Aoife Cooke represented Ireland in the women’s marathon at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Her route to the Olympics was one of the most remarkable in the Irish team. She took up athletics at 11, joining Ballincollig AC, and received a scholarship to Arkansas Tech University in the United States. Recurrent stress fractures forced her to return to Ireland, where she enrolled at University College Cork and later qualified as a PE teacher. She spent several years away from competitive running altogether before returning to the sport in 2015.

She entered the Cork Marathon that year running 3:15, largely untrained, and steadily improved over the following years. In October 2019 she won the women’s national title at the Dublin Marathon in a time of 2:32:34, cutting 14 minutes off her personal best. In April 2021 she won the Cheshire Elite Marathon in 2:28:36, becoming only the fifth Irish woman to break 2:30 and securing her Olympic qualification. The time placed her fourth on the all-time Irish list.

At the Tokyo Olympics, Cooke faced challenging hot and humid conditions and did not finish the marathon.