Pauline Curley represented Ireland in the women’s marathon at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, finishing in a time of 2:47:16 aged 39 in the heat and humidity of Beijing – described at the time as the fairytale story of the Irish athletics team.

From Birr, Co. Offaly, and a member of Tullamore Harriers throughout her career, she became the first female athlete from Offaly to represent Ireland at an Olympic Games.

Her qualification was itself remarkable – she ran a personal best of 2:39:05 at the Rotterdam Marathon in April 2008, aged 38, to meet the Olympic A standard. Her athletics career had already spanned two decades, during which she was part of the legendary Irish women’s team that won bronze at the 1997 World Cross Country Championships in Turin, competing alongside Sonia O’Sullivan and Catherina McKiernan.

She won her first national marathon title in 2005 and became one of the most consistent marathon runners Ireland has produced, finishing on the podium at the Dublin Marathon eleven times. Her achievements did not diminish with age – she won the World Masters Marathon in Lahti, Finland in 2009, and in 2015 won the national marathon title aged 46, becoming the oldest Irish national athletics champion in the 143-year history of the championships.