To get from the media tribune inside the Stade de France down to the mixed zone in time to interview the athletes involves a quick dash from our seats overlooking the homestretch down to the mid-tier concourse.
After a couple of sharp turns, there is access via a long stairwell to the trackside. Eighty-nine steps down, and another 89 steps back up. Trust me, I’ve been down and up them enough times over the last eight days and nights. No world records being set here.
Once inside, the mixed zone is spread out behind a line of crash barriers and sectioned off into several sub-zones, with plenty of room to get up close and personal with the athletes. Every athlete who finishes their event is obliged to walk through, only not mandated to say anything if choose not to.
By all laws of Olympic averages, more athletes will fail than succeed, in their minds at least. Such is the nature of these things
Although not too far from the finish line, it’s long enough to give the athletes one last chance to gather their thoughts and emotions.
Invariably, the first question is: “So now tell us, how did that feel?”
By all laws of Olympic averages, more athletes will fail than succeed, in their minds at least. Such is the nature of these things. There will always be some reason for not succeeding, and the last thing most athletes want is to make it sound like any excuse for failing.
There have been plenty of reminders of that over the last eight days, and we’re not quite finished yet. In between some smiles and some tears, the emotions that do come out are often raw, and never less than heartfelt.
Especially from those athletes who get the sense Paris will be their last Olympics. Thomas Barr turned 32 two days before these Games began, and some tears indicated this would likely be his last season.
“I was getting a small bit emotional out there all right, because it’s settling in for me that’s definitely my last Olympics,” Barr said after running his part in the mixed relay heats last Friday week. “Maybe my last race, I’m not sure yet. I’ll take a step back and assess that, but I’ve enjoyed the road, definitely enjoyed the experience here again.”
A week on, Mark English indicated as much after he was unable to make it through his semi-final of the 800m on Friday morning. He’s 31 and once again put his medical career on hold to ensure he gave Paris his best shot. There can be no regrets about that now, not when he delivered his best Olympic performance in his first-round heat.
Talents like English don’t come around very often. A four-time European 800m medal winner, he twice improved his own Irish record again this summer, and may not be retiring just yet, but it’s unlikely he’ll continue for another four years to LA.
“I went for the win in the semi-final, but it just wasn’t my day, I couldn’t have given it anymore,” he said. “And there’s nothing I would change. I’m not sure I’ll be back at another one, but I’ve given it my best shot. I’ve given everything to the sport.”
Lavin turned 30 this year, not by any means ancient in sprint hurdling terms, another four-year cycle well within her reach. Still, there was an understanding that her days in the mixed zone are similarly numbered
That he unquestionably has, and when English does walk away, the Donegal athlete can take some comfort in the knowledge his Irish record of 1:44.53 might stand for a very long time.
When Sarah Lavin came through the mixed zone later on Friday, one of the first things she did was lift her right leg to reveal the fresh bruising under her knee, having clipped the eighth hurdle in her 100m hurdles semi-final, ending her dream of making the Olympic final.
Lavin turned 30 this year, not by any means ancient in sprint hurdling terms, another four-year cycle well within her reach. Still, there was an understanding that her days in the mixed zone are similarly numbered.
“We’re the ticking time bombs here as athletes,” she said. “Journalists can be journalists for as long as they like, coaches can be coaches, physios can be physios. But athletes are the ones with a time around their heads ... absolutely if my body stays healthy, I’ll 100 per cent will be out there racing.”
There is only one Irish athlete left in Paris that we haven’t spoken to yet, Fionnuala McCormack the last of the 133-strong Irish team across all sports yet to make her Olympic appearance
Lavin then delivered one of the best-mixed zone lines we heard all week.
“Of course, ultimately this is sport, and there’s components of this experience the last two weeks that have touched me and will stay with me more than a gold medal ever could. Because of the people you meet and the experiences and the feelings you have and the emotions you have.”
There is only one Irish athlete left in Paris that we haven’t spoken to yet, Fionnuala McCormack the last of the 133-strong Irish team across all sports yet to make her Olympic appearance here when she lines up for the start of the women’s marathon on Sunday morning (7am Irish time).
For the first time in Olympic history, the women’s marathon is also the last athletics event (the men race this morning), in part to recognise the historic women’s March on Versailles, in 1789, at the start of the French Revolution.
The marathon will follow that same route out to Versailles, then back to Les Invalides in Paris, and McCormack will also write her own piece of Irish Olympic history as the first woman in any sport to compete in five Games.
And not just that, she’s already competed in four different events, the 3,000m steeplechase in Beijing 2008, the 5,000m and 10,000m in London 2012, then the marathon in Rio 2016 and the delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021. To qualify for Paris, she ran 2:26:19 in Valencia last December, inside the required 2:26:50, just five months after giving birth to her third daughter.
McCormack turns 40 next month, and renowned for letting her running do all the talking, would happily slip through the mixed zone at the marathon finish. But then no Irish athlete in Paris has been on a longer Olympic journey than she has, now try to put a few words on that.
