#154 Sophie Becker - Irish Olympian, and 400m Track Athlete

Sleep Eat Perform Repeat

Today we spoke with Sophie Becker - Irish Olympian, and 400m Track Athlete.

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Sophie represented Team Ireland at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo in the mixed 4x400m relay event, along with Cillín Greene, Phil Healy, and Chris O’Donnell; she helped Team Ireland make history, with a 51.58 second split as Ireland’s relay team set a new National Record and a place in an Olympic final for the first time ever, finishing 8th.

She has certainly had a glittering start to her running career. Sophie competed in the women's 400m event at the 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships. She ran a PB in Belfast of 52:32 last year, which is 5th on the Irish all-time list...and was a part of the women’s 4x200m team that finished 2nd at the World Relay Championships in Poland in May 2021, in a national record of 1:35.93, finishing just behind the host nation.

Sophie, who has a degree in genetics and cell biology from DCU, born in Wexford, has firmly helped place her county on the map, along with their other famous sports star, the Irish rugby player Tadhg Furlong. We speak about what Wexford is also known for, her training schedule, and the intricacies of her routine. We explore the differences between racing indoors and outdoors, and which one she prefers. We unpack breathwork as prep, those final moments before a race starts, preserving the ego and grounding when fame comes, race splits...and feeling fast versus what the stop-watch reveals.

Key Timestamps

• 1. 35 - Starting athletics to cope with asthma
• 2. 52 - Late bloomer in athletics
• 3. 46 - Nature us Nature
• 5. 14 - Enjoyed the process of getting better
• 6. 15 - Butterflies and adrenaline
• 7. 06 - Having an empty mind in the blocks
• 7. 26 - Box breathing + visualisation
• 8. 17 - Constant desire to improve
• 9. 40 - Everyone is balancing something
• 12. 18 - Typical training week
• 12. 55 - Types of training - box jumps, stability + straight
• 13. 18 - Importance of S&C in athletics
• 15. 43- Being inspired + drive to achieve
• 17. 35 - Diverse warmup w priming the body
• 18. 51 - When you cross the Line + see the time
• 22. 42 - Not teaching everything - going by feel
• 23. 31 - Biomechanics + gait pattern
• 25. 02 - Setting future goals - World Championships
• 25. 42 - Ireland's rich talent at women's 400m
• 26. 48 - What is high performance?