By any standards, 2025 has been a memorable and life-changing breakthrough year for multi-event athlete Kate O’Connor.
The 25-year-old has been one of the success stories of Irish and Northern Irish sport over the past 12 months, her outstanding performances in track and field culminating in a remarkable silver medal in the heptathlon at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in September.
The Newry native, who is based in Dundalk, also picked up a pentathlon silver medal at the World Indoor Championships in China, bronze in the same event at the European Indoors and became World University Games champion.
During a stellar year which saw her move dramatically up the world rankings and into second place, she also obliterated the Irish heptathlon and pentathlon national records and achieved a series of personal bests across the individual disciplines in which she competes.
“It’s been insane. It’s hard to put into words how different my life is now. It’s very busy, but it was one of the most enjoyable times ever,” reflected O’Connor in an interview with BBC Sport NI’s Thomas Kane.
“I could never have predicted this all to happen. I know I’ve always put in a lot of work, but this year was just a completely different level.
“To win one medal was insane. To win two was crazy. And then to win two more after that, I just could never have imagined that would happen.”
