Caitríona Jennings represented Ireland in the women’s marathon at the 2012 London Olympic Games, competing despite carrying a stress fracture sustained in the build-up to the event that severely hampered her performance.

From Letterkenny, Co. Donegal, she attended Loreto Convent Secondary School before studying Law and Accountancy at the University of Limerick and working as a tax advisor with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Dublin.

She comes from a remarkable sporting family – her sister is Sinéad Lynch (née Jennings), who represented Ireland in the lightweight double sculls at the Rio 2016 Olympics. Jennings was a multi-sport talent from childhood, representing Ireland at youth level as a triathlete and winning national titles in cycling and cross country running as a teenager. She qualified for London with a personal best of 2:36:17 at the Rotterdam Marathon in April 2012, coached throughout by Terry McConnon.

In the years since, she has become one of Ireland’s most distinguished ultra-distance runners, winning the IAU 50km European Championships in 2022, holding Irish records at 50km and 100km, finishing third at the Comrades Marathon in 2019, and in November 2025, aged 45, setting a world record for 100 miles at the Tunnel Hill event in Illinois, completing the distance in 12 hours, 37 minutes and four seconds on her debut at that distance.