Kate O’Connor opens up about her incredible 2025 on the latest episode of Sport NI Athlete Stories.
The Newry born competitor won four medals in an astonishing year which saw her win gold at the World University Games (heptathlon), silver at the World Athletics Championships (heptathlon), silver at the World Indoor Championships (pentathlon) and bronze at the European Indoor Championships (pentathlon).
Kate shares in depth with our host Hugh Campbell about her influences, mindset, approach, family and more.
The Sport NI Sports Institute athlete speaks on the mindset gained over the years where she felt after the Paris 2024 Olympics, the approach to training had to change so that the goal was not to compete on the elite stage, but to win medals.
She said: “Now that I’ve won medals, I don’t want that to stop. I don’t want that to go away.
“After the Olympics, I turned this corner. That was a lifelong dream. I enjoyed every second, but I left with this sense of you deserve and are capable of more than what you did there.
“I decided that I was going to make changes, stick to them and give one hundred percent, and I won my first medal. When I did that, I had this realization of, you used to win medals as a kid and you wouldn’t let yourself away with not winning a medal. So why have you been doing that for the last however many years?
“I think since then, I go into competitions and I’ve expected myself to win a medal and I’m not saying that’s always going to happen. They’re very difficult to win. But I train now to win medals. I don’t train just to train. I’m training because I know that I’m capable and good enough to win.”
Kate takes us on a journey through all four medals starting with the European Indoor Championships with access all areas thoughts such as having to throw tactics out of the window to run an 800m PB and claim the bronze medal which kickstarted the year.
She explained: “The long jump competition ended, and I had this wave of sadness because the results came up and I was sitting in fourth. Any other year I would have been in the medals, and I was just still trailing.
“I came out and saw my Dad and Tom (Reynolds) in the waiting area, and I just looked at them, and they could tell that I was about to cry. I’m a very emotional person.
“I was trailing two seconds behind the British girl (Jade O’Dowda) who I’ve trained with and I know that she’s a good 800m runner, and she’s beaten me in quite a few 800m races. I thought it was going to be an impossible task.”
After discussing tactics with her Dad and Tom, the plan was set. However, the race didn’t go to plan as laid out with Kate presented with a medal opportunity: “I decided to strike and just run as fast as I could, basically for the last lap.
“I crossed the line and I didn’t even think to check behind me at that point. I just crossed the line and collapsed onto the floor, and I just remember lying with my hands behind my head and looking up at the board and just waiting for the for the times. I knew it had to be two seconds and it felt like forever.
“Then it came up, the girl in fifth was maybe three seconds behind so I knew at that point that I had won the medal. I couldn’t believe that under all that pressure, I was able to find something in myself, to go out and be so ruthless. I’d never ran like that before.”
The podcast will be split into two episodes with the first part available on Wednesday 4 March and the second released on Wednesday 18 March.
Part Two will cover her most profile medal to date, the silver at the World Athletics Championships.
You can listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music as well as watch each episode on YouTube. To find the latest episodes just search for Sport NI Athlete Stories.
Clips from the podcast will also be available on YouTube as educational pieces for athletes.