Olympic marathon runner Sinead Diver’s ‘unique’ story: From running for fitness to Tokyo Games

“My story is de facto distinctive,” Sinead Diver stated.

She received that proper.

From being discouraged from sport as a schoolgirl in rural west Eire to being snubbed for consultant honours by the land of her start, Diver’s journey to working for Australia on the Tokyo Olympics was removed from commonplace.

And that’s earlier than you take into account she has solely been working for little over a decade.

After getting an invitation to a race round Melbourne’s famed Tan monitor in 2010 — one thing the then-33-year-old admitted she did “fairly shortly for somebody with none coaching” — Diver by no means seemed again.

Diver went from working a few instances per week for health, both aspect of getting pregnant, to difficult stereotypes round age by finishing tenth at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic marathon in Sapporo — the very best efficiency by an Australian lady since 1988.

Nuns ‘weren’t huge into women taking part in sport’ 

In an period the place expertise is rigorously cultivated from a younger age by means of rigorously chosen high-performance programmes, Diver’s story provides one thing fully completely different.

In any case, the place she went to highschool — within the small, west Irish village of Belmullet — woman’s sport was discouraged.

“We weren’t actually allowed to play sport that a lot,” Diver advised the ABC.

“I went to a conservative secondary faculty that was run by nuns and so they weren’t huge into women taking part in sports activities.”

Sinead Diver runs alone in the rain
Sinead Diver got here to working late, however made up for misplaced time by hovering to the highest of the Australian ranks.(Getty: John Sibley/PA Photos

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