Jimmy McDonald was one of Ireland’s finest Olympic race walkers, finishing 17th at the 1988 Seoul Games in a national record of 1:22:45 – almost five minutes faster than his personal best and nearly 30 seconds inside the existing Olympic record at the time – and going on to finish 6th at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, a superb improvement that established him as one of the best walkers in Irish Olympic history.

From New Ross, Co. Wexford, McDonald remained with the leading group for the first 10 kilometres in Seoul before losing touch and pushing himself to the limit, producing one of the fastest finishing splits of the race to claim 17th.

In Barcelona four years later he improved dramatically to 6th place in 1:25:16 – reflecting years of sustained development. On the same magical night in June 1992 at Kilkenny Castle when Perri Williams achieved the qualifying standard for Barcelona, McDonald also reached the required time, sharing a remarkable evening that sent both athletes to the Olympics together.