Ciara McGeehan

Do you know what?

It's something that I felt throughout my career.

I honestly feel like I had some really tough times obviously getting injured and no matter what, I felt like that the Irish nation was there for me.

And, you know, I felt like they were willing me on.

Like I'd say the relief I felt that I'd won gold was and the ecstasy was shared all around the island of Ireland because...

I can't cope.

So I think all of us probably felt the same, the same complete wave of happiness.

Because I'm like, I think that thing, not that I deserved it more than anybody else, but I had had so many lows and come back and it was...

You know, I didn't make it look blooming easy to get up to where I was at in my career.

And from having the talent that I had, I was like, okay, I want to just fulfill this talent that I've got.

And I felt like every step of that journey, right from my underage career to...

to the moment I've withdrawn from Paris, that last experience in our sport, people have been there for me and the messages that came through then.

And this journey's been, do you know what?

I was going to say no different, but it has been different because it's been even more.

And it's been people who have not followed sport ever

You know, people who are like, I didn't really know your athletic career, but I'm so sorry you're going through this.

And it's certainly like, I don't get emotional hugely talking about my journey, but whenever I read the comments that people send, that's something that really touches me.

And

I had a message from a friend, Jamie, who had seen a post on LinkedIn of a woman who said she listened to my interview and her family are going through a similar experience.

And she said that me verbalising my experience and my journey nearly opened up an opportunity for them to cry.