Cork's Olive Loughnane to be inducted into the Athletics Ireland Hall of Fame at 20206 National Athletic awards
Olive Loughnane of Ireland with daughter Eimear and her gold medal for the Women's 20km Walk, from the 2009 IAAF World Championships in Berlin, that she was presented with retrospectively after previous gold medallist Olga Kaniskina of Russia was banned, during a victory ceremony on day one of the 23rd European Athletics Championships at the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Athletics Ireland is delighted to announce that 2009 World champion and four-time Olympian Olive Loughnane will be inducted into the Athletics Ireland Hall of Fame at the 2026 edition of the 123.ie National Athletics Awards, taking place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Santry, on Wednesday, November 25th.
One of Ireland's most accomplished race walkers, Loughnane enjoyed an outstanding international career spanning more than a decade, representing Ireland at four consecutive Olympic Games and six World Athletics Championships, with her crowning achievement coming at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin.
Born in Cork and raised in Carrabane, County Galway, Loughnane began her athletics journey with Loughrea AC before establishing herself among the world's leading race walkers.
She represented Ireland at the Olympic Games in Sydney (2000), Athens (2004), Beijing (2008) and London (2012), with her best Olympic performance coming in Beijing, where she finished seventh in the women's 20km race walk in a personal best of 1:27:45.
The crowning achievement of her career came at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin, where she produced a remarkable performance in the women’s 20km race walk, with her medal officially upgraded to gold in 2016, confirming her status as World Champion and cementing her place among Ireland’s greatest athletes.
Reflecting on the achievement back in 2016, Loughnane said: "A gold medal is the icing on the cake, I truly feel like I have it all now."
Over the course of her distinguished career, Loughnane represented Ireland on 25 occasions at senior international level, claimed 14 national championship titles and set an Irish senior 10km race walk record of 43:22, which remains unbeaten to this day.
Following her retirement from competitive athletics after the London 2012 Olympic Games, Loughnane continued to contribute to Irish sport through leadership and governance roles, including serving on the Sport Ireland High Performance Committee and the boards of Sport Ireland and Athletics Ireland.
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