'Complicated dynamic' with dad as coach works - O'Connor

“It’s a really complicated dynamic, I don’t know how we make it work, but we do. He fits into all the different roles.”

Heptathlete Kate O’Connor has been coached by her father Michael from the age of 10.

He has been there through the highs and the lows of his daughter’s fledgling career to date, although the former have definitely outweighed the latter recently.

The 25-year-old truly announced herself on the world stage in 2025, winning four medals including gold at the World University Games, silver in both the World Indoor and Outdoor Championships and bronze in the European Indoor Championships.

Given it is all she has ever known and she has enjoyed so much success, O’Connor says that having her father as her coach “works so well for me” and shared an insight into the different hats he has to wear as he takes on the roles of her agent, coach and dad above all else.

“He’s the middle man that organises things and decides when I have days off to do sponsors stuff. I know he’s fully on my side and understands both sides of being an athlete; of earning a living and turning up to training. That’s really helpful,” she explained.

“When I’m actually competing, it’s athlete-coach unless something goes wrong like in Tokyo at the World Championships. I hurt my knee and those moments can be really tough when I’m really upset, I can see he is really upset for me too.

“When something is slightly derailing me he does his best to give me pep talks and I do believe him, but it’s difficult, you can see how much it means to him too and you can see it in real life, you’re not letting someone down but you can see someone willing you to do well.

“It’s class to have someone 100% in your corner and he sets the standard really high for the rest of the guys that work for me.”

‘Last year I maybe started to take the medals for granted’

After a stellar 2025, O’Connor claimed bronze at the World Indoors in March and said after the event in Poland that she was disappointed with the colour of medal, despite setting a new Irish record score of 4,839 points.

Reflecting now, the Newry-born athlete believes it was a good reality check as she prepares for a big summer with the Commonwealth Games and European Championships to come in quick succession.

“Last year I maybe started to take the medals for granted and this year going to World Indoors and winning the bronze, I went in to go and win and it was a check in my brain that these medals don’t come by that easy and you have to work really hard, so I’m not going to take anything for granted I know I have to turn up and show up to secure anything,” she explained.

Pressure on O’Connor to at least win a medal or even win the heptathlon in Glasgow has increased because of her recent performances.

While she admits she is not going to the Commonwealth Games “for the craic”, she is trying to cope with the expectation by simply focusing on what she can control.

“When you realise people are expecting me to win a medal and a whole heptathlon that can be a lot to deal with, so it’s about reeling it back in, making it about myself and my own performances is the best way for me to navigate the expectation and pressure and make it easier to deal with.

“I’m not expecting myself to do anything new or special. I’m going to Glasgow to put out a big score and if I do that I don’t think anyone will be able to challenge that, but I have to go over and do that. I’m not turning up to championships to come second and third, I want to be top.”

‘I would love to be the older sister’

Glasgow will be O’Connor’s third Commonwealth Games after she finished eighth in the Gold Coast in 2018 and claimed silver in Birmingham in 2022.

Given she will now be one of the more experienced members of the 65-strong Team NI heading over to Scotland, O’Connor would like to give back to youngsters competing in their first Games after middle-distance runner Ciara Mageean helped her settle as a teenager for that trip to Australia eight years ago.

“When I went to my first Games in Australia, Ciara Mageean was there and she was like my big sister, we were in the same house and I thought she was class,” O’Connor said.

“It was my first senior team, it was daunting. I was 17, most athletes were in their 20s and I was a child, so for her to open her arms and make me feel welcome was such a nice thing for her to do.

“I would love to be the same sort of person and be the older sister this year.”