Who is Sarah Lavin? Four things to know about the Olympic athlete ...
Young runner
Sarah Lavin, who was born in Limerick in 1994, started running at the age of seven. She raced against others in Emerald A.C. and in school, before going on to be coached by Noelle Morrissey. She went from juvenile competitions in Limerick and Munster to the European and World Stage.
Craig Breen
The late Craig BreenLavin’s boyfriend Craig Breen, a huge name in the World Rally Championship, tragically died last year. In April 2023, Breen sustained fatal injuries in a freak accident during a testing session ahead of a rally event in Croatia.
“My heart is broken. It will be for quite a while, if not always,” she told the Irish Examiner last year.
“Every day has a kind of sadness. But Craig was an incredibly happy person and his smile was so infectious. I try my best, when I can, to live how he taught us to.” When the Limerick athlete won bronze at the European Games just two months after Breen’s death, she said tearfully: “Someone very special up there is helping me.”
Flagbearer
Shane Lowry and Sarah Lavin with the Irish flag after they were revealed as the Team Ireland flagbearers. Picture: Sam Barnes/SportsfileAnyone watching the Paris Olympics opening ceremony will have spotted Lavin with a tricolour. She was chosen, along with Shane Lowrey, to be a flagbearer for Team Ireland.
“It’s surreal to be honest with you. It is the greatest honour I have ever been given and I would even go so far as to say, probably any Olympic athlete ever could be given, to carry the country’s flag,” she said at the time.
“I’m so grateful to those who’ve trusted me and put me in this position, I’m deeply touched and just excited to get out there.”
Smashing records
Sarah Lavin. Picture: Sam Barnes/SportsfileOfficially Ireland’s fastest woman, Lavin holds the current Irish 100m record with her personal best being 12.62 seconds. she also ran the 60m hurdles in 7.90.
The previous record of 11.28 was set by Phil Healy in 2018 and broken by Lavin last September.
“No better and more deserving person to take this record on the back of her national 100m record and the most incredible season both indoor and outdoor,” Healy wrote on X/Twitter at the time.
