There is a sweet juxtaposition in tracking down Martina McCarthy to Font Romeu. Things have clearly changed in the 25 years since she became Ireland’s youngest Olympian.
Back then, McCarthy was among the new breed of Irish sprinters. Part of the women’s 4x400m relay that made history in qualifying for Sydney in 2000, she was only 18 when first experiencing the Olympic arena, weeks after getting her Leaving Cert results at home in Oranmore in Galway.
That same year McCarthy made the final of the 400m at the World Under-20 Championships in Santiago, Chile. Another first for Irish women’s sprinting. Slowly, then suddenly, her sprinting career went south.
“I’ll never forget the noise of walking out into the stadium in Sydney,” she says. “The sheer number of people, the sheer magnitude, you’re like ‘f**k’, this is the Olympics. I never made it back again as an athlete, but I’d wanted that moment since I was six or seven; I know what it’s like for other athletes who want to chase that dream.
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“I came back from Sydney incredibly motivated, wanting to do more, wanting to win a medal. But that’s not how you train. Input is not always output in athletics. You need be a whole lot smarter than that.
“So I just picked up a litany of injuries. I think I was talented, I obviously didn’t maximise it. I know what it’s like to have the desire, and also to have the frustration when it doesn’t work out.”
Even before injury cut short her career, McCarthy was turning that frustration into something constructive. Firstly, by offering coaching advice to other athletes to help them avoid the mistakes she made. Secondly, by studying the science of sport, which ultimately resulted in her current role as senior strength and conditioning (S&C) coach at the Sport Ireland Institute in Abbotstown.
Which is why McCarthy is in Font Romeu this week, the popular altitude training spot in the French Pyrenees, working with the Athletics Ireland endurance squad. Until recently, most distance runners had little time for S&C. Not with miles to run and other promises to keep. The understanding now is that they’d be foolish to ignore it.
So while McCarthy has already built the absolute trust of Irish sprinters such as Rhasidat Adeleke, Sharlene Mawdsley and Phil Healy, her work these days is as much with middle- and long-distance runners. Cian McPhillips is her latest Exhibit A.
Before last month’s World Championships in Tokyo, no one outside of Irish athletics knew of McPhillips. Behind the doors of the Sport Ireland Institute, McCarthy was developing his speed, strength and endurance, along with his coach Joe Ryan. When McPhillips came out in Tokyo and twice broke the Irish record, running that blistering 1:42.15 to finish fourth in the 800m final, no one was less surprised than McCarthy.
“We would have sat down at the start of the year and asked, ‘what does it take to be a 1:42, 1:43 runner?’ From a speed point of view, you have to be able to run over 10m per second. With Cian there was also more targeted lifting, improving his ability to generate force, which we knew would transfer to his speed. He’s also got significantly aerobically fitter over the last year.
“There’s a huge amount of data that goes into that. To generate the force required, run at the speed required, co-ordinate the movement. All of that is science and an art, just like coaching is.
“For someone like Cian, who loves numbers, it’s a dream for him, his brain just feeds off that information. Some athletes are very analytical like that, and others don’t want to see any numbers. They want to talk about the feel, the posture.
“Each athlete has different qualities, so it’s definitely not a one-size-fits-all. We have to delve into their needs and demands for their event, work closely with the coach on that, to build a programme. So it’s not just the lifting, it’s the whole science and art behind what it takes to perform at the highest level.”
McCarthy has had plenty of other learning experiences along the way. She still competed on and off into her early 20s, before committing to the deeper understanding of what exactly goes into the making of a world-class athlete. The connection with her own athletics past is vital.
“I spent more time on the side of the track, injured, watching other athletes train. Looking at their movements, or helping them with drills. And that’s when I became interested in how athletes move, how they move well, what happens when you get injured, and how do you get stronger.
“People would also look at me for advice: ‘What did you think of that run?’ That’s how I ended up coaching. My advice started to work, then I got more interested. I needed to understand the science. We’d go on training camps to South Africa, but I’d just sit on the track, or in the gym, watching how athletes from other countries trained, what they were doing. I became very curious about performance, how all the different aspects interact.
“So all that helps when dealing with world-class athletes trying to deliver on their potential. Because I never delivered on my potential. Not even close. That frustrated me for a while, but you have to park all that when you get into coaching. My only desire now is to facilitate world-class performances. That’s what drives me.”
The Sport Ireland Institute first came into being in 2010, expanding into its existing phase in 2016, catering for all elite-level athletes. McCarthy has also worked across different sports, from triathlon to modern pentathlon, and in 2012 dived straight back into the competitive side of things.
The IRFU had started a campaign to entice more women into rugby Sevens, and it perked something in McCarthy: “I’d a bet with someone I would break all their fitness metrics records. They had an age limit, I think it was 28, and I was 29, 30 at the time. I ended up doing well, got a Sevens contract for a couple of years. Played in Hong Kong, Dubai, it was a phenomenal experience, to be in a team environment again, and be at the receiving end of coaching. All that helped refine my approach.”
Then she broke her collarbone, another injury which permanently shifted her focus back into coaching. She points out that S&C is constantly evolving, that athletes will always develop at a different pace, and no trajectory will always be smooth or linear. Adeleke could be Exhibit B.
“I remember when she first came to me at the Institute, at age 15, and if you had to carve out the perfect athlete, you’d have picked her as the model. She’s progressed every year, going to America at 19, and it’s very hard for any athlete to keep improving like that, without having some setback along the way, like she had this year.
“Athletes are so dedicated, they will run through a brick wall. But you want to make sure it’s the right wall. I think what we try to do now is solve the problems for other athletes that we couldn’t solve for ourselves. Because I just didn’t know enough about training back then, and maybe the medical system wasn’t in place, or the knowledge of S&C to mitigate against injury.
“Now I look at it from multiple perspectives – the athlete, the coach, the performance director. For years, the coach just looked after everything. And some coaches still do that. But S&C has become such a specialised area, especially at the top level, you do need that dedicated person involved.
“Some people still think it’s just gym coaching, bring them in for bench press, biceps, all of that. It’s so much more. It’s about understanding the demands of the sport, how to best execute it, and then working out a programme to help build those qualities within an athlete.
“In terms of speed, I definitely believe every athlete can get faster. But running done well is an incredibly skilful sport. People forget that. The athlete has to generate huge forces, tolerate huge forces. Hitting the ground at four-to-five times their body weight.
“We also have a lot more research and data now and what is required to be strong, to be fast. We’ve a lot more we can measure, but a lot of it still comes down to common sense, knowing when to apply things.
“The brilliant thing about the Institute is all the coaches are under the same roof. We’re all colleagues, discuss different sports, what are common themes. And we have to know our stuff. If these athletes want to be the best in the world, we have to be the best in the world to match that.”
It’s the sort of coaching model, McCarthy says, which is also working perfectly for Kate O’Connor, and the team O’Connor has built around herself. If seeing an Irish athlete make the heptathlon podium at the World Championships seemed unlikely before this year, it only reassured McCarthy’s belief in what is possible for Irish athletics, including say an Irish man breaking 10 seconds for the 100m.
“It’s not that there’s no limits, but we have the expertise now so that if a talent comes through the door, we can help maximise that potential.
“I had such ambition, but it didn’t work for me. Now when I see that ambition in another athlete, I know how important it is for them, I want every bit of advice I give to them to be worthwhile, impactful, actually make a difference.
“That environment brings out the best in me, and I’ve to constantly evolve to match the talent that’s coming through the door. I’m still so hungry to learn more. I want to work with a World medallist, an Olympic medallist, and a world record holder. That’s been my aim since I started coaching.”
