Commonwealth Games and World Championship silver medallist Kate O’Connor was inspired to take up the heptathlon by watching the TV.
The Newry-born athlete will head to Glasgow for the 2026 games hoping to go one better than she did four years ago in Birmingham.
“I love that I’m flying the flag high for our multi-events and I hope to continue doing so, pushing the boundaries and showing little boys and girls who are sitting at home that it is possible,” said O’Connor.
“I was just a little girl watching the TV one day, I saw Jessica Ennis win an Olympic gold medal. I decided I was going to do the same thing and from there my life has changed.”
Those 2024 Games in Birmingham put O’Connor on the map, earning second place, before going on to win another silver medal at last year’s World Championships with Ireland.
“Birmingham was incredible. It kick-started my senior career and I’m hoping that I’ll be able to turn up and do something special again,” said O’Connor.
“It really was that first taste of winning a medal and that feeling is definitely addictive, but I think one of the most special things was seeing how much it meant to everybody else.”
“I think as athletes you can be very selfish and maybe not realise the effect that you have on other people by doing things like that. I’ve slowly over the years started to realise the impact that it can have on people and their lives and I suppose sport as well.”
Only American Anna Hall finished ahead of O’Connor in Tokyo last year and that will see the Team NI athlete begin as favourite to top the podium in Glasgow.
“Tokyo was insane, possibly the best couple of days of my life, I enjoyed every second of that competition. I think whenever your body’s healthy and you’ve put in the work, for me anyway, it’s just a case of turning up and enjoying the tools that I’ve crafted,” said O’Connor.
“I loved every second of it and I hope to have many more experiences like it.
“I can recognise that I won a silver at the last games and I beat Kat (Katarina Johnson Thompson, who took bronze) in Tokyo, but I think that pressure is part of competing, it’s part of athletics, it’s part of sport.
“I’ve learned a lot about myself. I know that I thrive very well under pressure. I love being in that competitive environment, I’m an extremely competitive person and I think that’s where I get the most out of myself.
“The mindset I’m going to be in is I’m going out to try to PB across all seven events. I can’t do anything about what anybody else does, all I can control is myself, so if I’m able to execute like I know I can I’ll post a pretty big score that I’m not sure anybody else will be able to touch.”
O’Connor explains what it takes to compete in a gruelling schedule of seven events over two days.
“The thing that the public don’t realise is the event is incredibly difficult to train for and you’ve got to be exceptionally good at seven events,” said O’Connor.
“One of the most difficult things is the fact that you’ve got to wake up so early in the morning, turn up, perform in the hurdles, then perform in the high jump, then take a break, come back and perform again in the shot put and then perform at 200m.
“I was just a little girl watching the TV one day, I saw Jessica Ennis win an Olympic gold medal. I decided I was going to do the same thing and from there my life has changed”
Kate O’Connor
“By that stage, it’s pretty late in the evening. We don’t generally get into bed until after midnight, so we’re into the next day and then expected to get up early again the next morning to perform in the long jump, the javelin and then finally in the 800 metres.
“The sleeping between day one and day two is so difficult, especially when you’ve been taking caffeine and your adrenaline is so high.
“There’s so many different aspects that come into the event that aren’t actually the events that are included within the heptathlon that make the event incredibly difficult, but it’s all part of it.
“I think heptathlon has a huge component of strategy to it and it’s something that we’ve been trying to perfect over the last couple of years and I’ve got half OK at it.
“There’s definitely a lot more that I could learn, so I’m looking forward to having another opportunity to go out and work on some new things and hopefully post another big score.”
