World champion athlete Derval O’Rourke “Be Kind To Yourself- The World is Hard Enough”
There are probably very few sports stars who can look back on their career and boast an impressive five major championship medals in their cabinet – including a world championship gold – but former hurdler Derval O’Rourke can do that with pride, telling Connect that she walked away from the athletics track extremely happy with her lot. Now busier than ever running her hugely popular health and fitness website, www.derval.ie, the mum of two admits that there was no big master plan to pursue a career in athletics – it just happened organically when a former teacher suggested she join an athletics club because she was pretty fast!
“I grew up in an estate of 50 houses and it was ‘80s Ireland, so I was always outside on the green playing and just became quite a sporty kid,” she tells Connect. “I had a really great primary school teacher who told my parents they should put me into a running club because I was really fast, and they did that. To be honest, I just stuck with it as a kid and into my teens, but I never had a plan that when I grew up I was going be an athlete. I just loved to run. I loved the craic in the club and it was a really good social outlet, so I kept going. Then as I became older, I became more aware of the Olympics and stuff and that there were opportunities in it for girls.”
Derval received a sports scholarship to UCD after her Leaving Cert and says that was when her athletics career really started. For the next four years she was making senior championship teams and European and world teams, before making it to the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004.
“I’d love to say there was some big master plan but it was more a case of that I just loved it. I wasn’t an exceptional junior athlete. I was never the stand out person who people were saying would win medals, but I had really good coaches when I was 24 and it turned my career around. I went from someone who was making it onto teams to someone who could win major medals, which was massive for me.”
Interestingly, Derval admits that had she not been winning medals at that time, she wouldn’t have pursued a career in athletics. She had completed a Masters in Business and says if she hadn’t been as successful on the track as she was, she would have just ‘got a real job’
But as we all know, Derval did continue her athletics career – competing in three Olympic Games and winning five major championship medals, including a world title in 2006. Not surprisingly, this was certainly a career high.
“Winning the world championship in 2006 is definitely up there,” she says. “I have five major championship medals – one world and four European – so of course they are big highlights for me. But also, I’m really proud of my Irish records (60m & 100m). I took them from where they were to a really good level globally and that’s something I never set out to do,” she says. “Now, when I look on as a fan and a spectator, I get excited that one day an Irish girl will come along and break my records and I will know I’ve set a really high bar. Those records are a really good legacy for me and a really good target for other girls coming through.”
Asked about any regrets she may have from what was undoubtedly a blistering career, Derval has an inspiring attitude. Of course, there’s the elusive Olympic medal that every athlete dreams of – but it doesn’t weigh on her mind anymore.
“I walked away really happy. When I decided to retire, I had done more than I ever set out to do. I think I was good enough to win an Olympic medal, but for various reasons that didn’t happen. But, actually, I wouldn’t change the experience of not wining one because it made me a slightly better person and it made me look at myself and the world of athletics differently,” Derval reveals.
“I was really devastated not to win an Olympic medal in Beijing in 2008, but actually it put me on a pathway of being more of a fuller person. I went from being totally defined by how fast you run and the medals you win to thinking, ‘how fast you run is great, but it’s only a part of who you are as a person.’
“So, I came out of Beijing and went to cookery school,” she reveals. “I was looking at what else interested me and I started embracing the whole word of health and wellness from a place of curiosity and interest rather than a place of performance. So for me, what you want isn’t always not what you need. Yes, I really wanted an Olympic medal, but it’s not what I really needed in my life and where I am now.”
Knowing that retirement was looming, Derval was always conscious of developing new and exciting skills for the future, and says that every year she was concentrating on her athletics goals, she would also focus on something ‘off track’.
“So, while on track I wanted to break Irish records or win a medal, off track I would have a non-sports related goal. So I went from finishing my degree, to going to cookery school, to finishing my Masters. I also worked in a health and fitness centre for a couple of years, so I suppose it was just a goal of mine to get really good work experience. When I finished, I didn’t have an exact plan but felt I had enough experience to be able to do something different. I always wanted to make myself employable and grounded enough so that when the day came to hang up my spikes I could do something different and would have enough of a skillset to do that.”
Now Derval works fulltime on her website derval.ie, which she explained is an online platform which offers supports and advice to people through the areas of food, exercise and wellness. The website also features a new health and fitness shop stocking some of Ireland’s leading brands. The idea to set up her online business came about after writing two cookbooks and coaching some of her friends, when she recognised the popularity and reach of the online world.
“When I did the second book, people started sharing my recipes online and tweeting me and sending me Instagram pictures and I thought this was very interesting. I was also coaching two friends at the time and, like me, they were in their late 30s and had small kids, so anytime they couldn’t make a session, I would record videos and send them to them. Then I began to think about turning all this into a website so I started building it in 2015 – and then I built it badly twice – but finally launched it properly two and a half years ago.
The website, Derval explained, is broken down into food, fitness and mindfulness, with Derval working with a team who create the content.
“It’s a mix of on-demand stuff and live workouts, mindfulness and food demos and is really easy and simple to help make people feel a little bit better. The last 12 months has been a bit mad – we went from 3,500 members to nearly 9000, which is incredible. People, especially women, are really time poor, so this aims to help them work out at home and upskill in terms of their nutrition and wellbeing. I can’t do and be everything, so I work with people who are experts in their field and are passionate about what they do and to have them on my platform has been amazing.”
Asked about the biggest stumbling blocks people face in terms of reaching their goals, Derval says we are way too harsh on ourselves and associate health and fitness with restriction, which will never work.
“We get so caught up in the things that we’re not doing well and are so worried about that, we get in our own way,” she says. “People get upset that they’ve put on weight but I would always approach it from another angle – as in, what can you do to enhance your life as opposed to restricting your life? People often go on regimes of restriction which just sets them up to fail. Instead, add in something like mindfulness or 30 minutes of a strength class. But you have to remember that you’re not adding it in to torture yourself, you’re doing it to feel good. If we move the marker of how we measure our success it would be more helpful.
“Come at it with a different mindset. Be kind to yourself – the world is hard enough. Don’t put pressure on yourself to be the ideal weight or the ideal size because there is no ideal, really. Concentrate more on feeling good and on your general health and then it becomes more attainable and enjoyable. Also, your attitude around food is so important – food is there to nourish you, not as punishment or reward. I’ll happily have a glass of wine and never feel guilty about it, but I won’t drink 3 bottles of wine. It’s all about balance.”
Asked what advice she would give to anyone really wanting to turn their health and fitness around, Derval insists that ‘something is always better than nothing.’
“If your something is five minutes, then that’s fantastic and you’ve done something,” she insists.
She also suggests an ‘accountability buddy’ to help you achieve your gaols – which, even as a world champion athlete, she still relies on!
“Last night I went for a walk and a jog with my friend but I absolutely didn’t want to go,” Derval laughs. “I tried to cancel her and told my husband I wasn’t going because I was too tired and all I really wanted was a glass of wine. But he said I’d feel better for it and she told me I had to meet her, so I did. And that’s me – I’ve been to 3 Olympics.
“It’s also very important to do one thing at a time and not overwhelm yourself. We often try to do too much at the same time. So, sit down with pen and paper and write where you can find pockets of 30 minutes to prioritise yourself – whether that’s food, exercise or mindfulness. And be realistic – we all have limitations. Take time to plan before you try and do. You have to prioritise yourself. People, especially women, don’t prioritise themselves and they should!”
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