Athletics!
We have a great tradition of athletics in our school. Our heroin is Sonia O'Sullivan. She grew-up only 10 miles from our school!.
She first exploded onto the world scene in 1991, when she won the NCAA Indoor 3,000m and Cross Country titles, the World Student Games 3,000m, and set a world indoor record in the 5,000m.
The next year brought the Barcelona Olympics, where she was tipped as a possible medallist in the 3,000m. She led for much of the race before slipping out of the top three close to the finish, eventually finishing fourth.
.
She proved her greatness in 1994 and 95, when she utterly dominated the world of athletics. This period alone yielded World and European titles, nine Grand Prix wins, one World and one European record for 2,000m and 3,000m respectively, several year's-fastest times, and Track & Field News' nomination as 1995's Athlete of the Year. Sonia was at the pinnacle of her sport.

She started 1996 with a further stream of victories, including another year's fastest run in the 3000m at Nice. In this kind of form she was the natural favourite to take gold in Atlanta. Tragically for Sonia, an ill-fated bout of illness prevented her from performing at the exceptional level everyone had come to expect from her. Once again, her ambitions for Olympic success had been thwarted. It took Sonia time to come to terms with the way the gold had been so cruelly snatched away from her. During 1997, she took more titles at Edinburgh and Prefontaine, but didn't quite recover the invincible form of the previous three years.
But she wasn't finished by any means. During the 1998 season her astonishing will and determination propelled her back to greatness - just as it had in 1994. The world gaped as a rejuvenated Sonia blitzed the board, winning the European 5,000 and 10,000m titles in truly storming style. The 10,000 gold was particularly impressive as it was her first competitive attempt at the distance. That season she also took the World Cross Country 4k and 8k championships, the World Cup 5,000m, and several Grand Prix and other events. She finished the year as the number one 10,000m runner in the world. The girl from Cobh was back where she belonged - at the forefront of world athletics.