McGrory: 'That Olympic semi-final will stand as one of the highlights of my life'

It’s been a dream summer for Donegal athlete Kelly McGrory at the 2024 Paris Olympics, one no doubt she’ll remember for the rest of her life, but she’s not looking in the rearview mirror just yet. 

The Tír Chonaill AC athlete was welcomed back to her native Donegal Town two weeks ago after she made her Olympic debut in Paris and helped the Ireland team qualify for the Women’s 4x400 metres relay final. 

McGrory ran the third of the four legs in the semi-final, with Sharlene Mawdsley taking the team home in third place at the Stade de France earlier this month. 

In a close contest, Ireland finished in a time of 3:25.05, which was enough to come in just behind Jamacia in 3:24.92 and the Netherlands on 3:25.03. Canada finished fifth and made the final with 3:25.77. 

The Laghy woman was eventually replaced by Rhasidat Adeleke with the team finishing fourth by less than one-fifth of a second. 

Reflecting on what she described as a life-changing summer, it’s something she’ll have as a memory forever, but also something she knows she’ll have to move on from when she returns to training in two weeks after her time off. 

“I think that semi-final probably was, if not the best, then the most important race of my career,” McGrory told Donegal Live.  

“Maybe in like 10 years' time I’ll look back and pick different races for different reasons as to why some were more important than others, but that race is something that I will forever cherish and it’ll standout as a highlight in my life forever.  

“We knew it was going to be such an ask for us to get into that Olympic final, mainly because everyone had such high expectations for the team.   

“Like there were people talking about us winning medals before we even ran the heat and that added pressure, especially when you’re up against world-class teams, but I think that Olympics showed that we’re world-class too, I think we just need to get on board with calling ourselves world-class.” 

Talking about her semi-final run, McGrory tended to reflect more on the final outcome with Ireland’s fourth runner Sharlene Mawdsley finishing the race and her emotion around that moment. 

“Sharlene (Mawdsley) is a brilliant relay runner, she’s in the shape of her life and one of the best, so I knew when I gave her the baton, then we were in safe hands,” McGrory said.  

“She’s a relaxed runner and ran the first 200 metres that day very controlled, as she always does, and I knew she would have a kick for home, and when I was watching her coming up the home straight, I looked at Phil Healy and Sophie Becker before Sharlene even crossed the line, and we all knew we were in an Olympic final. 

“It was an overflow of emotion, very much that she’s done it, we’ve done it, the team has done it. It was just an amazing feeling.” 

The Donegal athlete has been taking time off since her return from the Olympics, giving her time to relax and appreciate her unique achievement in Paris, but the Tír Chonaill runner admits that while she’ll enjoy her downtime, she is itching to get back to training and move onto the next target. 

All eyes are firmly set on what’s to come in 2025 and what she needs to improve on. 

“We have a small break before we go back into training in two weeks. We’re enjoying ourselves with the time off, but actually, at the same time I’m just so hungry to go back in and get training again,” McGrory said. 

“There are things I need to work on and I really look forward to doing that and hopefully that’ll result in me getting faster, getting stronger, getting fitter, and getting better for next year. 

“I know 2025 is going to be a busy year with European Indoors, World Indoors, and World Relays too, so, it’s going to be hectic, but that’s where my mind is at. 

“Now at the same time, we don’t think too far ahead down the road, we’ll sit down and plan for the future, and manage to get through winter training.” 

The Donegal Olympian appreciates that she is in a small bracket of people from the county to feature at the Olympic Games throughout history and she’ll allow that to sink in over the next few weeks before parking it for good. 

“In terms of looking back and reflecting over the summer, we do appreciate what we’ve done but there’s a greediness in an athlete too, you’ve done something amazing but then you move on because you want more and you want to get better all the time,” she said. 

“As soon as we’re back in training I think we’ll then have last season parked and we’ll be looking ahead at the next race.”