Ballineen Bullet Phil Healy ran the race of her life in the Olympic final to prove she’s still one of the best in the business
BY KIERAN McCARTHY
PHIL Healy’s superpowers know no bounds – her appearance in an Olympic final stopped a local football match in its tracks on Saturday night as players, and the referee, huddled around phones to watch the Ballineen Bullet in action.
This was the incredible night West Cork held its breath for one of its most famous sporting daughters, the latest sign of how this local treasure has transcended realms – Phil is more than just a two-time Olympian, she is one of our own, a local woman shining under the brightest of lights on the world stage.
As the trailblazer from Knockaneady lined up to run the third leg for the Irish women’s 4x400m relay team in the stacked Olympic final at the Stade de France, West Cork stopped to tune in.
The Carbery-Beara Division 4 Football League game between Phil’s former club, St Oliver Plunkett’s (which her youngest brother Padraig plays for), and Barryroe, a club that her cousins line out for, also ground to a halt. Phil had a first cousin in action on Saturday night, Cian O’Sullivan with Barryroe. Like everyone else, he stopped what he was doing to watch this Olympic final that had the nation talking as four incredible Irish women – Phil, Rhasidat Adeleke from Tallaght (the night after finishing fourth in the women’s 400m final), Sophie Becker from Wexford and Tipperary tornado Sharlene Mawdsley – took on the world in the final track event at the Paris Games.
Given her mind-boggling exploits for over a decade, the West Cork woman who was the fastest in Ireland for many years, Phil already had a captive audience locally, but this was at an entirely different level to what’s gone before. Such was the appetite for the Bandon Athletic Club sensation on Saturday night, The Anchor Bar in Courtmacsherry switched over from live coverage of the women’s 1500m final to watch RTÉ One +1 to catch locals Barry Holland and his mom Helen, first cousin and aunt of Phil’s, be interviewed outside the Stade de France on the Six One news. Phil and her Olympic final was the only show in town.
Phil's aunt Helen Holland and cousin Barry Holland made the trip to Paris to support her in the Olympic final.
Holding their home-made ‘Go Phil’ Olympic flag, Barry and Helen, both kitted out in Team Ireland green and Helen even sporting a patriotic beret, struck the right tone.
‘The sense of pride and joy at home in West Cork is immense,’ Barry explained, with Helen speaking of ‘all the hard work’ that Phil has devoted to athletics that had led her to a second Olympic final.
‘To get to the Olympics for a second time and to get to a final for a second time … wow,’ Phil’s proud aunt beamed – and Phil’s story is one that resonates because it’s relatable. The incredible ups, like winning a European silver medal with the Irish women’s 4x400m relay team in June, running the mixed 4x400m Olympic final in Tokyo in 2021; winning seventeen national senior sprint titles. The stinging lows, like the challenging 18-month period between Tokyo and Paris when she was knocked off track by health issues and contemplated retiring from athletics. Dark times, but the fierce competitor within refused to wave the white flag.
‘If you asked me 12 months ago if I would be going to an Olympic Games, I wouldn’t have seen it as a possibility,’ Phil told this paper before flying out to Paris. She’s hardy, toughened from growing up on the family farm with a roll-up-your-sleeves and get–to-work attitude – we saw that again in the Olympic final on Saturday night.
When Phil took the baton from the generational Adeleke, and sped off on the third leg around the distinctive purple track, the Irish team was, sensationally, in second place. Already, a star-studded USA team was closing in on gold. This was Phil’s chance to remind us all just how good she is; the oldest of this Irish team, at 29, was the only one of the four not to qualify in an individual event for these Games, and while her class is undeniable, she needed a big run to keep Ireland in medal contention.
The Bandon AC superstar, who also works full-time as a software engineer with Sun Life, delivered.
Coming down the exhausting final straight, Phil held off the Dutch, British and French runners, and handed the baton to birthday girl Mawdlsey with Ireland still in second place. In those 50.94 seconds it took Phil to run the lap of her life, given the pressure, we learned more about her resilience and fight. And now there was a real sense of the impossible becoming possible. The first-ever Irish female relay team to contest an Olympic final weren’t here to take part, they wanted to take over.
Phil Healy during the women's 4x400 relay final at the Stade de France. (Photo: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile)
‘Phil Healy had the best run she’s had in years. Imagine the pressure she was under in the last 100 metres to give Sharlene a chance,’ Rob Heffernan remarked in the RTÉ studios back in Dublin.
‘Phil has really had her struggles these past few years, she struggled with illness. Under pressure, that was so brave by Phil Healy, the absolute run of her life,’ Derval O’Rourke stated.
‘She stood up here, unbelievable what she did,’ Heffernan added.
Imagine the pride of the sizable Phil Healy Fan Club dotted around the Stade de France, including her older sister Joan who booked a last-minute flight to Paris before jetting off on her honeymoon this week. Imagine the pride of her family and friends watching on TV; from The Anchor Bar to sitting-rooms dotted all around West Cork. The pride of Bandon Athletic Club watching one of their own produce a performance like that in an Olympic final. The pride all of West Cork felt watching one of our own display that courage and bravery in an Olympic final.
This was a sensational Irish performance. World class. It deserved more than the heartbreak that was waiting just one lap later.
Mighty Mawdsley ran her fastest-ever relay split (49.14 seconds), but was just edged out by the stupendous Femke Bol of The Netherlands and Amber Anning of Great Britain, two women’s 400m finalists – the fantastic four in green missed out on an Olympic medal by 0.18 of a second, but their new national record of 3:19.90 shows the heights they hit, knocking a massive three seconds off the record the same quartet set in June at the Europeans. They are the first relay team to break 3:20 in an Olympic final and not win a medal. Bittersweet.
Gutting. Galling. Heroic. Inspiring. The stuff of legend.
The immediate emotion was devastation, but as the magnitude of their heroics set in, this Irish women’s relay squad proved they belong on the grandest of stages.
‘It was a phenomenal performance from the team,’ Phil said.
‘We shattered the national record, coming over 3:19 and fourth in an Olympic Games. So, so proud of the girls. This team belongs on the world stage. Who predicted we’d come fourth in the Olympic Games.
‘To be in there with other world class athletes, it’s where we belong and everyone performed out of their skin today.’
The dream team of Sophie Becker, Phil Healy, Rhasidat Adeleke and Sharlene Mawdsley after the Olympic final. (Photo: Morgan Treacy/INPHO)
This special quartet captured the hearts of the nation on Saturday night. There was a peak viewership of 910,000 on RTÉ, making it the third most-watched event from these Olympic Games in Ireland. Their tale has struck a chord. All four who ran on Saturday night have their own individual story, with Phil’s comeback a stirring reminder of what is possible.
She always gives a nod to the team effort, the subs back in warm-up and everyone who played their part in this story, but her own journey and its legacy needs to be celebrated too.
Phil has joined the dots from Ballineen to an Olympic final and showed every kid in West Cork what is possible – you can come from this corner of Ireland and compete on the biggest of stages. That’s an inspiring message, and one that hits home.
The universal love for Phil Healy has, like her, reached a new level. It’s why a local football match was stopped to watch her in an Olympic final. It’s why West Cork held its breath on a Saturday night in August. It’s why her place in the annals of West Cork sport is already secure, with the belief there’s still more to come.
