All of Ireland will be cheering on the Waterford native in the 400 metre hurdles final in Rio this afternoon.
The 24-year old delivered a sensational performance in Tuesday’s semi-final, winning his race and progressing to the final as the third fastest qualifier, ensuring, in his own words, that he’s not going “to be shafted” in lane one or two in the biggest race of his career.
His name has been on everyone’s lips since that magnificent display and ahead of the 400 metre hurdles final at 4pm on Thursday, here are seven things you might not know about Thomas Barr.
He topped his own personal best in the semi-final
Barr ran a remarkable time of 48.39 in the semi-final, smashing the personal best and Irish national record of 48.65 that he had previously set in a Diamond League event in Rome last year.
The achievement is even better when you consider that he’s been “riddled” with hip and groin injuries for most of the year.
Continue to improve at this rate and the world record will be under threat!
Hope that was worth staying up, I can't believe it! thank you all for the support I'm overwhelmed and smiling ear to ear. roll on Thurs!
— Thomas Barr (@TomBarr247) August 17, 2016
His Twitter bio is very much on point
Well played.
He’s well used to success
Having only turned 24, his best years could be well ahead of him, but Barr’s mantelpiece is already pretty weighed down as it is.
A four-time national champion and, as mentioned above, the 400 metre hurdles national record holder, he also won a gold medal at the World University Games in Gwangju, South Korea, last year.
As only the fourth Irish athlete to ever win gold at the games, he’s in pretty distinguished company alongside Ronnie Delany, Sonia O’Sullivan and Niall Bruton.
He nearly gave up athletics in college
That success nearly never came about because in his first year of college in the University of Limerick – and all the temptations that comes with it – Barr was tempted to give it up for good.
His parents, who will be cheering him on in Rio, convinced him to stick with it.
“It was as if I’d just told them I wanted to chop off an arm,” Barr told Irish Runner recently.
“They were like, no, you have so much potential, you’re only moving to college, just give it another year.
“Everyone else was going out four, five nights a week, getting hammered, which seems like great fun. I did have my fair share of that in the first few weeks, but I felt if I was going to be doing athletics I couldn’t be doing all that.
“In retrospect, I don’t miss a single thing. I’m so glad I didn’t give up back then.”
He’s not the only Olympian in the family
Thomas’ older sister Jessie Barr competed in the 4×400 metre replay in the London Olympics. She’ll be nervously watching him compete in the final from the RTÉ studio, where she’ll be providing (completely impartial we’re sure) analysis on her lil’ bro.
They know their stuff about him in New Zealand
Understandably elated following his performance on Tuesday night, Thomas still had time to compliment Andrew Mulligan, a reporter from Sport NZ, who had obviously done his research on Barr before the race.
“Jeez, you know a lot of my story. I’m impressed, I’m impressed.”
This is great…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=58&v=LxCdH7y15_Q
Clip via The Top Story
When it’s all over, Tom will have a Jägerbomb
Or some wine (if it’s free)…
