Sean Egan competed in the men’s hammer throw at the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games, finishing 16th with a best throw of 63.94 metres.

His path to Moscow was one of the most remarkable and professionally managed in the history of Irish athletics. Egan first became interested in hammer throwing as a young boy when he threw the hammer back to Terry Gent, a prominent schoolboy thrower at Newbridge College.

He joined the Irish Army in 1974 where he was encouraged by Pat Healy and national coach Frank O’Shea, and became a regular at Philip Conway’s Saturday morning throwing sessions at the UCD campus in Belfield. In 1978, at the national championships, he surpassed John Lawlor’s Irish record with a throw of 65.56m, and later that year – with army support – moved to the University of Darmstadt’s Institute of Sport where he was coached by Abrahardt Gaede.

In Germany he adopted the modern four-turn technique and undertook a heavy weightlifting programme. Cement-Roadstone provided £3,000 sponsorship spread over three years, an arrangement later assumed by the army. In the 15 months before Moscow, Egan set five new Irish hammer records, ending with 71.10m at Frankfurt on 1 May 1980.