Having made her debut on the track in Beijing, the Kilcoole AC veteran had top 25s in the marathon in Rio and Tokyo and was frustrated not to quite equal those finishes in Paris, where she made history nonethless
The 39-year-old became the first Irish woman to compete in five Olympic Games and finished in a hugely creditable 28th place in a time of 2:30.12 in what were very hot conditions, and on a punishing, uphill course.
"I feel like I never gave up but it wasn’t what I was hoping for. I would’ve preferred to have been more in the race rather than just surviving it. I would’ve liked to have been top 20. I was 20th in my first one in Rio. I’m not going to stop running, I don’t think I’ll ever do that. Never one for the spotlight, McCormack shrugged off her history-making feat after the race was won by Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands in a new Olympic Record time of 2:22:55 on the back of two bronze medals on the track already at these Games in the 5000m and 10,000m.
“Out there on the course it was unbelievable, the amount of people out there cheering for me, from Wicklow. The amount of people that knew my name, I know they’re Irish people out there because so many people can’t pronounce my name.
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