INTERVIEW
All roads lead to Paris By Alana Fearon Irish Runner Editor Not many of us will remember exactly what we were doing on 9 August 2021, but Irish athlete Phil Healy is one person who does. The shutters had just the night before come down on the Tokyo Olympics, but for the Cork runner there was no time to waste – her mind had already raced forward to 2024 and the dream of glory at the Paris Olympics.
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ot content with being the fastest woman in Ireland, and the first Irish female athlete to compete in three track and field events at an Olympics, the Ballineen bullet had already shifted her focus to the next Big One and righting the wrongs of Tokyo. The Bandon AC runner was part of the relay team that reached the 4x400m mixed Olympic final, and she raced individually in both the 200m and 400m events, narrowly missing out on both semifinals by mere hundredths of a second. Paris dreams And so it’s under the bright lights of the Eiffel Tower that Phil hopes to get a second shot at Olympic glory. “It is all about thinking in Olympic cycles really because you're like OK, Tokyo is done, then you're straight on to Paris. Paris, obviously, is the big focus, even though you have the other events in between. “You definitely come home and you reflect and because it is such a short cycle, it's like okay, are we going to Paris and I know there are athletes where that is the point in their career where they decide that's one step too far. It's time to retire and different things like that but because of Covid we have so many postponed championships that are now in the next three years, so it is a really, really busy three years. And Paris is there in the
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Irish Runner #1 - 2022
back on its own. There's so much in between that keeps you focused but yeah, for me, Paris will be the aim.”And Phil admits that it will be then when she decides whether to hang up the runners for good. “Whether that will be me, will I go on past Paris; Paris will be a deciding point.” Oddly enough, when she finally does call it a day, we won’t see Phil out pounding the pavements. In fact, she doesn’t think she’ll ever run again. “I’ll obviously do something but I would amaze myself if I started running 5ks or anything. The gym is definitely something that I really enjoy doing and bike sessions and different things so I think I'm definitely leaning more on that side.” There’s another reason why Phil is so hell-bent on getting to France. Because despite racing on the world’s biggest international sporting stage in front of tens of millions in Tokyo, she feels slightly robbed of an authentic Olympic experience. “Because the Olympics wasn't that huge spectacle that it always is in terms of going to opening ceremonies and closing ceremonies and being able to see whatever events we wanted, it almost doesn't feel like we were there. And it just feels like it was another competition. It wasn't the fanfare and spectacle that it usually is.“At the end of the day, we're always going to be Olympians but of course, I know no different because I wasn't there for 2016. I
think we just accepted it and obviously any athlete across any sport would take it going ahead the way it did over waiting again.” Luckily, Phil won’t have time to dwell on what might have been as 2022 is already shaping up to be an actionpacked year with the World Indoor Championships in Serbia in March, the World Outdoor Championships in July in America, and the European Championships in Germany in August.But will she be tackling the 200m, 400m, and relay again, or does the athlete who breaks records for breakfast have a favourite event? “I think it definitely changes year on year because in 2020, the 400 was going really well. So that was definitely my favourite. And then in 2021, I was like, No, I don't want to do the 400. But I think going forward, you have to pick one event. Obviously getting to the Olympics in three events, including the relay, was massive. It takes so much hard work to get there in one, never mind three events. But I've done that now. I've been the first Irish woman to do that and that has made history. But going forward, I have to pick one over the other, so more than likely it probably will be the 400. I will mix it up with 200s in there as well, but not as the primary focus.”
