Weekend Sport Irish Examiner Saturday, 16.02.2019

26 THE BIG INTERVIEW

THE CATHAL DENNEHY INTERVIEW From a very challenging childhood to the Olympic Games, and the pursuit of his long-lost mother, life has taken some strange twist and turns for Shane Healy. But the 50-year-old is now ready to write a new chapter From an orphanage to greatest show on earth

e finds a way. He has heartfelt message. dad’s best swing. A phone call from the Keen to move on to a university, he to. Doesn’t have any “I said, ‘look, Mum, I know you didn’t principal had been his undoing, and Healy called renowned distance-running guru other choice. Never get on well with Dad, but you brought me was soon switched to a school in Harold’s Joe Vigil, who was then head coach at did. into this world. I’d love to see you and my Cross, where he began to thrive. Adams State in Alamosa, Colorado. Vigil Sitting in the sister Lorraine again.’” But a move to Whitehall a couple of laughed him off the phone when Healy kitchen of his He never heard back, and there’s a re- years later saw him lose interest in told him his mile best was just 4:17, but the home in Co signed acceptance in his words this week. education, Healy dropping out of school at Irishman kept calling, kept working, kept Louth, Shane “My mother would be 80 now, I don’t know 13 and working various jobs throughout improving, until he was eventually offered Healy’s face if she’s still alive,” he says. “I don’t know.” his teens. a place. shifts from If that wasn’t enough tumult for a young At the age of 18 he met an American Those first few weeks, he trained so smiling to solemn as he prepares to dive child to bear, not long after Healy’s father couple — Ryan and Sheri Roberts — in hard that he began to urinate blood, but into a chaotic, callousing past. The lush took off to Manchester to find work, taking abar at Harold’s Cross, who told him to get his improvement was rapid, relentless. In Hgreen hills around Ravensdale give this oldest son Brian with him and placing in touch if he ever made it to Florida, an 1995 Healy was running 3:39 for 1500m, just place a Tuscan feel, a serene setting in Shane in Dublin’s Goldenbridge invitation he accepted, rocking up to their one agonising second shy of the Olympic which to unspool a story of an ultimate Orphanage. home in Tampa, Florida a few months qualifying standard. scrapper. “It was tough,” says Healy. “It wasn’t later. But he felt like he had reached a plateau, Fifty years. Fifty fun, ferocious years, easy, but I could understand it.” Not wanting to overstay his welcome, returning to Ireland to find a complete and Healy takes you through them the Each weekend his aunt Noreen would he soon set off hitchhiking across the lack of support for athletes of that level. A only way he knows how: At breakneck drive to Dublin to take him out for a couple country, sleeping rough at the side of chance encounter with Eamonn Coghlan speed. His accent — a curious blend of of days, but Healy feared the worst when, highways. “One time I got a lift with a big at a road race the following year would American extravagance and Irish lilt — is on one particular Saturday, she never guy in Alabama or Tennessee,” he says. “I ultimately change his fate, Coghlan the first giveaway to his vagabond past, a turned up. “She had a massive brain dozed off in his car and woke up with him agreeing to coach Healy on the condition way of life he explains through techniques hemorrhage,” he says. “She died at 37.” feeling my leg. I freaked out and he goes, that he did everything he was told. that could best be described as Healyisms. Healy’s father returned from England ‘oh, would you like a blowjob?’ I said, ‘stop Early in 1996 he moved into digs with a Like his attitude to a turbulent child- for the funeral and decided to relocate Shane Healy the car.’ Lucky enough he left me out.” couple in Fir House, Bernard and Ann hood, which saw him ricochet around back to Dublin, taking him out of the or- running in the Going through Texas he was picked up Somers, and reached a new level of fitness Dublin like a pinball. phanage and settling in Rathmines where semi-finals of the by a musician who was more formal with through long, lung-bursting runs in the “We were survivors,” he says. “Growing he enrolled in school at Richmond Hill. men’s 1,500m at his offer. “He found me very attractive and Dublin Mountains. While racing in up in the ’80s, we were hardcore. Today, “I absolutely hated it,” he says. “There said, ‘I’ll look after you for the next few that spring, word came through that kids need lifts 100 metres down the road.” was lots of bullying, lots of scumbags.” the 1996 Atlanta years if you’ll be my lover.’ I said, ‘no, Bernard, one of his biggest supporters, Or his attitude to injuries, even now, One day, after witnessing one of his Olympics Games. you’re okay.’” had died from a heart attack. “I went on with his hair long turned a salt-and- classmates get a particularly brutal A drifter, Healy Days later, standing by the side of the more determined than ever,” he says. pepper grey: “I get loads of ailments but I beating, Healy decided he’d had enough. “I accepted an offer road in Houston, he felt a sense of dread as At that point, Niall Bruton and Marcus run through them, even though it hurts said, f*** this, I went on the hop, mitching, of $50 by a coach the mother of all storms loomed ahead, but O’Sullivan had already qualified for the like f***.” doing bob-a-jobs.” in Canada to run a Healy was rescued in the nick of time by a Atlanta Olympics, leaving one spot on the Or his philosophy on racing: “You’re He was 10-years-old, and would steal trucker who took him all the way to San Irish team in the men’s 1500m. “I said my better off running up the front with pride newspapers from bundles outside shops, mile, sending him Diego, where he trained to be an name is on that f****** ticket,” says Healy. than running at the back in pain.” selling them half- price to motorists at on a different life electrician. It never quite worked out, so His final chance to qualify was in We could go on, but his is a life that can’t traffic lights, the start of an adolescence path: ‘That’s he then flew to Hawaii, working as a , a race Healy got into by harassing be condensed into one neat cluster or sexy spent scrapping for survival. A few where I found the waiter for a year before returning to Cali- the meeting director with phone calls, who soundbite. A tale of toughness: the months later, he came home one day to American dream.’ fornia, and eventually back to Ireland. eventually relented and said he could run of early abandonment and loss, the pursuit find his father asking how school went. But with the economy on its knees, if he found his own way there. In oppress- of late attachment and gain. Aimless ad- “Great,” said Healy, who barely drew Picture: Healy set off again in 1989, hitchhiking ive heat, Healy smashed his personal best, venture, stubborn survival and an unwa- breath before he felt the full force of his Billy Stickland through France and Spain and eventually running 3:36.58 to secure a place in Atlan- vering willingness to roll the dice out into landing work on the catchments on the ta. “The happiest day of my life,” he says. the world and see what it brought back. “I coast of Gibraltar. Six weeks later, he walked out in front of took a chance all my life,” he says. “You He found a way out by working as a 85,000 people for the Olympic semi-final, just have to have the courage, the guts.” deckhand on a yacht headed for Guade- watching trackside as Michael Johnson’s loupe, keeping watch through the night for gold spikes whirred past en route to a 200m t’s best to start here, with a super-tankers and passing the afternoons world record. What was Healy thinking moment that set off a butterfly playing chess with Danish stewardesses. about in that moment? he may never fully grasp, at least At the end of the trip the captain gave “Shit,” he says. “Don’t run bad in front in the absence of any him $1500, which Healy used to travel of this crowd.” Having advanced from his closure. through the Caribbean to Canada, which heat in fifth place, he bowed out in the Shane Healy is four-years-old, proved far too cold for his liking. He sneak- semi-final after finishing 11th, a sense and after continued fighting ed across the US border into Washington, of pride lingering after arriving at his between his parents he awakes made his way to California, and used some ultimate destination. one morning to find his mother creative licence to enrol at Contra Costa “I want to get the message across to has left their home in Community College, just outside San young people,” he says. “You can never in the dead of night, taking his older sister Francisco. ever give up on your dream.” Lorraine with her. Home was a Volkswagen Camper which I“To this day,” says Healy, “I’ve never he bought for $1000, and each day he’d use here is a story he tells seen or heard from them in 46 years.” the showers in the college’s sports centre, that sums up the prob- It wasn’t for want of trying. where he was soon made an offer he lem, the conundrum As Healy’s athletics career blossomed in couldn’t refuse. Hearing his Irish accent, facing so many aspiring the mid-90s, he made constant efforts to the athletics coach said he had the look of Olympians, then and track them down, utilising his profile to an Eamonn Coghlan or Marcus O’Sullivan now. In the summer of send messages through the media. He was and offered him $50 to run a mile. 1996, shortly after featured in the London Times, The New Healy never had been a runner, but in achieving the Olympic York Times, always making the same pleas beat-up tennis shoes he clocked 4:52, standard, Healy was — hoping they were reading — and during enough for the coach to offer him a place handed a cheque for an appearance on RTÉ’s Kenny Live, he on the team. “That’s where I found the £10,000 by Pat Hickey of the Olympic ended his interview with a American dream,” he says. TCouncil of Ireland. Saturday, 16.02.2019 Irish Examiner Weekend Sport

THE BIG INTERVIEW 27

“Take this,” Healy recalls being told, August 1997. Healy had been crocked most Olympian Shane ever you do.” The following night, he grave-digger’s spade looms in one corner, “and tell them we looked after you.” As of that year with a bulging disc in his back, Healy reflects began to wonder just what the hell he’d with a beating heart in the other, and two welcome as it was, it arrived when it was and soon realised he was at risk of losing signed up for as El Guerrouj ripped words are printed above and below the no longer necessary. his £10,000-a-year grant. The biggest meet- at his home through 800m in 1:48, Healy holding on for vortex: Tick, tock. “I needed it the year before, for the ing on the circuit was approaching in the in Ravensdale, dear life out the back as he passed in 1:52. Healy loved it the moment he saw it, build-up,” he says. “I feel for up-and- Memorial Van Damme, an invitation-only Co Louth, on an As the Moroccan powered to the finish in how it seemed a pastiche of his own path. coming athletes, it’s really tough. These event where Morocco’s Hicham El Guer- amazing 50 3:28.92, Healy emptied his energy reserves A few years ago, tormented that he could kids need support.” rouj was about to chase the 1500m world years. up the home straight to come home 12th, be running out of time to find his mother, On that front Healy has a personal in- record. Healy had run a dire season’s best smashing his personal best. Healy travelled to Huddersfield, the place sight, and indeed a plea. At the Dublin of 3:53, but after one solid session in Bel- Below: Healy “Lo and behold, I ran 3:35.29 with shite of her birth. He still had one cousin in Eng- Track Club, a collection of promising Irish field he figured he was starting to come leads Dublin preparation,” he says. “But the thing is: land, but his mother’s sole sibling had died middle-distance runners, overseen by good. Track Club When my back is against the wall, I’ll of cancer in 1991. He tried everything, Feidhlim Kelly, athletes listen to Healy’s “I said, ‘f*** it, I’ll take a chance, get on a members Paul produce the goods. I hope I can open followed every lead he could, and came up word with reverential worship. plane and go to Brussels.” Robinson, Brian people’s eyes to never ever give up faith, to empty. He has trained with them for the last He didn’t have an agent, so confronted Fay, Andrew chase your dream. Don’t ever give up.” … “It was a dead end,” he says. His father couple of years, ever since deciding to meeting director Wilfried Meert in the On the wall of Healy’s living room at passed away a couple of years ago, and launch his comeback in a bid to break lobby of the athletes’ hotel, telling him he Coscoran and home, looming high opposite the wood over time Healy has come to accept that he world records in the over-50 category. needed to run his race. Daniel Stone pellet stove, sits a large painting, replete may never find his mother. Not that he’ll “It’s great I can give them a bit of “Excuse me?” said Meert. “Who are during a training with all the anxiety of an Edvard Munch ever give up hope. knowledge about making it to the greatest you?” After Healy bluffed about his best run at Santry: ‘I masterpiece. In 2005 Healy met the love of his life, show on earth. I keep telling them not to times that season, Meert told him to sit in a keep telling It’s by a local artist in Dundalk, and Jennifer, who he married last year. “She’s give up hope, to stick with it. chair in the lobby and not move, and it was them not to give depicts a swirling vortex, into which Alice been the rock,” he says. “We’re like two “Feidhlim is doing a wonderful job, put- several hours before Meert finally re-ap- in Wonderland, an angst-riddled rabbit peas in a pod.” Their house — spotlessly ting in 40 or 50 hours a week with those peared: “Okay, you’re in.” up hope, to stick and one of Salvador Dali’s surrealist maintained, with photos of Healy’s Olym- kids, but they need support. They could do “I said, ‘okay Shane, don’t f*** up, what- with it.’ clocks are gradually disappearing. A pic appearance dotted around the walls — with a nine-seater minibus so we could sits on the side of a hill on the Cooley drive them to training, and it’d be great if Peninsula, and Healy knows every trail someone could come on board to sponsor and road in the area for miles, having that. But whether it’s gear, equipment or traversed them all on foot as he builds treatment, any help they get would be very fitness for his next adventure. much appreciated.” Next month he’ll tackle the World Despite all the creaks that reside in Masters Indoor Championships in Torun, Healy’s legs, he still trains almost as hard Poland, and after that he’ll launch an as- as he did at his peak, fitting 70-80 miles a sault on the over-50 world records at 800m, week around his work as a carer with the 1500m and 5000m. National Association of Housing for the His speed and power may be in decline Visually Impaired. these days, but toughness is a trait without Last year he clocked a mind-boggling expiry. In life, in athletics, it’s hard to 4:04 for 1500m at the age of 49, and this separate who he is on the track with what year, he wants the over-50 world record of he always has been off it. Resilient. 3:58. On Thursday evening he clocked an Resolute. Bashed around a bit but still in Irish over-50 5km record of 15:20 in there, scrapping ‘til the bitter end. Armagh, and this afternoon, at the A product of his past, but far from a National Senior Indoor Championships, prisoner of it. he will toe the line as by far the oldest As the sun begins to set over the hills, I competitor in the men’s 1500m heats. ask Healy one final question: how does he “I’ll put a few scares into those young feel his upbringing shaped him, given all bucks,” he says with a laugh, though he that came after? He pauses for a few mo- admits a few concessions to father time. “I ments, gathering his thoughts on one of have a teenage mind but the body of a those bright spring days that seem to sing 50-year-old man and I’m starting to under- with optimism. stand that. But if you stop for every niggle “I was very adaptable,” he says. “No as a masters runner you’ll never get a good matter what, I never got lost and I never block of training in.” gave up hope. There was always some- He runs now like he ran then. Without thing to keep me going.” fear. If there is any single race that could And there still is. The kind of guy who stand for the whole, it was Brussels, will always find a way. Monday Sport Irish Examiner Monday, 31.12.2018

16 ATHLETICS ‘I needed that energy, that resentment and

ver wonder how it carrying the cheeky smile of ness I had towards him. I love fades? The bad blood the class clown, he is a com- it. I get off on it.” bitterness and bitterness spilled plex web of contrasts: cocky The apotheosis came in in the sporting arena yet self-deprecating; the 2009, an Athletics Ireland E— the dislike and disdain be- swagger of a private-school training camp in Portugal. tween two rivals who would, if kid but the chip-on-your- With emotions yet to simmer the opportunity arose, happily shoulder drive of a street from their bitter falling out put their fist through the fighter. He’s unafraid to the previous summer, the other man’s face? offend but will bear an Olympic Council of Ireland Well, let’s start with this. At almighty grudge against those gathered a large group of ath- I had the Great North Run in New- who offend him. letes for a knowledge-sharing castle last year, David Camp- Campbell is quieter, more exercise, asking each person bell, a retired international introspective, and talks with to explain the tactics they athlete from Kildare, was in- the careful tone of a therapist. used in their respective races. troduced to an affable Ameri- Of the two, he was the one “There’s only one tactic I can, Mario, who soon flagged with the nice-guy reputation, employ,” Chamney an- his accent, his age, and his but that masked a mindset nounced to the room. “Beat background as a middle-dis- that would happily trample on David Campbell every single towards tance runner. your soul if you stood in his time.” “Irish,” he said. “You must way. Everyone fell silent, afraid know Tom Chamney?” It’s almost 10 years since to laugh, while Chamney sat “Yeah,” said Campbell. they last clashed, but ask there with a satisfied grin. “He’s a c**t.” them to relive those days and “Campbell was four or five Mario’s face dropped. it doesn’t take long for barbs chairs away and I knew he “You do know… me and to be thrown back and forth was fuming,” he says. “Aw Tom are friends? We see each across the Atlantic. man, it was priceless.” him’ other on a regular basis.” “Thomas only ever tried to “Really?” said Campbell, beat me instead of being a ooking back, the pausing for a moment. great athlete,” says Campbell. threads weaving their It was one of the most bitter and “He’s still a c**t.” “For me it was never about careers together show brilliant rivalries in the annals of At his home in , beating him — it was doing they have more in com- Chamney recounts the story what I needed to get to the Lmon than they’d like to admit. Irish athletics, and 10 years on with a laugh, while 5,000 miles next level. There were a lot Both were decent but west, at his home in Eugene, better athletes to worry unspectacular juniors, who from its apex, the feelings still Oregon, Campbell smiles as about.” clawed their way to senior it’s told back to him. Chamney concedes he championships via the single- linger for David Campbell and “Yeah,” he says with pride. became obsessed with the ri- minded obsession of a stalker. “I’ll stand over that.” valry, admitting that when Both had to escape Ireland Thomas Chamney. From selection They were once friendly, Campbell raced in Australia to elevate themselves to world- but never friends. Two athlet- he’d wake up at the crack of class and, in the end, both scandals to doping dilemmas, es who met at their peak, dawn to check his result. Then careers didn’t so much burn thrown together on a track there was the time he was out as fade away — their final dream races to nightmare injuries, like a hadron collider. Cham- abroad, unable to get online, competitive fires flickering ney. Campbell. For years, so he called a friend in Clon- out in desperate isolation. they now open up to Cathal Irish athletics was split down mel and demanded the play- For Campbell, the wheels the seam by those two names, by-play on Campbell’s race at came off towards the end of Dennehy about what brought which came to embody polar- the Diamond League. 2009, when he was dealing ising traits. “I was paying a euro a min- with both the break-up of his their careers together — Chamney, from Clonmel, is ute, roaming charges riddled, marriage and a chronic, and ultimately drove the loudest person in most just to find out what he was up nagging hamstring injury. rooms, machine-gunning a to. But that was the biggest “I lost power in my left leg, them apart. stream of consciousness with thing in my life for five years. I panicked, got surgery, did all a combination of great wit and needed that energy, that sorts, and I never got back intelligence. Tall, tanned, and f**king resentment and bitter- from there,” he says. Monday, 31.12.2018 Irish Examiner Monday Sport

ATHLETICS 17

HEAD TO HEAD: Thomas Chamney (left) and David Campbell in action at the height of their rivalry.

he trailed home ninth in the When 1500m final. “The worst day of my life,” you go he says. “That was the begin- ning of the end.” down In 2011 his body never felt right, and he struggled with a and people are painful condition called ostei- tis pubis. asking about Initially misdiagnosed as a “their legs, that sports hernia, it dragged on for six months. He eventually underwent surgery but the was the cycle of pain and stress led to him developing chronic fa- moment I knew: tigue syndrome, which wiped him out for several months I was a physio, more. In 2012 he got back rac- JUST DOING IT: David Campbell observes athletes training on the trails outside Eugene, where he works as physiotherapist for the Nike Oregon ing but was always wading Track Club. not an athlete against an ever-strengthening tide. specifically its high-perform- to help?’ No one even asked. I such complaints — but they hours away. “They said, ‘you “I said if one more thing ance director at the time, was able to deal with that, but spent enough time near the should come on down. We’re “It was that simple.” goes wrong in 2013, I’m quit- Kevin Ankrom. if it was someone who’s liable top to hear the whispers. eating the cake and we’ll give He tried, alright. To sustain ting. You can almost have an “He came in and wrote me to experience depression, it “You hoped the real level of you a slice of it.’ I knew what his dream of making the 2012 allergic reaction to training off straight away. He said I could have been catastrophic, doping was 5% or 10% but who that meant. Olympics he started work as a when you’ve done so much for underperformed at the Euro- honest to God, because I was knows?” says Chamney. “It “I’m not going to lie: I was physio for the Melbourne so long — your body starts to peans and that his computer in a really dark place.” could have been 40% 50%.” tempted. I wondered: should I Track Club, who he trained reject what you’re giving it.” statistics suggested my best The chief person he blames, The biggest eye-opener for go there? No one will catch with since 2007, but in the He had borrowed several days were behind me. It however, is the man in the Chamney came at the 2009 me. But if you test positive in summer of 2012 he had an un- thousand euro off his father to turned out he was right, but if mirror. World Championships in Ber- Ireland you’ll carry that wanted epiphany. fund surgery in Germany, you say that to an athlete “Ultimately I robbed myself lin, where he accepted an invi- burden for the rest of your life. Pacing athletes through a which left him more driven who’s been injured for six of the opportunity, thinking I tation to go for coffee with a For me that was the deterrent. hard track session, he popped than ever to return and justify months, I was like, ‘who the could do what I used to do — trio of Spanish athletes who If someone said, ‘take this his Achilles tendon and the investment. But his 1500m f**k is this guy?’ “I know I’m train hard. But I should have had been watching his pro- stuff, you’re going to be Olym- crashed to the track, and as he best was 3:36.83, and in four not Derval [O’Rourke] or treated my body with more gression. pic champ, probably not going laid there a female athlete indoor races in 2013 Chamney [David] Gillick. I’m not our respect.” A thought hits him: “They said, ‘listen, what are to get caught and you’ll make came over, asking if he’d take couldn’t get within 10 seconds best but I’m nearly our best. “Maybe if I’d been doping, I you on? What products are millions of euro,’ maybe I a look at her calf. of that. The game was up. And you’re telling me the first would have been okay.” you using? There’s no way you would have had a different at- “When you go down and “I sat at home one night and time I’ve met you to forget They knew at the time, and can take a second off your PB titude, but if you might make a people are asking about their burst into tears down the about it? From that moment know even better now, that [without doping]. Word on the hundred grand and maybe get legs, that was the moment I phone to my Dad, telling him I on I hated him and I hate him theirs was a rigged game, its street is there’s some new caught, and your life is ruined knew,” he says. “I was a phy- couldn’t do this anymore. I’m to this day, and I mean that.” ideal of fairness little more products in Britain: have you and everyone is ashamed of sio, not an athlete.” 28, running out of money and I The worst part of the long than a facade. heard anything about it?’ I you, it’s just not worth it. Chamney’s career began to can’t look myself in the mirror goodbye, says Chamney, was said, ‘sorry to disappoint you, “The sad thing is we tarnish falter in 2010. He over-trained and continue to be an athlete. I an apparent lack of interest ampbell and Chamney but I haven’t heard any- the Spanish that they’re all on for the European Champion- was like: f**k it, I’m done.” from his association. are quick to note thing.’” it, but I know for a fact they ships and went to Barcelona He left feeling betrayed by “They could have cast me dopers never cost The following year Cham- weren’t. They had European running on empty, the best his sport, and many years aside with a bit of grace and them a medal — they ney was training in Spain and medal chance of his career dis- later Chamney can’t mask his dignity and said, ‘you’re not in Cdidn’t produce enough at the same athletes reached out, Continued on P18 >>> integrating before his eyes as feelings for Athletics Ireland, our plans but what can we do championships to ever have inviting him to their camp two Monday Sport Irish Examiner Monday, 31.12.2018

18 ATHLETICS

Continued from P17>>> National Championships in 2007, that and beating an inter- national field at the Cork City champions and some of the Sports. His World Champion- best in the world who were ships tilt that year came un- clean as a whistle — I’d bet my stuck after he got food poison- kid’s life on it. But the other ing in Japan, his weight drop- guys bring the whole thing ping from 61kg to 54kg in the down.” days before the race. He still Campbell’s approach, toed the line, finishing throughout his career, was seventh in his heat in 1:46.47 that he didn’t want to know. after signing a waiver to ac- “I never thought about it knowledge he was ignoring once — you looked after your- medical advice. self,” he says. “You talk to Ke- “No one wanted me to run, nyans and they’ll tell you the but it had been such a journey, Ethiopians are on drugs, you from DCU to South Africa to work with Americans and Australia, that I had to find they’ll tell you someone else is out, one way or another.” on drugs, you work with Euro- In the end, that line sums up peans and they’ll tell you all his career — to find out, one the Americans are on drugs. way or another, the upper Everyone gets in this cycle of limit of his potential. bullshit, but as an athlete you For Chamney, life has since shouldn’t have time for that — pivoted far from athletics, you should be conducting even if the sport initially yourself properly. forged his current path. “I’m sure some were doing He met his wife Johanna, a stuff and I still beat them. I Swede, at a race in Gothen- can sleep well knowing I took burg in 2009 and they have two nothing, and other people kids, Esther (4) and Ruth (1). have to live with their He has lived in Sweden for decisions.” several years, and in 2014 Campbell looks around and began a challenge that made a wonders why, in athletics, the four-minute mile seem like conversation always has to child’s play, opening Tom- turn this way. Toms Burritos in Gothenburg. “There’s drugs in our sport “By a million miles, the har- but there’s drugs in every dest thing I’ve ever done,” he sport. There’s enough other says, though business is now stories to write about, so I’d DIFFERENT TRACK: Thomas Chamney operating a food truck in Gothenburg for TomToms Burritos, the business he started in 2014. Chamney lives booming, with Chamney em- like to see us get on with it and in Gothenburg with his wife Johanna and his two daughters. ploying a staff of 14 across two have young people inspired.” stores and a food truck. If there is one lesson he utilising his talent, but when Council of Ireland had long “I was trying my best, “There was an atmosphere of When it comes to athletics, could pass to the next gener- he enrolled for a Master’s at stated that only A-standards travelling all over Europe like apathy from OCI management he realises now just how ation, it is to take their shot — DCU, he started to take the would be accepted. But the a hobo, and at the very last towards the athletes’ welfare. special, how fleeting, those set off in search of your dream sport more seriously. After week of the national cham- minute they’re going to move It was as if we were there days truly were. His voice because even if you fail, the graduating he joined Olym- pionships, the OCI reversed the goalposts and I’m going to solely to get accreditation for sings with giddy enthusiasm pursuit will be a source of per- pian James Nolan for a year of its call and decided, behind be on the outside looking in,” blazers, getting tickets to when he talks about his fa- manent pride. training in South Africa and closed doors, to accept B-stan- he says. events for blazers. I was like, vourite race, the Oslo Dia- To get to the same place, he in 2006 he qualified for the dards. “That was the most bitter, ‘is this what the Olympics is mond League in 2009, where and Chamney chose very dif- European Championships, That left one Olympic spot the most dislike I felt for Dave about? This is shit.’” both he and Campbell set their ferent paths. where he met Nic Bideau, the up for grabs. Campbell or as an athlete. If he was going Chamney was eliminated lifetime bests over 800m. Campbell opted for an Irish Australian who is head of the Chamney. Kill or be killed. to the Olympics he was going after finishing fifth in his Chamney finished third in base during his college years Melbourne Track Club. On the eve of Irish to have to f**king go through 800m heat in 1:47.66. 1:45.41, Campbell a tick behind then ventured abroad to reach Campbell jumped at Bi- nationals, Chamney was still me.” “The only positive was I in fourth in 1:45.59. Two Irish the next level. Chamney, deau’s invitation to join their in Belgium, preparing to Campbell, meanwhile, lined walked off the track and said lads, up there among the meanwhile, took the well- team, selling his car and rack- launch one final attempt at the up for the national final that’s as fast as I could run. world’s best. worn US scholarship trail to ing up several thousand euro A-standard at a race in unaware that the winner But you knew Campbell was “Aside from the birth of my Notre Dame University in In- in debt to finance his dream. Heusden. While doing his would be picked for , sitting at home saying to child, that was the best day of diana before relocating to “It was either that or go laundry, he got a call from and he had no response when whoever would listen, ‘oh, it my life — I’ll be telling my to train profession- work 9-5 in a bank and that Irish team manager Patsy Chamney out-kicked him in should have been me.’ Well, grandkids about that race,” ally. would destroy my soul,” says McGonagle, who knew of the the home straight to take vic- you should have beaten me at says Chamney. “It was worth He went to America in 2002 Campbell, who returned to OCI reversal and told him if he tory. When Chamney was an- Irish nationals, should have all the shit to reach that high.” with a best of 1:51 for 800m and Ireland a much better athlete didn’t get back to race in nounced on the team, there run faster than me in 2008 but Only the following year, came home five years later in 2007. “My discipline was my Dublin, Campbell would be se- was an immediate backlash you didn’t, so sorry about when Campbell was injured running 1:46. “Best decision I biggest asset — how I ate, lected. Chamney bundled his from many, including Sonia that.” and Chamney cruised to the ever made,” he says. slept, trained. You had to sink wet clothes into a bag, ran into O’Sullivan, whose husband Irish title, did he begin to real- At the European Indoor or swim in Australia. In Ire- the street, hailed a taxi and got Bideau coached Campbell. fter missing out on ise the value of having a rival. Championships in 2007, land the bar was to make a on the first flight home. “It’s supposed to be the ac- the 2012 Olympics, “I was like, ‘this is so boring Chamney met Enrique Pas- team but there it was: who cumulation of every little the door finally — is this what it would have cual, a renowned Spanish gives a f**k if you qualify? boy’s dream, but what’s in the closed on that dream, been like if Dave was never coach who led Fermin Cacho Loads of people qualify.” I was newspapers? You’ve Sonia ACampbell set off on a road trip born?’” to Olympic 1500m gold in 1992, In 2007 Chamney and Camp- saying this is a disgrace, along the Wild Atlantic Way, Campbell, for his part, ad- and Pascual agreed to take bell went into the National trying my Campbell complaining it ignoring everything about the mits that if Chamney ever vi- over his coaching duties. Championships with both wasn’t fair and half the Irish London Games. It would hurt sits his neck of the woods, he’d Later that year he moved to holding the 800m B-standard best, athletics public thinking I too much to watch from afar. invite him out for a beer — Soria, 125 miles north of Mad- time for the World Champion- pulled a fast one,” says Cham- But when he looks back and look back and laugh at those rid, where he trained with ships, meaning it was a race- travelling all ney. “They made such a charts his last decade, he real- days, the way their stories some of Spain’s best athletes off for one available spot. f**king drama out of it.” ises athletics was a genuine seemed forever intertwined. — although that proved more Campbell won, crossing the over Europe like Campbell’s issue was not so gift. After walking away he be- “We just didn’t get on to- a curse than a blessing. line with his arms stretched “a hobo, and much that Chamney had in- came a full-time physio, going wards the end of our careers, “There was a lot of tension, wide like airplane wings, a formation he didn’t, but that back to UCD to get a third de- but it’s easier to compete a poisonous atmosphere, and drawn-out celebration that he wouldn’t initially come gree before working alongside against someone you don’t everyone kind of hated every- rankled his rival. they’re going to clean about it. renowned therapist Gerard like,” he says. one,” he says. “I said to my mother after- “I thought, ‘why are you Hartmann at his clinic in Lim- “I’ve always had massive re- “The training was ridicu- wards,” recalls Chamney, move the protecting other people?’” erick for a year. spect for Tom as an athlete.” lous: five track sessions a “‘There was no need for him to goalposts...that says Campbell. “‘You talk loud In 2015 he started work for Chamney, meanwhile, week, three weights sessions do that.’” enough all the time, so why the Nike Oregon Track Club changes his tone as we enter and every single run, be it a was the most not own what you say and in Eugene, overseeing the the home straight of a two- morning or recovery run, the thletics, by and large, admit you were told it?’ medical and physiotherapy hour conversation. The anger last 5-6km was balls-out, to the is a civil sport, its bitter, the most “I’d like to say I’m over it, programme for one of the that once flared in his voice max. After three or four structure typically but I’m not. I spent a lot of leading groups in world ath- starts to mellow, replaced months I couldn’t get out of incubating it from dislike I felt for time training, putting myself letics. with reflective gratitude. bed. I was f**ked.” Athe kill-or-be-killed mentality in positions to become an “I’m very, very grateful for “I loved having Campbell He returned home in 2008, of head-to-head battle. The Dave as an Olympian, but my opportun- what I work in, but I’d much around and I have him to setting up in UL and rejoining rare exception is in a selection ity at that point was taken rather have been an athlete,” thank for a lot — it was good, former coach Seán McManus. race-off, where victory is athlete. If he was away from me. So yeah, I am he admits. honest bitterness and ri- At that point, Campbell looked predicated not just on your bitter about it.” “There was initially a lot of valry,” he says. the more likely to reach the success, but a rival’s failure. going to the Chamney went to Beijing bitterness and disappoint- “There was such a dichot- Beijing Olympics. Two years In July 2008, both athletes two weeks later, though after ment that I didn’t achieve omy between us, but we were older than Chamney, he had had again achieved the 800m Olympics he was a stressful, haphazard prep- what I set out to achieve, but at our best around the same matured into Ireland’s best B-standard for the Beijing aration, his Olympic experi- I’m over it now. I have a great time and going at each other male middle-distance runner. Olympics, which left them going to have to ence was anything but a life.” hammer and tongs.” Campbell’s early 20s had thinking they would miss the dream. The highlight, he says, was “Aw f**k,” he adds. “It was drifted by without him really Games, given the Olympic go through me “It was shit,” he says. the golden double at the brilliant. The best of times.” 52 EPA- Wednesday, December 26, 2018 IRISH INDEPENDENT PER Sport Gaelic Games

Safe hands: career with a red card for a headbutt Tom Condon in the 2006 World Cup final. catches the “It’s great now to laugh about it, but sliotar in the at the time it was a bit raw,” admits last seconds Condon. “I wondered was that how of the I was going to bow out? But I let the All-Ireland emotion take over and I shouldn’t SHC final, have.” which ended The team’s sports psychologist Limerick’s Caroline Currid had been telling 45-year wait them all year that if they played for the Liam with emotion they’d play in peaks MacCarthy and troughs. Remove the emotion, find the consistency. But little could prepare Condon for how it felt sitting in the stands, awaiting a call-up during the All-Ireland final. “It’s horrific, your stomach is in knots and you can’t do anything. There were times I couldn’t look at the pitch, I was so wound up – you’d be nearly sick with nerves.” After 50 minutes he was told to warm up alongside Richie McCarthy when went down injured, but his heart sank a little when McCarthy got the nod. Condon stayed active on the sideline just in case, and when corner-back got injured in the 72nd minute, he finally had his chance. “Jesus, when I went on I was battered from all angles – the intensity was ferocious,” he says. “We were still up five points and you think you’re home and hosed, we’re coasting, but those six minutes felt like 60 minutes.” He remembers Galway’s aerial attack, ball raining down searching ‘It’s stuff you see in movies, above for all 6ft 5in of Johnny Glynn; he remembers stalking Conor Whelan and trying to spoil as much of his ball as he could; and he remembers that final moment, that last greedy snatch at the ball, his sprint to freedom to fill what we could have dreamed of’ a lifetime void. Idolised “It was unbelievable,” he says. “I ran and jumped around the place. I Tom Condon reveals the euphoria of how his catch finally looked like an eejit, but what else do CATHAL you do?” Little moments – there’s been DENNEHY ended Limerick’s 45-year wait for the Liam MacCarthy so many these past few months, each a little signifier of its impact. Like the tears flooding the eyes of Conor McCarthy, a member ERE’s what he was unlimited heartbreak. Tom Condon 6-19 in the semi-final, and it’s a good recalls telling them. “I’d never been of Limerick’s backroom room, or thinking, 74 minutes had one thought before that final thing not many others had scar tissue involved with such a talented group visiting clubs around the county and into the All-Ireland final, play, clichéd and all as it seems: walk left from those days of drudge. of players. There was a great buzz in understanding the true want – need as Limerick clung to a away with no regrets. In 2010 Condon was one of many the camp.” – that had been out there. two-point lead like a life “I was thinking this ball could drop who refused to play under Justin At 30 Condon was far from past it, A few weeks after the final belt in a raging sea: “Ah short so it was going through my McCarthy, feeling he had no option but he’d been asked about retirement he brought the cup back to HJesus, Limerick, are we head, ‘just attack this, don’t stand but to side with friends who had been enough that he at least had to Knockaderry, a village of 1,500 going to do it again?” back leaving someone else do it’. dropped from the panel, and so he wonder, particularly with a full-time people, who he has played club Four months on, Tom Condon There’s plenty times you tell yourself went off to Chicago for the summer, job at a factory in Askeaton and a two- with since the age of seven. recites his thoughts with a hint of after games you should have gone for ticking a box on his bucket list. year-old son, Nicky, to look after. “They’ve always stood behind me, embarrassment, because for all the that ball,” he says. Limerick won Munster in 2013 but His girlfriend Sarah Carey, no matter what, even through the red work with sports psychologists, When Galway came charging like a their form went walkabout in the daughter of Limerick hurling great cards,” laughs Condon. for all the compartmentalised Pamplona bull, he thought of ’94. Of All-Ireland semi-final against Clare, Ciarán, plays with Limerick Then there were the guys he focus he knew he needed at that course he did. Everyone did. and ever since there’s been enough and such are the demands they can idolised – Stephen McDonagh, Mike moment, three decades of hurling Six years old, running around his moments to make any Limerick man often be like ships passing in the Houlihan, Joe McKenna and the had ingrained in his subconscious a living room thinking Limerick had miserable with remorse. night at home. likes – coming up to shake his hand, wretched thought – when the stakes the All-Ireland in the bag, until of “Our family are great, always there telling him they should win a few are this high, Limerick is somehow course they didn’t, conceding 2-5 to to help and babysit and only for them more in the years to come. gonna be Limerick. Offaly in the last five minutes. ‘I ran and jumped around the I wouldn’t be able to maintain it,” says “I don’t see any reason we can’t “It’s amazing what your mind can Two years later his parents couldn’t place. I looked like an eejit, but Condon. “It has been difficult. Sarah push on and retain it. It’s a massive do to you,” he says. “Crazy thoughts get him a ticket for the final against is training most nights and I’d be out ask, but we’ve beaten every team this go through your head.” Wexford, and Condon remembers what else do you do? five or six nights a week, but it’s all year and it’s the same format so why Four minutes later, during the final his dad and uncle cramming into a worth it when you get days like that.” can’t we win it again?” play of the game, the ball hung in the Ford Fiesta with friends and setting For much of the summer it seemed Few would bet against it, though air for four interminable seconds, off for Dublin, green and white flags “We should have won one, but we unlikely he’d get any playing time in right now Condon has little cannonballed in by Joe Canning with hanging from every window. Of never quite did,” Condon says. “We the final, especially after the Clare inclination to look too far forward, just one point between the sides – an course, they lost that one as well. had lot of regrets.” game in June – the one blot on not when looking back – for once – anxious terror rising inside every After this year’s final Condon wasn’t Key word: had. Limerick’s perfect season. offers such a pleasing vista. He thinks man, woman, boy and girl in green. surprised when guys like Nickie This year he knew early on that Condon had been given his chance back to that sea of green outside Most finals are remembered for a Quaid, who was also old enough to things were different. The game they in the 13th minute when Sean Finn Colbert Station, and later in the specific score, a back-of-the-net blast remember those losses, told him he evolved under John Kiely – which went off injured, but shortly before Gaelic Grounds, the night they made or a pivotal point, but not this one. had the same, haunting thoughts had its origins in Donal O’Grady’s half-time he was shown red after their homecoming. It was the grab – a desperate snatch during those final minutes. tenure – became second nature. striking David Reidy with his hurl in “It’s stuff you see in TV or of the sliotar by a 30-year-old from “It’s not a nice thing to have pop Just before Christmas, Condon met an off-the-ball incident. movies. The supporters have been a tiny club in Limerick with zero into your head,” he says. “But the friends at a boxing fundraiser and They lost by 11 points, and Condon phenomenal, even through the bad All-Ireland medals to its name. It younger lads wouldn’t even mention was unable to curb his enthusiasm. wondered if that was it for him and times, and it’s brilliant to be able to was the swipe and sprint through that or think it – they’re made of “Something is going happen with Limerick, especially when team- give them joy,” he says. a wall of bodies, up and over his different stuff.” this team; it mightn’t be this year, mates jokingly started calling him “What we got was over and above county’s countless failings, and away He joined the squad in 2009, the but in the next two or three years Zinedine Zidane, a nod to how the what we could ever dream of. It was into open space, unshackled from year Tipp vaporised Limerick with we’re going to win an All-Ireland,” he French great ended his international ridiculous. It still is ridiculous.”