Echo Sportswoman of the Year Phil Healy ready to power on again in 2025

It was a night of celebration of all that is good about women sports stars from Cork.

Their exploits, in Cork, nationally and internationally, were acknowledged at The Echo Women in Sport overall awards night. The 12 monthly winners all received presentations before one overall winner was picked.

The Ballineen bullet, Phil Healy, was named the overall winner for her exploits at the European Championships and Olympics.

Phil was part of the Irish team that won a silver relay medal at the European Championships, before coming fourth in the Olympic finals in the 4 X 400m event.

Reflecting on the Olympics and their magnificent achievement of reaching the final and their fourth finish, she said it was one of her and the team’s best runs ever.

“The Olympics final was the quickest split I’ve ever run in an arena, so, 100%, it was definitely my best performance,” said Phil, “I’ve been running relays since 2013 and specifically the four by four since 2018. So to come out and run your best performance on the day that you need it was definitely unbelievable for me.

“As a team, our aim was to run 3.21 and we ended up running 3.19/90, so that was massive for us. Prior to 2024, the national record was 3.26 and that was by the same four athletes and we ran that in Munich in 2022. So, collectively, all of us performed together; we all ran personal bests in that race.

“Coming that close to the medal was really bittersweet. We wanted to be in the top six; we did not think we would be that close to a medal. Countries have their best athletes on the last leg, so nothing is ever guaranteed.

“The Americans had a different four running the final compared to the qualification round, so you have to bear that in to play as well, the fresh legs and stuff coming in to the final.

“You also have to bear in mind it was the quickest time not to medal at an Olympic Games and it was a time quick enough to win a silver medal at all bar one Olympics, so that will tell you how fast a final it was.”

Reflecting on their win at the European Championships, Phil added: “It was just massive; it’s the stuff of dreams; it’s what we train for, it’s so, so special.

“It’s an unreal feeling to win a European Championship medal and the manner we did it in as well. It was a race and a night that we all will never forget; it was just special.

“This team has so much potential and, hopefully, we will go on and enjoy success in the future again.”

There was talk that Phil might be considering retiring, but that is not the case and she said it will be ‘full-on’ racing again this year.

“I didn’t know if I would continue on post-Paris, but I had people around me that were telling me you’ll know when you know.

“Coming fourth at the Olympic Games and getting silver at the European Championships during the summer had definitely given me that extra hunger to continue on,” Phil said..

BALANCE

“So for me in 2025, it’s still full-on racing and full-on training. I am balancing working full-time as a software engineer, at the same time, but I’ve been doing that since 2022, so it’s good to have the balance of both.

I know sport isn’t going to last forever, so it’s so important to have that to fall back on and I am very lucky to be able to work full time and to train full time as well.

“For me, 2025 is powering ahead; it’s a very exciting year.

“We have European Championships, we have world relays, we have World Championships, so it’s a very big, exciting year for the relay team again.”