Day in the sun for Roisin McGettigan as she finally gets medal

She didn’t name any names, nor indeed could she, although Roisin McGettigan is pretty certain other Irish athletes have been denied a place on the medal podium by some of those who cheated their way there.

Because McGettigan never got to stand on the medal podium at the 2009 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Turin, after finishing a close fourth, in the 1,500 metres, behind Russia's gold medal winner Anna Alminova.

Only now, McGettigan at least finds herself with the bronze medal, presented to her over five years later, as part of the Athletics Ireland national awards lunch in Dublin.

Irregularities

McGettigan also knows she’s one of the lucky ones, as Alminova was only subsequently found to be doping. The IAAF announced back in June that the Russian athlete would be stripped of all performances, from February 2009 and handed a 30-month suspension due to irregularities in her biological passport.

That automatically promoted McGettigan into third, and the European Athletics Federation, recognising the increasing number of retrospective bans, made a replacement bronze medal available.

“It all feels a bit bizarre, really,” said McGettigan, “like I’m in some sort of time machine, going back to 2009. I will always miss that feeling of crossing the finish line and realising you’d won a medal. That’s not quite the same as getting it now.

“And I know a lot of the athletes I trained with never won medals, and people would say they needed to do more, even though they’d run faster than say Sonia O’Sullivan or Catherina McKiernan, but wouldn’t have had any of their accolades, because they’d come up against dirty athletes.

“And the amount of Russian and Turkish athletes being caught now shows that it was widespread. It was the times we were in unfortunately, but hopefully it is being cleared up now, and maybe we can see more medals being won by Irish athletes.”

Still, it's a case of better late than never for McGettigan, who flew into Dublin from her current home in Providence, Rhode Island, along with husband Myles Dumas and their two young daughters, specifically for her own personal medal ceremony. The Wicklow native, aged 34 and now retired, was presented with her bronze medal by Athletics Ireland president Ciarán Ó Catháin. She later spoke about the damage that doping does to sport, not just athletics.

Elated

“At the time, I really enjoyed the whole weekend in Turin,” she recalled. “I wasn’t expected to make the final and ended up a close fourth.

"So I was elated with the performance, really thrilled, but then Mary Cullen (3,000m) and Derval O'Rourke (60m hurdles) also got medals, after I just missed out, and I could see it was such a bigger deal to get a medal, for other people, like friends and family and the public. They always want to see the medal, the Irish flag being raised, and the popularity of the sport is often judged on medals.

“And I was also inspired by Irish athletes winning medals, watching them on TV, as a kid. And I was always disappointed I never got the chance to give something back like that, to bring on the next generation, during my career.

“So I definitely think lifetime bans are the way to go. If you’re a banker or doctor or in any career and you cheat like that, you won’t get back into that career. And why should it be any different for a sportsperson? Because athletes at elite level do treat it like a career, a job, and for people to come in and beat you by cheating, take your medals away, there should be a stronger deterrent, in that they never get back.

“It also leaves us clean athletes trying to pick up the pieces. Because many athletes who don’t win medals then think they’re not doing enough. That leads to over-training, or injury.”