My Greatest Race, Ciara Mageean’s new memoir, is a compelling account of one of Ireland’s greatest athletics heroes. It offers a revealing look at the personality and determination of the woman who has given Ireland some of its most memorable moments on the track in recent years.
But I found myself wishing it had been a shorter book.
Not because it lingers too long on her achievements, but because those stories are overshadowed by tragedy: Mageean’s diagnosis with stage 4 bowel cancer in 2025 at the age of 33, and the grueling rounds of chemotherapy that have followed.
Like so many people in Ireland, I wish those chapters had never become part of her story. I wish those pages could simply be erased, and that Ciara had been spared this ordeal—or better yet, had never faced it at all.
I also wish she had been given the chance to represent Ireland for a fourth time at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, adding new achievements to an already extraordinary career.
My own wishful thinking aside, My Greatest Race is a remarkable book.
Throughout it, Mageean conveys a relentless hopefulness in the face of her diagnosis and treatment. But she never glosses over the harsh realities of living with stage 4 cancer. She writes candidly about the crushing fatigue, the nausea and vomiting, the knowledge that she will never have children, and the prospect of a life cut far shorter than she ever imagined.
Descriptions of this chapter of Mageean’s life are interwoven with the story of her athletics career, which, under different circumstances, would have made a fascinating book in its own right.
Her upbringing in Portaferry, Northern Ireland, and her love of camogie emerge as defining influences. Equally striking is the warmth and support of her extended family as she navigated a teenage life consumed by sport.
Mageean enjoyed extraordinary success as a junior athlete, winning four World and European medals—one gold and three silver. Yet her career was almost derailed by a devastating Achilles injury sustained while living in Dublin, just as she was making the transition to senior competition.
One of the book’s most compelling sections recounts how coach Jerry Kiernan patiently guided her back to health when others might have assumed her running career was over.
His belief in her laid the foundation for a remarkable resurgence, culminating in her bronze medal in the 1500 metres at the 2016 European Championships in Amsterdam.
That race holds special memories for me because I witnessed it in person as part of the Irish team. Mageean recalls how “a bunch of lads from Kilkenny AC were spotted cycling around the canals later that night, bellowing out, ‘We all dream of a team of Ciara Mageeans’ to the tune of Yellow Submarine.” It perfectly captures the joy and pride she inspired among Irish supporters.
The book also chronicles Mageean’s move in 2017 to Steve Vernon’s New Balance training group in Manchester, showing how the team culture helped elevate her performances. Athletics enthusiasts might have welcomed more detail about how her training evolved during this period, but readers still gain a sense of the demands of life as a professional athlete and the increasingly scientific approach required to compete at the highest level.
In a chapter titled Medals at Last, Mageean takes readers inside her silver-medal performances over 1500 metres at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and European Championships.
Particularly revealing are her reflections on learning to manage her nerves and channel her emotions into peak performances.
Those medals resonated well beyond athletics. In December 2022, when I was invited to deliver a special Advent Thought for the Day on BBC Radio Ulster on the theme of hope, I based my reflection—titled Hope is a Habit—on Mageean’s long journey to those long-awaited podium finishes.
By then, Mageean was being coached by Helen Clitheroe, who had taken over the Manchester group after Vernon joined UK Athletics. My Greatest Race offers a candid account of their relationship, which began warmly but ultimately deteriorated, even as Mageean approached the greatest achievement of her career.
At the time of writing, Mageean remains the reigning European 1500-metre champion, having claimed gold in Rome in 2024.
Images of that victory adorn the inside covers of the book and will surely remain etched in the memories of Irish athletics fans for years to come.
In her post-race interview, Mageean paid tribute to the grassroots coaches and volunteers who “stand in the rain” beside tracks and pitches on dark Irish evenings, nurturing the next generation of athletes. As a junior coach myself, I remember hearing those words. They were, in many ways, every bit as meaningful as the gold medal itself.
Throughout the book, Mageean also reflects on her complex relationship with Catholicism, alongside a deep belief in something beyond herself and the possibility of miracles. She writes movingly about the unwavering support of her family, her fiancée Tommy Moran, and the wider athletics community. When I began reading, I thought this was a story of triumph and tragedy. By the final page, I had come to see it as something more: a love story.
My Greatest Race, by Ciara Mageean and Clíona Foley, is published by Gill Books, 2026.
Fantastic review.