If everything had gone to Joan Healy’s original plan, she wouldn’t be competing in the European Indoor Championships in Istanbul this week. She wouldn’t have run her fastest time over 60m last Friday evening. She wouldn’t be coached by fellow Cork women Derval O’Rourke and Marian Heffernan.
he wouldn’t be targeting her younger sister’s Irish 100m outdoor record this summer.
Joan Healy originally planned on being retired from athletics by now. The idea was to qualify with the 4x100m relay for the Tokyo Games, crown her running years with competing at the Olympics and then continue with the rest of her life. But a “nasty” Achilles injury in April 2021 just before the World relays disrupted all that. No Olympic Games meant no retirement.
“I was approaching 30 and life was moving on and you’re looking at different areas in your life. Having an Olympics would be time to draw the line under the athletics career,” Healy says.
“But that didn’t happen. It just felt unfinished. I just couldn’t walk away.
“I intend on giving everything to getting towards Paris ’24 and that’s where I’m hanging up the spikes.”
Healy (30) has redesigned her life to try and qualify for next year’s Paris Olympics. She went part-time with her job as a secondary school teacher with Terence MacSwiney Community College on the north side of Cork city.
She doesn’t get any Sport Ireland funding. She also needed a new coach. She says Shane McCormack – coach to her sister Phil – happened to mention it to O’Rourke in the summer of 2021 and next thing O’Rourke rings her.
O’Rourke and Heffernan then came on board as Healy’s two coaches.
“They are two tough, tough women. There is no messing. I’ve mainly had male coaches and my last coach Alan (Mahoney), I was with him for a very long time. We had some great success together, so it was a bit of an adjustment then having two women and two women with such strong personalities.
“Marian is definitely harder on the work on the track and then Derval is tough on the mental side of things. The two of them really complement each other.
“Derval is incredibly calm. I keep telling her she’s annoyingly logical. She has a way of looking at everything as she says, ‘What’s the reality in this?’
“For a while, I was panicking going, ‘I’m not anywhere near the ‘A’ standard for the indoors.’ And she’s like, ‘What’s the worst-case scenario? You don’t get the time, do you stop running? No, we keep motoring on for the 100m. Your speed is still going to be there. Best-case scenario you do get the time and it just totally changes your focus and stops you hitting the panic button’.
“I was self-sabotaging with my thoughts. It’s about grounding me more than anything.”
The coaching influence of O’Rourke and Heffernan is a huge reason why Healy ran a new personal best in the 60m with 7.30secs in Abbotstown last Friday, which equals the fourth fastest run on the all-time Irish women’s indoor record list. The 60m was always her event but she already feels stronger for the 100m.
“This indoor season, the 60m is now too short for me. I feel like I’m only getting going at 50m,” she says.
“So, this bodes well for the 100m. As delighted as they (her coaches) are that I’m doing well in the 60m and off to the European Championships, the big competitions are in the 100m. That’s where the goal is.”
And one of those goals is to take down the 100m national outdoor record which is held by her sister Phil, who’s two years younger.
Phil is based in Waterford, so they don’t get to train much together. Phil’s national record is 11.28, Joan’s PB is 11.57 which they both ran nearly five years ago.
“It’s actually me that goes to Phil, rather than the other way around, if I need advice on something, it’s probably because she’s been so successful. She’s still the Irish record-holder for the 100m which I’ve got my eye on.”
It’s not just her sister’s performances but the general rise of Irish sprinters that’s lifting.
“For so long, 7.30 was the Irish record for the 60m. Then Molly (Scott) and Rhasidat (Adeleke) came out and each week they were trading 7.20, 7.19. It’s seeing that these things are achievable and extend the focus even more – it’s no longer now that we can just do 7.30. My focus is definitely making it into the low 7.2s and chipping away at that for the next year.”
The Healy sisters will both be at the European Indoors this week, although Phil had to pull out of the individual 400m – she came fourth in the 2021 final – and will concentrate on the 4x400m relay. It will be Joan’s second experience of the European Indoors when she competes in the 60m heats on Friday morning.
“I would really love to make a European semi-final but, to be honest, if I can come away with another PB I will be very happy, considering that we haven’t really targeted these championships. Just knowing my speed is there – and I know my 100m is going to be really strong.”
Turns out that missing out on the Tokyo Olympics has created many more targets for Healy to aim for.