Sara Treacy represented Ireland in the 3,000 metres steeplechase at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, reaching the final where she finished 17th in a time of 9:52.70.

Her route to the final was one of the most dramatic of the Games: during her qualifying heat she was caught up in a pile-up caused by another athlete, was knocked off the track, and finished outside the qualifying positions. Following an appeal by Irish team management, she was reinstated for the final along with two other affected athletes.

Treacy comes from a prominent Irish athletic family — both her parents, Liam and Siobhan, were international distance runners, with Siobhan having competed in three World Cross Country Championships. She attended The King’s Hospital school in Dublin before taking up a sports scholarship at the University of Birmingham, where she studied medicine and graduated in 2013. S

he later worked as a doctor at Alexandra Hospital in Redditch. She qualified for Rio 2016 at the Letterkenny AC International in 2015, and was part of an Irish trio – alongside Kerry O’Flaherty and Michelle Finn – that made the final of the 3,000 metres steeplechase at the 2016 European Championships, the first time Ireland had three athletes in any final at that championship.