Irish Daily Mirror

I TOOK SO LONG TO HEAL..

Phil felt like calling it quits

- BY MICHAEL SCULLY

COUNTDOWN TO PARIS

PHIL HEALY has roared back from the brink and has her sights set on the Paris Olympics.

Irish sprint star Healy, 29, had competed in major championsh­ips over 10 consecutiv­e years – even doubling up in the summer of 2019 after breaking her foot, her one major injury.

Even now, however, she’s not sure what triggered her to be diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Disease and, from “a dark place”, to seriously consider ending her career.

Through the years she had dealt with thyroid irregulari­ties that were always monitored and never high enough for her to go on medication.

Thinking back, she got Covid just before the World Indoors two years ago, just when she was flying on the track. Perhaps that’s what triggered the change. “Then post indoors everything just crashed and burned,” said Healy.

“My body was in a hole, it wasn’t responding to anything, everything became a struggle.

“Did Covid trigger something? Maybe, I’m not so sure. After the Olympics, I was very focused on not having the crash or not having the post-olympic blues.

“Did I push my body too much in that 2021 winter into 2022 indoor season, then crash and burn?

“I don’t know, but definitely something was triggered by something. It was from

March of 2022 right up until this indoor season that things had been wrong.”

It was a “rough”

18 month period.

The Bandon athlete added: “Mentally and physically I probably was burnt out.

“Did I contemplat­e retirement? 100 per cent. Many times.

“Purely because I’d got to an Olympics, got to a World Indoor final, been to World and European Championsh­ips, broken national records, achieved so much, and gone from the height of the sport, to my own standard, individual­ly, to the lows.

“That’s not being weak, that quitting was the easy answer.

“I had no answer as to why things weren’t going the way they should be.

“I didn’t know if I would ever get back to where I was, or better. So there were plenty of tears along the way during those months.

“But I had good people around me and I’m in a much better place now, mentally and physically.”

The hardest point came in last year’s national championsh­ips. She finished fourth in the 400m.

“Just an absolute disaster,” Healy reflected.

Now she is getting back to her best

JULY 26-AUGUST 11 and has learned to enjoy the small victories along the way.

She has raced at 200m and 400m already this season and will race in the 200m on Saturday in the indoor national championsh­ips, in a 400m next week in Connacht and is aiming to compete in the relay in the world indoor championsh­ips.

“It’s a massive season ahead, another Olympic year,” Healy said. “Tokyo was the Covid Olympics, this is totally different.

“We have European outdoors as well this summer. Exciting times ahead. I know I can go a lot quicker in 200 – well, that’s what I’m hoping anyway.

“I’m going in for everything again. Obviously this weekend it’s all about nationals – and that always brings out the best in everyone.

“For me it’s about being back happy, enjoying the sport and running fast again.”

 ?? ?? STEP BY STEP Phil Healy running in 400m heats at
the National Indoor Arena in Dublin yesterday
IT DIDN’T PHIL GOOD
Irish sprint star Phil Healy had her struggles when trying to race
last year
STEP BY STEP Phil Healy running in 400m heats at the National Indoor Arena in Dublin yesterday IT DIDN’T PHIL GOOD Irish sprint star Phil Healy had her struggles when trying to race last year

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