Who is she? The 31-year-old from Cork is Ireland’s foremost sprint hurdler, holding the national records for both the 60 and 100metres hurdles.
Road to London: This is actually O’Rourke’s third Olympic Games. She failed to make it past the heats in either Athens or Beijing, but those two failures mask what has been an outstanding career so far.
Gold in the World Indoor Championships in 2006 in Moscow is the obvious highlight, but she also has silver medals from both the 2006 and 2010 European Championships in Gothenburg and Barcelona respectively.
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(Manu Fernandez/AP/Press Association Images)
She had a disappointing 2011, finishing second in the heats for the World Championships before having to pull out through injury.
O’Rourke turned down the chance to compete in the European Championships in Helsinki to concentrate solely on London, along with high jumper Deirdre Ryan and distance runners Ciaran Ó Lionard and Alistair Cragg.
What she says about herself: “I’m probably the proudest so far of winning the world indoors, because on that day I was the best in the world and that’s an amazing thing to have done.”
Medal chances: At 31, it is now or never for the Leevale star and she will be hugely determined to make up for the disappointments of Athens and Beijing. There remains the feeling that injury problems have taken their toll, so a place in the final might be the best chance of glory for O’Rourke.
If you meet her in a bar, ask her about… the time she had to pay a tenner to train at a Dublin track, because she didn’t have a membership card.
On the Twitter: You won’t find her, but she does update her blog regularly enough.
London 2012: Introducing... Derval O'Rourke
Event: Hurdles.
Who is she? The 31-year-old from Cork is Ireland’s foremost sprint hurdler, holding the national records for both the 60 and 100metres hurdles.
Road to London: This is actually O’Rourke’s third Olympic Games. She failed to make it past the heats in either Athens or Beijing, but those two failures mask what has been an outstanding career so far.
Gold in the World Indoor Championships in 2006 in Moscow is the obvious highlight, but she also has silver medals from both the 2006 and 2010 European Championships in Gothenburg and Barcelona respectively.
(Manu Fernandez/AP/Press Association Images)
She had a disappointing 2011, finishing second in the heats for the World Championships before having to pull out through injury.
O’Rourke turned down the chance to compete in the European Championships in Helsinki to concentrate solely on London, along with high jumper Deirdre Ryan and distance runners Ciaran Ó Lionard and Alistair Cragg.
What she says about herself: “I’m probably the proudest so far of winning the world indoors, because on that day I was the best in the world and that’s an amazing thing to have done.”
Medal chances: At 31, it is now or never for the Leevale star and she will be hugely determined to make up for the disappointments of Athens and Beijing. There remains the feeling that injury problems have taken their toll, so a place in the final might be the best chance of glory for O’Rourke.
If you meet her in a bar, ask her about… the time she had to pay a tenner to train at a Dublin track, because she didn’t have a membership card.
On the Twitter: You won’t find her, but she does update her blog regularly enough.
If she was a YouTube video, she’d be…
Read more of TheScore’s “London 2012: Introducing” series here >
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27 days to go Derval O'Rourke London 2012 London2012 Olympics the jimmies