum, Tokyo, Toruń, and Glasgow over the past 17 months meant she was a “better athlete” and “different person” arriving in Birmingham.

Every single leaning on that medal collecting journey was required and was put to work over the two days here.

That bank of clutch experience and championship education were required when she let herself down with the shot put on Friday evening. They were required when she didn’t execute her javelin on Saturday noon. They were required when nerves sat with her as she sat in the gold medal position for the seven hours before the final 800m event.

In the different moments when doubt knocked on her door, she leaned into the previous championship cauldrons she had survived and thrived in.

“Every experience has made me a better athlete, and I think that's why I was able to navigate these last two days so well because of the experience that I've had from every other championship,” said the newly crowned European heptathlon champion.

“It was nerve-wracking [coming into the final event in first place]. Like, the whole heptathlon has been extremely nerve-wracking, coming in and knowing that it was going to be a really tough feat to get on the podium.

“I knew [coming in] I had a really good chance of winning. I knew I had a really good chance of getting a medal. But then it's another thing turning up and actually executing that. And there were lots of moments where I was thinking, ‘Oh God, like is this going to happen for me?’ 

“And yeah, those couple of hours [before the 800m], I kept trying to tell myself I have the luxury of having a three-second headstart on Emma [Oosterwegel], who was in second.

“Her job was always going to be more difficult than my job, but at the same time, you're standing on the line and I'm the person with everything to lose, so yeah, it's tough.

“But like that's sport, and I suppose that's the thrilling part, and it makes it exciting for everybody else watching. It's maybe not so exciting for me because I'm standing on the line and I have to do the job. It does make winning medals sweeter whenever you have tough feats like that.” 

Oh boy was this sweet. She never allowed Oosterwegel out of sight. She even sought to pass the Dutch multi-eventer rounding the final bend. A comprehensive gold and laced with class.

“It's been a dream of mine since I was a kid. A couple of years ago, I would never have thought that I would be standing in this position, European gold medalist. It's surreal, crazy, amazing, exciting,” the 25-year-old gushed.

“Crossing the line and then realising that you're going to have the gold medal wrapped around your neck is just incredible, insane.” The podium roll call of the past 17 months now reads: European Indoor bronze in March 2025, World Indoor silver two weeks later, World University Games gold in July 2025, World Championship silver two months later, World Indoor bronze in March 2026, Commonwealth Games gold 17 days ago, and now European gold.

O’Connor’s single-mindedness and bloody-mindedness doesn’t prevent an overarching view. She is so aware to what she has achieved and the magnitude of such. She’s appreciative and grateful in the moment, even if the moment encompasses a 17-month body of work.

“Slowly, I'm appreciating more and more the medals that I've won because I'm realising how difficult they're going to be to continue to win.

“It can sometimes be tough when people maybe expect that I'm going to just stand on the podium, or I'm going to win a medal, because it takes a lot of hard work, takes a lot of nerve, and it takes a lot of excellent execution to do that.

“And yeah, I can only hope that I continue getting it right. But I don't want to take it for granted, and I hope that nobody else takes it for granted either because these medals are extremely hard to win.” Four lifetime bests - the 23.79 200m was powered by an illegal headwind - fed into a 6,751 points total that surpassed her 6,714 national record from last summer.

The self-critical O’Connor knows she is capable of much more. She wants much, much more.

“I'm probably quite difficult on myself. Like, I know that it's extremely difficult to put together seven great performances, but I think that my hurdles should have been better. My high jump, I believe I can jump 1.89m. Shot put definitely should have been better, and I was happy with the 200m.

“Long jump, I was delighted with. Javelin, not great. And then that 800m was just about executing tactics.

“It's obviously difficult to execute a perfect heptathlon in a championship. I don't know if I ever will. But I think that it's great that I'm standing here saying that I want to be better, I know that I can be better, and I will be better.

“I just want to keep chipping away. Hopefully, at the Olympics, I'll have a perfect heptathlon. That would be an ideal time, wouldn't it?” 

It is the last medal missing from her bulging set.