SPORTSFILE
After all of this, she will have her final exams to negotiate in because I didn’t really want to go to the US,” she explains.
November. At UCD, she received the support she initially required to
Hardly ideal preparation, one would imagine, for the enable her to make the step up to the elite level. Cuddihy
Olympics in August and for an athlete with ambitions to create mentions in particular Lisa Regan, the director of High
history. Cuddihy, though, is no ordinary person, and certainly no Performance and Elite Sport, as providing vital guidance on her
ordinary athlete. journey thus far. “Through Lisa I had my first exposure to full-
Having broken the Irish record and reached the ‘A’ time training and full-time weights,” she recalls. “I was very
qualification standard in one fell swoop last year in a heat of the happy with the coaching I got in Kilkenny but at UCD, I was
World Championships in Osaka – her 50.73-second run lucky that my first experience of using weights was under the
represents the first time an Irishwoman has run below 51 supervision of an Olympic weightlifter.
seconds at the distance – she could well be the best hope for an “I have also received the best in terms of professional advice
Irishwoman to reach an Olympic track final. and great help from training partners in Dublin. On top of that
“Obviously I hope to go out there and do the best I can,” says we went to a training camp in Ottawa in Canada on three
the Kilkenny native. “With the full-time training, I’ve noticed occasions. Yet again, we were exposed to other professional
the difference, and with going back to Loughborough athletes, and it just brings things up a little.”
[University, Leicestershire] to train full-time in the summer, at She realised that to fulfil her potential, she had to move into
least I know I will have done everything I could. If all goes to a more professional environment for a while. Before her first
plan, and touch wood it will, I’ll be running a PB [personal best]. stint as a student doctor in September, she joined the athletics
It’s all about peaking at the right time.” community at Loughborough University in Leicester and was
Last summer was a struggle: the vagaries of the Irish weather two-time European 200m indoors champion David Gillick’s
didn’t aid her efforts to run fast times. “It was diabolical,” she training partner. It had tangible benefits and that’s why she will
smiles. “I even had to wear gloves in some races, but that’s the be returning to Loughborough before heading off to Beijing.
Irish summer for you.” But, in terms of planning, this “It’s brilliant over there,” she remarks. “The facilities are
preparation was a complete necessity. If she hadn’t reached the excellent, that’s blatantly obvious. But I also had the company of
‘A’ standard, Cuddihy would have to gear up for one last other professional sportspeople and that’s something that is
attempt at it in the coming months, a prospect that would be far very underestimated. I went to Loughborough not because I
from ideal, given her current medical duties. wasn’t receiving the support I needed in UCD. I went to be in
So the Olympic final could be within her capabilities? that professional athlete environment. UCD even has a high-
“Hopefully,” she replies cautiously – and understandably, given performance gym in construction. It has just come a little too
she didn’t make the World Championships final. “It depends also late for my needs, but it is going to be a brilliant addition for
on how the others run. I could run a world record and if eight athletes.”
girls run faster, I won’t make the final. But if I can run in the way For now, Cuddihy is maintaining a juggling act. The life of a
I think I can run, hopefully I will.” student doctor can be difficult but she is learning to balance
Cuddihy looks back and marvels at how far she has come from that with her training. For example, she made the decision to
the raw teenager who put down Medicine as her first choice on spread her final year over two years, with the support of the
the CAO form but didn’t really believe it was going to be her university. “It just became really time-consuming and really
pathway to a career. Despite being one of the best athletics difficult,” she reveals. “So I decided to change things last March.
prospects in the country, she hadn’t even applied for a UCD “It basically means I have to do my hospital work now, so that
sports scholarship as she contemplated life after Loreto I will be able to start as a doctor the day after the Olympics. If I
Kilkenny. didn’t then I would have put myself in more difficulty because
“I didn’t think I’d get the points,” she laughs. “I was so the course is actually changing. The modules will be different. So
disorganised, I didn’t even apply for the scholarship. I would that’s important to me and to be honest, I would prefer to be
have done so once I had actually started in UCD but I think I was doing the work than doing nothing. I would just be bored doing
very lucky that UCD was alerted to me coming in and it was nothing. And anyway, I expect it will be a low year athletics-wise
sorted out.” after the Olympics.”
Before surprising herself by obtaining the points required, she Given the year she is about to have, that sounds like just what
was considering a move to the US to further her academic and the doctor would order.
sports ambitions. In fact, she was initially on her way having been
accepted by Harvard. However, as an Ivy League college, they Michael Scully (BA Hons ‘95) is the Chief Sports Writer with the
could provide financial aid but not the full sports scholarship Irish Daily Mirror. He has a Higher Diploma in Journalism from
package that UCD offered. “I’m happy with how it worked out DIT Aungier Street.
UCD CONNECTIONS PAGE FIFTY ONE
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