Marcus Lawler represented Ireland in the men’s 200 metres at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, finishing 6th in his heat and 29th overall in a time of 20.73 seconds – a season’s best, though short of the semi-final standard.

Lawler is from Carlow and comes from a sprinting family: his mother Patricia is a former international sprinter who has coached him for much of his career. He was schoolboy champion several times and finished fourth at the 2013 European Junior Championships, competing alongside Phil Healy and Sarah Lavin. He won a bronze medal in the 200 metres at the 2019 World University Games in Naples. He holds a personal best of 20.40 seconds, which placed him third on the Irish 200 metres all-time list at the time of the Games.

He qualified for Tokyo via his world ranking, finishing inside the top 56 in the 200 metres global rankings. He trained at the Institute of Technology Carlow, where he described the institutional support as key to his development.