Phil Healy won her first senior international medal at the European Athletics Championships. KIERAN McCARTHY explains why it means so much to the Ballineen Bullet and those who know her the best
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PHIL Healy had her fill of tuna at the Athletics Ireland team hotel in Rome so she celebrated her first-ever senior international medal with a large hot 'n spicy McChicken sandwich meal at a nearby McDonalds at 1.30am last Thursday morning. She’s a fan of McFlurrys, so that was added to the order.
She’ll admit that she’s had better McDonalds than this late night feast after the Irish 4x400m women’s relay team won a sensational silver medal at the Stadio Olimpico, but she’s rarely had a better feeling after a race.
‘These are moments you’re training for, and they are so, so rare,’ Phil smiles.
The Ballineen Bullet got to bed at 6.30am the morning after the European final and was back up again 90 minutes later as herself and room-mate Sophie Becker headed into downtown Rome – Becker had an earlier flight home – but much like the 51.51 seconds Phil ran her third leg of the relay in, she took it all in her stride.
She couldn’t sleep – the adrenaline was still fresh, fighting away the fatigue of her exertions and emotions after finally getting her hands on a senior international medal.
‘Back in 2021 I was fourth at the European Indoors so missed out on a medal; that was the closest that I have been,’ she recalls. She also finished fourth at the European Juniors in her early days.
Phil Healy poses with her medal in Rome.
Now Phil has her first senior international medal to show for her efforts. There’s a weight and size to it that heightens its feeling of significance. It won’t define her incredible career, but it feels like a just reward for this trailblazer of Irish women’s sprinting. At 29, she’s the elder stateswoman of the Irish 4x400 women’s relay team – Sophie Becker (27), Sharlene Mawdsley (25), Lauren Cadden (24) and Rhashidat Adeleke (21) all stood on the podium with Phil, all five with those shining silver medals glistening in the Rome night, joining a select group of Irish athletes to medal at the European championships.
How fitting in a city known for its architecture that Phil carved out the most significant moment in her athletics career that just keeps on giving. Her parents, Jerry and Phil, were there to watch their daughter’s silver success; they flew into Rome on Monday with Phil’s aunt, Gillian O’Sullivan from Barryroe. They missed her 200m individual heat that day, but were in the stadium on Tuesday morning when Phil and the Irish women’s relay team qualified for the final by winning their heat, with the Bandon AC speedster running her fastest-ever 400m relay split of 51.21. They were there too to meet Phil after she picked up her silver medal on Wednesday night – plenty of photos and videos were shared in the Healy family WhatsApp group that night.
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Phil, at 29 years old, is the second oldest of four. Joan takes seniority, at 31; she set the pace in the early days, with Phil playing catching up before taking the baton off Joan and moving to a new – and faster – level. Then come the boys, Diarmuid (26) and Padraig (21), forever trying to keep pace with their sisters’ exploits. Blink and you’ll miss them.
Diarmuid and Padraig watched the European final at home in Knockaneady, Ballineen on Wednesday night. Diarmuid was perched on the edge of the black leather armchair in the sitting-room, Padraig likewise on the matching couch, all the focus on 55-inch TV. The big screen for the big occasion.
There are family photos dotted around the room, and by 8.10pm that night, there were justifiable claims for Phil to have one all to herself to mark her greatest night – she won a European senior silver medal in a new national record time of 3:22.71, smashing the old record by a staggering 1.7 seconds.
This is a race that will be watched again and again. Becker raced out of the blocks for the first leg, and Ireland were in fourth place when the generational talent Adeleke took over, her long limbs powering Ireland to the front before the changeover to Phil for the third leg.
Back home in Knockaneady, Diarmuid and Padraig were roaring at the TV – there was a nervousness beforehand because of the expectation that this Irish quartet could medal, and that made this very different to past major championships. But they know Phil better than us all. She hates losing and, along with Joan, is the most competitive person they know. Stubborn too, Diarmuid laughs. As kids, all four would play a quiz game called Buzz on an old Playstation – Phil’s competitiveness was frightening, Diamuid jokes. All four have that competitive streak, but the younger brothers will concede that their sisters have that extra edge to take them to Olympic, World and European stages. It was the same with the card game Spoons – the target was to collect four of a kind, and Phil’s approach was a different level to the rest. It’s that mentality that has seen her rise from a farming background in West Cork to the podium at a senior European Athletics Championships. There’s a reason her coach, Shane McCormack, once likened her to Roy Keane, explaining ‘It’s that drive she has, what’s behind the exterior.’
The Irish women's 4x400m relay team of Sophie Becker, Phil Healy, Rhasidat Adeleke and Sharlene Mawdsley celebrate winning silver medals at the European Athletics Championships.(Photo: Morgan Treacy/INPHO)
When Phil took the baton from Adeleke to run the penultimate leg of the European final, Ireland had hit the front. The Bandon AC star pulled out all the stops with her third fastest 400m relay split ever, 51.51, to keep the team in the medal conversation. Handing the baton to Mawdsley, Ireland were in second place, behind The Netherlands led by the incredible Femke Bol in the last leg. Bol fought off Mawdsley’s might, as Ireland crossed the line in second to win silver.
‘To walk away with the medal was unbelievable,’ Phil beamed. This meant more than we all realise. Her struggles with a thyroid issue, Hashimoto’s disease, in 2022 and ’23 saw her consider retiring from athletics. She hit a slump and struggled. But she didn’t back down from this fight – and so far this year she won the national indoor 200m title (Phil’s 16th senior title between indoor and outdoor), helped the Irish 4x400m relay team qualify for the Olympic Games and has now won a European senior silver medal. There’s a resilience and steel to her that’s to be admired.
‘I'm not going to lie, I definitely contemplated retiring last summer many, many times,’ she admitted in her post-race interview. ‘I stuck with it and it makes it all worth it for special moments like this.
‘I'm definitely the oldest member of this relay team and I remember back to my first senior championships in 2014. That's a long time ago. Year after year competing on the national stage, and now my first senior major medal, this is very, very special and makes the last few tough years so worthwhile.’
The celebrations started in Rome, Knockaneady and in Knockaveale, a few miles outside Bandon town.
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Wednesday, June 12th – the night Phil won her first senior international medal was also the seventh anniversary of her former Bandon Athletic Club coach, Catherine Duggan, who passed away in 2017.
Catherine was a huge influence in those early days. ‘She was the leader of the club,’ Phil says, and the timing of last week’s silver success is not lost on Bandon AC’s biggest star.
‘It was so, so fitting it was the same day,’ Phil agrees, adding, ‘Catherine always said from when I was a kid I would run 400 eventually.’
In the Duggan home in Knockaveale, Catherine’s husband Vincent and two of their children, Ronan and Fiona, as well as Ronan’s wife Leanne, all joined-up members of The Phil Healy Fan Club, watched the European 4x400m women’s relay final together. Their link to Phil is stronger than most, given Catherine’s role in those early days.
‘I was chatting to my father about this because looking back I always thought Phil was tall, had a long stride and that she would make a 400-metre runner. He said that my mother was always saying that, even when Phil was 12 years old, that it was “400, 400”. Even when she was doing the 100s and the 200s, mom was still saying “400” and that’s where she ended up eventually. I think mom copped early on that she would end up at 400 because she had a lovely stride at that age. She was able to see that Phil had the determination and the willingness to train, as well as the raw speed,’ says Ronan, who is a few years older than Phil but was always aware of her talent. He is involved in athletics coaching, both with Bandon AC and in Dublin where he works as a teacher and coach at Belvedere College.
‘We have followed Phil for a long time,’ Ronan explains, ‘and mom had an effect on so many athletes in the club, like Nicola Tuthill. You get used to seeing athletes perform to a high level and then mention mom, like Fiona Everard.
‘With Phil reaching that level, of course there was emotion last week; we were all at home watching it. At the same time we know what Phil has been through the last couple of years so we were relieved for her too, that she managed to get what she deserved.
‘It is a difficult day at times but it is a happy day too because we are so proud of mom.’
Ronan adds: ‘People don’t realise the misery of the training she does; it’s fine when you’re going well, but you really have to love it. Most people would have given up, but that’s not Phil, she kept fighting and now she has the medal she deserves. She is such a likable person too and everyone is mad about Phil.’
European silver medallist Phil Healy made a flying trip home to Knockaneady last weekend to show her family the sensational silver medal the Ballineen Bullet won with the Irish women's 4x400m relay team in Rome. Phil is pictured with her brothers, Diarmuid and Padraig, her mom Joan and Coco the dog.
It takes a village to raise a child. Phil’s success can be traced back to so many people. Her parents. Her family. Bandon AC and its key role, from Catherine Duggan to Liz Coomey and then to her current coach Shane McCormack who Phil headhunted in late 2013. Just out of Coláiste na Toirbhirte, she emailed McCormack, who was impressed by this up-and-comer in Irish sprinting. He recalled previously: ‘the initial email she seemed like someone who was very determined to make it happen no matter what. She made a big call for her career at that age and that always stuck out for me.’ Phil’s thankful to everyone who has helped her journey, including her sponsors, Kevin O'Leary Bandon, Carbery Group Limited and previously Nyhan Motors. It’s a team effort, just like it was on the magical night in Rome. That all makes a difference.
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Phil’s feet barely touch the ground in the days after the race. That night was surreal, from media interviews to the medal presentation to meeting the army of Irish fans – including her mom, dad and aunt – before the Irish team boarded the last bus from the Stadio Olimpico around 12.30am back to the Irish team hotel. Then they descended on McDonalds.
Thursday was all about travelling back to Ireland, with Phil on a later flight to Sophie Becker and Sharlene Mawdsley, and she landed at Dublin Airport at 1.30am on Friday morning. That day included a trip to meet Taoiseach Simon Harris at government buildings, before Phil hit the road to Cork city that evening for ‘a little homecoming’ with friends, the O’Sullivans, in Douglas. Flags and bunting, and even the O’Sullivan’s dog, Hector, joined in on the celebrations. It was here that the 1991 Rose of Tralee winner Denise Murphy (now O’Sullivan), who represented Cork, sowed the purple ribbon holding Phil’s silver medal back together. The day before at government buildings, Phil had to grip the medal itself as the ribbons were hanging by a thread. The wear and tear already of a medal that will be held in countless hands in the months ahead – and that can help inspire the next generation.
Former Rose of Tralee winner Denise O'Sullivan sowing the ribbon on Phil's medal.
Saturday, after the priority of getting her nails done in the city – a lilac colour that almost matches the purple ribbon – saw Phil make a quick trip home to Knockaneady, and the photos taken could yet end up in the sitting-room, as Diarmuid and Padraig flanked their medal-winning sister, with Coco the dog also posing for a photo with the medal. Joan, on holidays, was sent the snaps on WhatsApp. All are incredibly proud of their sister, they know how much of herself she has poured into athletics and what she’s been through, so this moment is one to allow linger a little longer.
And it’s not over yet. Flights have been booked for Paris for the upcoming Olympics that start at the end of July, tickets sorted for the heats and (hopefully) final of the women’s 4x400m relay. There are more chapters to be written in Phil’s story, but One Night in Rome, will always be one of her favourites. While sport owes nobody anything, that was the night Phil got the reward she deserved.
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