One of Ireland's great athletes on a career that almost didn't happen

The 42

6 days ago

IT WOULD BE no exaggeration to describe Thomas Barr as a trailblazer.
The list of Irish athletes who have reached an Olympic final, let alone finished fourth in one, is not long.
To this day, Barr remains the only Irishman to run a sub-49-second 400m hurdles, though he namechecks promising Donegal youngsters Fintan and Ethan Dewhirst as potential heirs to his throne.
The time of 47.97, which he set at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, is an Irish record unlikely to be broken soon.
And towards the latter half of his career, Barr was an important member of the winning European Championship mixed 4x400m relay team.
'It's funny,' he says. 'Even when I look back on my career, I think, Jesus: 'Did I really do that?''
What stands out about Barr's success is how unlikely it was.
He was not a prodigy like the Irish sprint sensation of the moment, Rhasidat Adeleke.
Instead, he was a late bloomer who nearly quit the sport as he entered college at the University of Limerick.
Roughly six months since announcing his retirement, Barr sat down with The42 near his home in Limerick to reflect on what might have been had he not taken his parents' advice to stick at athletics for another year.
Barr enjoys telling the story during his frequent visits to schools on behalf of the experiential learning programme Develop Me, about how, for years, he had poured himself into sport without achieving the results he desired.
He was ready to walk away, as he wanted to try new things.
'I wanted to experience the sort of college lifestyle,' he says. 'I wanted to join all the new clubs and societies, and [undertake] extreme sports and stuff.
'But it was my parents who had said: Look, why don't you give it one more year under [my coaches] Hayley and Drew [Harrison].
'It was my dad, he saw a talent in me in particular that no one else saw.
'[They suggested] after that, if you're still not happy with the decision, or you're not getting where you want to end, at least you tried it, and you can move on.'
That year, 2011, Barr qualified for the European Junior Championships and seldom looked back.
'Even at that point, I still didn't think it was a career. But I thought: 'Okay, I'm improving, so let's see where we can take it.' It was sort of like a marker or an appetiser, really, for what I could achieve if I gave it a go.
'It didn't change my mindset, but it just made the decision that I should keep going.'
His parents weren't the only important family members in this regard.
Jessie Barr was a significant influence on her younger brother Thomas. Morgan Treacy / INPHO Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO
Barr's sister Jessie, three years his senior, was a considerable inspiration.
Her many achievements included competing at the 2012 Olympics. It is only now that Barr appreciates the profound influence she had.
'She was so close to me, and she made it very accessible. I saw the work she was doing. I saw what it took to become an Olympian. I saw what it took to become a world-challenging athlete, a world-class talent.
'And so I thought, well, if Jessie can do it, why can't I? But it was never a conscious decision that I said: 'Oh, Jessie's doing it, why can't I?' She paved the way for me without me even knowing, because, even since I've retired, I've gotten some lovely messages from younger athletes even across Europe, saying when they saw me compete in an Olympic final and finished fourth, they thought that was just a fella from Waterford, a young lad, very unassuming, and it genuinely inspired them to become an athlete and to chase a dream, to try and get to that level.'
He continues: 'And for me, that person was Jessie, who made it accessible, because those athletes that I know would have would have known who I was, would have seen me working and training in the background, and then they say: 'Well, that's what he did to get to get to there, and that's exactly what Jessie did.'
'She also taught me a lot about how to act as an athlete, and the sort of respect that you show for your competitors and all of that kind of stuff. So she was a huge influence on my career, and I followed in her footsteps. I just copied what events she did.'
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Jessie's post-athletics career has been similarly impressive. Repeated injury woes prompted her retirement in 2019, but she was well prepared for this fate, having spent years working towards obtaining a master's and PhD in sports psychology.
These days, Jessie is a performance psychologist at the Sport Ireland Institute, and her brother says he may have at least subconsciously leaned on some of this expertise.
'We never had a formal sit-down or a chat, or I never really pulled on her for psychological support, per se.
'But she could well have been unknown to me, filtering that information through in conversations and stuff, but I was working with with one of her colleagues in Sport Ireland, Kate Kirby, in the last two years for psychology support, because it was just too much of a conflict of interest for me to be working with Jessie.
'If she was chatting to me and telling me this, that and the other. [I'd be inclined to say] 'Ah, go away Jess, will ya?''
Not that Barr has not had his major psychological hurdles to navigate.
The year leading up to the 2016 Olympics is a prime example.
Ireland's Thomas Barr after finishing fourth at the Rio Olympics. Morgan Treacy / INPHO Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO
The build-up had been ravaged by injury to the extent that little was expected of the Irish star in Rio.
He now appreciates that all these woes turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
'People often ask: 'Are you disappointed with fourth? No, considering the context of that year, it was definitely my best year.
'I think that was one of the big bonuses of it — I went in with no target on my back. No one knew what I was at — including myself — so I just went on a wing and a prayer and ran free, almost.
'And so that helped from a psychological perspective, I went in with no burden. But even going forward, it helped me.
'I grew that year as an athlete, physically in one way, but psychologically and mentally, I grew a huge amount, and it matured me as an athlete to go through that.
'We always learn more from our failures or adversity than we do from when it all goes well.
'And there were times as well when I was injured in subsequent years, and it was never really as bad as Rio. So I thought: 'Oh, well, if I got through that, I can get through this.''
Dealing with injuries is far from the only challenge in getting to the level Barr ultimately reached.
Financially, too, unless you are a Usain Bolt-esque phenomenon, sacrifices are paramount.
Barr also enjoyed success as part of the Irish mixed relay team. Warren Grant / INPHO Warren Grant / INPHO / INPHO
Had Barr instead pursued his degree in mechanical engineering, he would likely be in a much healthier financial position now.
'I'm not going to name this particular athlete, but last year, they were basically on the cusp of walking away from the sport, and saying: 'I can't keep doing this on the breadline.' And they were like: 'Right, this is my last one, last shot.' They managed to secure a sponsor, and since then, they have become a regular on the continental tour and the Diamond League this year. It flipped around that easily.
'But we have lost so many athletes through the cracks because of a lack of support, funding, sponsorship, and money. There's no two ways about it — it's difficult enough for somebody who's working at the moment full time, making money to afford rent, to afford living expenses, a car, etc. You put all of that into one box, and then you add on training camps, recovery, physio, everything else for an athlete just outside the system of getting support — it's where we start to lose athletes, even if they're living at home. It still is very, very difficult.
'I was lucky. My parents, when I was younger, were supportive, and they would have helped me out financially as well. I would have supplemented [athletics] with working part-time, weekends and summers as best I could, until I managed to make it to a position where I was starting to make money.
'But even in the latter years of my career, I started to come off of that sort of honey pot of money, and I was starting to scrimp again, and [was okay] only for the fact I put away a bit of money. I had to be frugal again, counting the pennies. [Otherwise] I wouldn't have survived through the end of my career as a full-time athlete; I would have had to work full time. A lot of our best athletes are on the breadline or working full-time unless they make it to that top 10 in the world, which is a big gap to try and bridge.
'So I think that's where what we see on Instagram and Twitter and everything is [deceptive]. And there are people under this false impression that all of our best athletes are full-time. They're making loads of money and are well looked after, but because of what we see on Instagram, it's all glamour or whatever. But when you look behind it, sometimes that's not the case.
'And I'm not saying that Athletics Ireland, Sport Ireland, etc, aren't doing what they can to help athletes. They're doing what they can with the budget they have, but it would be great if we could see that budget a little bit higher to spread that little bit farther down the chain for a couple of our younger athletes.'
Barr's girlfriend Kelly McGrory is also a talented athlete. Morgan Treacy / INPHO Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO
Barr's latest challenge is dealing with life after athletics. At 32, he has to start all over again.
Those aforementioned financial realities mean the Waterford native doesn't have the luxury of relaxing as an ex-Premier League footballer might.
'I'm doing a lot of school visits with Develop Me. They've all been paused for the summer, and I'm doing a bit of work with Timmy Crowe in Sports Equipment Ireland.
'And then my girlfriend Kelly [McGrory], her dad has an installation company up in Donegal, looking to set up down this neck of the woods. I'm trying to get the ball rolling on that as well.
'So there are a good few plates spinning. I'm handy with DIY and stuff, so helping friends out where I can with different projects.'
McGrory herself is an accomplished athlete, a multiple-time Irish national champion in the 400-metre hurdles, who has represented the country at the 2023 World Athletics Championships and the 2024 Olympic Games in the women's 4×400 metres relay.
In Paris, she ran the heats in the 4×400m relay before Adeleke replaced her in the final for the team that finished fourth.
So, although Barr is no longer completely immersed in the sport as he once was, it is difficult to remove himself from it entirely for this reason.
But, while his dinners are still 'healthy' on account of McGrory, there are other post-retirement treats Barr can avail of.
'Three friends and I went off snowboarding for a week in France, which I couldn't do when I was training. And I was on RTÉ with Joe Canning and Ray Goggins, on [the TV show] Uncharted, we went off to the Colombian rainforest, which is another opportunity that I would have had to say no to, but was right up my alley with all the extreme sports [I love]. And then only last weekend, I went with a few mates to a track in Kerry, drifting.
'There's a lot of that kind of stuff going on, keeping me going. And being able to tip away working in the garage on cars is my sort of thing. Now, it can be a huge form of stress if it doesn't go well, but it is sort of my distraction, my meditation.'
Barr pictured competing at the National Senior Track and Field Championship last year. Bryan Keane / INPHO Bryan Keane / INPHO / INPHO
Barr says a mentoring rather than coaching role with Athletics Ireland or Sport Ireland would be of interest down the line as he seeks to 'use the profile and the experience that I have to try and better the sport going forward'.
At present, though, he is comfortable being 'Thomas Barr, the retired athlete'.
The fact that he has several interests outside of sport means his adaptation has been smoother than is typically the case.
'Even when I had four weeks off in the summer [as an athlete], I was itching to get going and take all of those other interests off pause.
'So I couldn't wait, in a lot of ways, to retire, to be able to get stuck back into those. I remember at the start of my career, I had all of these interests going on. And I remember being told: 'You need to give up all of those. You need to put all your time and energy into your sport.'
'And I was nearly sneaking around: 'I'll go jet skiing today, or I'll go out for a swim, or I'll go and do this, jumping off a cliff or whatever.
'Or not even that, but just going through college and stuff, and I did mechanical engineering, so it was very labour-intensive.
'A lot of people were trying to convince me I should be putting all my eggs into training. I was like: 'Well, I enjoy my course, and I want to study. That's what I came to Limerick to do.''
Barr says the mentality has now shifted to the point where pursuing outside interests is encouraged more so than was previously the case.
And in general, this greater sense of freedom is palpable.
'Even just a simple thing of if you're up from Limerick and my mates are like: 'Oh, we're going to go for a pint. You want to go for a pint?' I'm like: 'Yeah, perfect.'
'If I'm in the pub, I do get recognised relatively regularly, but I don't mind. There are times, of course, when my social battery might be drained and I'm not up for it, but I know it's not going to last forever.
'And also, Ireland is so small as well, that if you're going to the same places all the time, people see you once or twice, and then it's like: 'Oh, yeah. That's just the runner fellow.' They become sick of you.
'And for all of my career, I thrived off other people getting enjoyment out of what I was doing, and now I'm meeting people who supported me.
'So it's nice to be able to give back as best I can if someone does want the photo, or if someone wants to shake my hand and say: 'Well done.'
'If I can reiterate and say thanks for the support, then I'm happy to do that.'