Other Sports

A career cruelly cut short

July 10th, 2007
by Weeshie Fogarty

The vast throng of Kerry and Cork supporters poured from Fitzgerald Stadium last Sunday week, many if not most in a state of pure exhaustion. They had just witnessed an epic battle between two age old enemies. As the great John B Keane once described such a scene to me. "You would see them staggering down the road drained, worn and lifeless, many dragging their coats behind with the tail ends of the shirts hanging out and nothing in their minds only to reach the nearest watering hole to quench their parched lips and talk football until the cows came home." Kerry was celebrating another famous victory and the names and displays of each and every Kerry hero would be spoken of in revered tones in every pub and home in the town and across this great county.

It was all about heroes. All about the people who had performed on the day. All about the moment. The media scrum in the dressing rooms afterwards crowded around the men of the moment. Pat O'Shea was cornered just outside the door of the Kerry dressing room as dozens of microphones were thrust in his face and questions hurled at him left right and centre. Pat in his own quite effective way was well able to handle his first major post match interview. And he was certainly entitled to savour the moment. All heroes today, but fame can be such a fleeting thing. Why do I say this? Usually following a Munster final in Killarney I would join in the celebrations. There is nothing better than meeting the exemplary Kerry and Cork followers in Jimmy O'Brien's, Christy McSweeney, Sean Murphy's, The Tatlers or the Speakeasy. Here you would learn all about the game. The vast dept of knowledge of the grass root supporter never ceases to amaze me. You will always learn something new in these inquests. I believe that this aspect of the game, the afters is one of the secrets of Kerry.

For me, however, there would be no usually post match inquest. I had a far more important sporting appointment to keep. And I certainly wish with all my heart that what I was about to attend would not have taken place for many more years. I left the crowded streets of Killarney and headed for the town of Castleisland. Here in Castleisland that Sunday evening as all of Kerry celebrated a function paying tribute to one of our county's world renowned sporting heroes was to take place. It was organised to bid a very premature farewell to the golden girl of Irish athletics. Our own flame haired beauty, our first lady Olympian, our world champion race walker Gillian O'Sullivan from the town land of Minish was being honored and thanked by those wonderful people of the Riocht Athletic club. Injury had brought an end to a star studded career, which in reality was only in its infancy.

The function was held at the superb Riocht complex in Castleisland and if you ever get the opportunity drop in and visit this marvelous facility. It's just down to the right at the top of the town and would equal any athletics facilities in these islands. Family, special guests, friends and admirers were gathered to mark what could be termed the official retirement of one of Kerry's greatest sporting heroes. Injury had cut short Gillian's brilliant career and while she had achieved so much the best was yet to come. This to me is the tragedy of this premature retirement.

Among the guests was the renowned International Sports Physical Therapist Gerard Hartmann a man you read about here some weeks ago. In his address he gave us a rare glimpse behind the scene of precisely the trauma and effort Gillian had gone through in her quest to return to fitness and beat the injury that was to eventually end her glittering career. Gerard also revealed on the night that back in April he had sat down with Gillian and as he said. “We faced reality together. As a professional it is always so difficult to cut the umbilical cord, to cut short an athlete's career. For Gillian to push her body to other world championships, another Olympics Games would have been beyond the call of duty. Today's champion must have passion, perseverance, dedication, focus, athletic talent, discipline, good coaching and an excellent support structure and an above normal work ethic. Gillian O'Sullivan has had all of these and more. In the summer of 2004 all of Ireland wanted its new O'Sullivan, Gillian, to succeed at the Olympic games in Athens. Unfortunately luck was against her and with the arduous training and racing Gillian sustained a back and hip injury that crushed her Olympic dream.

"I had the pleasure to meet Gillian through my work as a physical therapist. I witnessed at first hand the efforts she put in to rectify her injury. The stress of the injury and the effort involved were tremendous. Gillian left no stone unturned in her quest to get healthy and resume full training loads and return to the top of the world in race walking. Sport can be so cruel. One day you can be on top of the world-a champion, the next day it can be all over. Getting out of bed without pain can be a new victory. Gillian's character and spirit through those traumatic times was unbelievable. She gave it her all and even got back to a level where she could compete and be the best in Ireland. However, the nagging pain was always tormenting her and so many times I joked to her. 'If you were a race horse with an injury like this they would put you down'. Gillian you have done Kerry proud and you have done Ireland proud on the world stage. You reached the top of the world in a very exacting event. You will be forever be Ireland's first world championship medal winner in race walking and one of our greatest sporting stars."

Michael Lane was Gillian's coach throughout her dazzling career and who better to record her achievements for posterity. I spoke to Michael last Sunday week at that Riocht function and among other things I asked him just how Gillian will be remembered among the pantheon of Irish greats. "She can definitely be regarded as the greatest Irish race walker of all time and at world level only Sonia O'Sullivan has ever won a medal on the track and only Catherine McKiernan at cross country. You have only Eamon Coughlan, Sonia, and Gillian who have won world medals at the world championships. They are a very unique trio."

We will forever wonder just how great Gillian would have been and what further world honours she would have achieved if injury had not so cruelly ended her career. Michael Lane again. "What was in the back of my mind all along in the run up to Athens was that there would have been a medal there, but you will find that each Olympic Games is a bench mark. Her main rivals would have been Ivanova, and Nickeleava of Russia and they are after coming close to the peak of their careers and will now be retiring. To me Gillian would have been somebody who potentially had all the ingredients to dominate the sport or be one of the top two or three in the world up to possible as far as the world championships in Berlin in 2009. So tonight is a very bitter sweet occasion as we honour her retirement. While thinking back there are wonderful memories and unbelievable world class achievements however there are also the thoughts and regrets of what if and what could have been."

So I put it to the coach, in his opinion what exactly made Gillian a world great. "She had tremendous strength and speed. She was known as 'Speedy Sully'. She had tremendous honesty. To me an Olympian is more than a physical person. It's also the quality that you have in your own personality and your own attitudes and she had all of those in abundance. So its not just the physical speed and the physical strength because lots of athletes have those two qualities, but Gillian also had honesty of effort, honesty of approach and would be a true Olympian in spirit, in character, in personality, all of those which are essential. And of course she had the mental approach, which is so vitally important. Add on determination, commitment, drive and combined with intelligence of effort, not just going out killing yourself, but knowing how to train well and properly. So you see Weeshie Gillian had everything required to become an Olympian and a world champion."

So what in his opinion was Gillian's greatest achievement? "I suppose I would say her silver medal at the world Championships in Paris. What I found from a coaching perspective that memorable occasion so pleasing was Gillian's ability to stay with the pack, stay in control of her own race, knowing when the pace was changing and controlling her own speed. She was able to survive attacks from other top walkers. She timed her own attacks perfectly. The opposition was trying to destroy her and she was a marked person by the Russians, Italians and all the other countries. Then she was out on her own in second place, the winner had broken away so she could be most vulnerable mentally as the attacks were coming from behind. You are on your own."

"Now she showed incredible mental strength, she held her form, kept working at her pace and did not allow those attacks from behind to get close. It is more than just winning. It's thinking through all of these aspects while the attacks keep coming. She did everything just perfect on that day and at the end was gaining on the gold medalist. Her greatest day. She was easy to coach, eager to learn, a very intelligent lady and a pleasure to have been associated with. Kerry and Ireland can be so, so, proud of her."

Fogra: Next week Gillian talks about her great victories and the heart ache of that final career ending injury.



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