Jessie Barr represented Ireland in the women’s 4×400 metres relay at the 2012 London Olympic Games.

From Dunmore East, Co. Waterford, Barr came from one of Irish athletics’ most celebrated families – she is the older sister of 400 metres hurdles Olympian Thomas Barr, the two sharing the same birthday, 24 July, three years apart.

Jessie was first of the two siblings to reach the Olympics, and Thomas has spoken warmly about how she paved the way for him. She attended the Ursuline Convent in Waterford and studied psychology as an undergraduate before completing a Masters in Sports Psychology at the University of the West of England and later a PhD at the University of Limerick. In 2012 alone she reached the final of the European Athletics Championships in Helsinki in the 400 metres hurdles – her first senior European final, aged 22 – and ran at the London Olympics with the relay team.

She won three successive Irish national 400 metres hurdles titles from 2011 to 2013 and remains the Irish Under-23 record holder in the event. A succession of injuries – an Achilles tendon strain, a calf tear, a stress fracture – prevented her from reaching Rio 2016, and she retired from athletics. She has since worked as a sports psychologist at Sport Ireland Institute, working with athletes at multiple major championships including Paris 2024, where her brother Thomas competed for the third time.