In 1996, there was a female athlete from Ireland who captured the world's attention by coming out of nowhere and wining lots of medals at the Olympics.
This is not that athlete. (The Olympic medal-winning athlete has since been disgraced by a positive drug test, so we won't talk about that here.)
Suisan Smith - who got married in the late nineties and became Susan-Smith Walsh - trained and competed in the hurdles in the United States as a student of Brown University in Rhode Island. Se son distinguished herself as one of Brown's greatest female hurdlers and later show would be recognized as the greatest female hurdler ever to compete for Ireland. Alas, the latter distinction is irrelevant in international competition.
She competed in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta after having set Irish records in hurdles races at previous international track events, but she missed the final in the Olympic women's 400-meter hurdles event - however, she still set an Irish record. At the 1997 Athletics World Championships she made it to a sprint final - the first time an Irish athlete had ever done so at a major event.
Mrs. Smith-Walsh competed at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, but health issues prevented her from getting as far as she had gotten in Atlanta. She retired from track immediately after that, but Susan Smith-Walsh is still regarded as one of Ireland's great female athletes. She and her husband currently live in the United States.
Fun fact: Her blonde hair and all-around good looks earned her comparisons to Russia tennis player Anna Kournikova.
No comments:
Post a Comment