John McAdorey competed in the men’s 4×100 metres relay at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, where the Irish team set a new national record of 39.26 seconds in the heats – a record that stood for almost two decades.

From Ballymena, Co. Antrim, McAdorey had been a schoolboy star in Ulster athletics, winning Irish under-23 titles at both the 100 metres and 200 metres and the senior indoor 60 metres title, before drifting away from the sport. He was drawn back to competitive athletics at Ballymena Athletics Club under the guidance of the legendary Maeve Kyle – herself a three-time Olympian and a pioneering figure in Irish women’s athletics – and made sufficient progress in 2000 to be selected for the provisional Irish relay squad.

His place was sealed by a wind-assisted time of 10.28 seconds two weeks before the Games. After Sydney he won the Irish national titles at the indoor 60 metres and outdoor 100 metres in 2001.

He was later diagnosed with cancer and passed away at the age of 45 in 2019.