Shane Healy
Personal information
NationalityIrish
Born (1968-10-05) 5 October 1968
Sport
SportMiddle-distance running
Event1500 metres

Shane Healy (born 5 October 1968) is an Irish middle-distance runner.[1][2] He competed in the men's 1500 metres at the 1996 Summer Olympics, where he reached the semi-finals.[3]

Biography

Healy was born in Dublin, and spent his early years in Goldenbridge Orphanage, after his mother left the family when he was four years old, and his father moved to Manchester.[4] In his late teens, Healy had moved to the United States, working as a waiter, before coming back to Ireland.[4] In the late 1980s, he had travelled to Gibraltar, finding work on a yacht to get money to travel back to North America.[4]

Healy was 22 years old when he took up running, to win a bet for fifty Dollars.[5] Healy eventually earned a place at Adams State University, in Alamosa, Colorado, where he began running.[4] By the mid 1990s, he had managed to run within one second of the Olympic qualification standard for the 1500m.[4] At a qualification event in Madrid, Healy ran a personal best time to gain a place on the Irish team for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.[4] In 1999, Healy initially retired from the sport, but would later make a comeback.[5]

In March 2019, Healy set a new world record for the 1500m indoors in the over 50s category.[6] The following month, he won a bronze medal at the Masters World Cross Country Championships in Poland.[6] In 2020, a documentary about Healy, titled Documentary on One: Shane Healy Back on Track, was aired on RTÉ Radio 1.[7]

References

  1. ↑ "Shane Healy". Olympedia. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  2. ↑ "The running life of Shane Healy, Ireland's most daring Olympian". The Irish Times. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  3. ↑ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Shane Healy Olympic Results". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "The Big Interview: Shane Healy - From an orphanage to greatest show on earth". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  5. 1 2 "Shane Healy: From Goldenbridge Orphanage to the Olympic Games — October 2011". Medium. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  6. 1 2 "Irish Olympian appeals for long lost mother to contact him so he can share world record win with them". Irish Mirror. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  7. ↑ "Documentary on One: Shane Healy Back on Track". RTE. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
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