INSPIRATION
Future is W bright for Sligo kid By Alana Fearon Irish Runner Editor
Grace Foley after winning third place
hile most of us would have been content with a gold medal or a bag of Tayto’s after the annual school sports day egg and spoon race, little Grace Foley set her sights on world glory. The eight-year-old from Sligo was crowned joint third in the ‘World’s Fastest Kid’ race at the acclaimed Millrose Games in New York on January 29. It took the little schoolgirl just 9.01 seconds to run the 55m to the finish line and onto the podium, as her beaming parents and proud twin brother watched on from the stands.
And so fitness became a family affair for the Foleys, and a part of Grace’s life from day one. Desi said: “Running was our thing after Heather had the kids. She got back into triathlons in 2014 when the kids were young, so they’ve known nothing else than seeing us race. They were always active and Heather always had them out climbing mountains or on their bikes. We were all round the country with the kids in the buggy.” In 2017, the family moved from Heather’s native Northern Ireland back to Desi’s native Sligo, and Desi reconnected with his childhood friend and well-known athletics coach, Dermot McDermott.
Speaking exclusively to Irish Runner magazine from cloud 9, Grace revealed she was “a bit nervous and a bit happy at the same time”, and was delighted with the “little bag of goodies” she got to take home. Under the tutelage of well-known Sligo athletics coach Dermot McDermott, and despite being so young, Grace tore up the track to cement her name as one to watch on the racing stage. But her success is a little less surprising when you take a look at her family tree. Grace’s mum is Heather Wilson, a former full-time triathlete and cyclist who represented Northern Ireland at the Commonwealth Games in 2006, won the Irish Elite Senior Road Racing Championships in 2009, and was a member of the Irish cycling team which competed at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in 2010.
He revealed: “As the twins got older, they started doing athletics and cycling. Dermot took them two or three years ago when they were doing the usual athletics. Under-9 is the youngest age group in terms of Athletics Ireland so it was only really last year that they got into events. Grace did the local Sligo competition and won, then she went to the Connaught’s, and she won that. And then she went to the All-Ireland's, and she won that at the 300 meters. So it was great.”
Grace's Family It was that year that Heather and Grace’s dad Desi met, on a bike race fittingly, and they married a year later. Desi also had a background in athletics and was a keen cyclist, so it was a match made in sporting heaven. By the time the twins, Grace and Oliver, came along in 2013, Desi and Heather had already started running more because they “found it more time efficient”.
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Pure Determination But did Desi and Heather realise how special a talent their daughter actually has? Dad Desi told us: “I knew she was good. What actually amazes me about Grace is, yes she has a great talent physically in terms of her ability, but she has one serious head on her for an eightyear-old. She’s very calm, very determined. She’s a bit of a mix of both of us. Heather would have got quite nervous and anxious about racing whereas I’d be a bit more laid back. But on the other hand, Heather would be awfully stubborn and determined so Grace has Heather in her where she's extremely determined and stubborn to get everything out and give it her best, but she seems to have got an element of composure and calmness coming from me.”
