AW promotion

Born to well-known athletes, Eilish McColgan has left a mark in the history of athletics events. She won the 2022 Commonwealth Games 10,000 metres race and a silver medal in the 5000m competition. Eilish boasts four European Championship medals; two bronze medals in 2017 and 2022 and two silvers from the 5000m race in 2018 and the 10,000m race in 2022.

Eilish’s achievements have made her a favourite betting option for many punters. Plus, top bookmakers offer markets for the athletics events she participates in, so wagering on her being a winner is easy. You can find out the best Irish sportsbooks listed at bookiesnotongamstop.com, and these sites have great odds for athletics events.

The athlete’s story is inspiring, as she has overcome challenges to reach the pinnacle. In this article, we take a bumpy ride through her road to success, including her difficulties and how she dealt with them. We’ll also explore how she balances her career with her personal life and her family’s role in her success.

McColgan’s bumpy road to success

McColgan was born in November 1990 in Scotland. She attended the High School of Dundee and proceeded to study mathematics and accounting at Dundee University, from which she graduated in 2013. Though she came from a family of athletes, she never planned on being a professional runner, even though she enjoyed the sport. However, she didn’t only become an experienced but also successful in international competitions, including the Olympics and the World Championships.

The Dundee-born Eilish McColgan started her career in 2006 when she participated in the Scottish Schools Championships and won a bronze medal. Since then, she has set impressive records. She represented Great Britain at the 2012, 2016, and 2020 Olympics. The athlete ran for Scotland at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, the 2018 version in Gold Coast, and the 2022 Games in Birmingham, where she was the 10,000 metres champion and the 5000m silver medallist.

Eilish has four European Championship medals and is the record holder of the European best in the 10 miles on roads. At the Zevenheuvelenloop in 2022, she finished in 47 minutes and 40 seconds, breaking her mother’s official record of 47 minutes and 43 seconds. Eilish made news in March 2023 when she won the Sound Running the TEN at San Juan Capistrano, California, and broke Paula Radcliffe’s 21-year-old British women’s 10,000m record.

Many have thought that the runner had it easy, considering her family’s athletics history, but she’s had her fair share of challenges. In 2014, she revealed that she’d been secretly battling a heart irregularity. Thankfully, it wasn’t recurrent, so that she could go far in her career. In April 2023, McColgan pulled out of London Marathon because of a knee injury.

The running-family background pulled the trigger

Eilish’s family was a significant catalyst in her running career. At first, she didn’t intend to become a professional athlete, but she enjoyed running, partly thanks to the family she came from. The runner was born to Peter and Liz McColgan. Peter McColgan has the Northern Irish 3000m indoor record and the 2000m and 3000m steeplechase outdoor records. In 1986, he competed for Northern Ireland in the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, where he was a finalist in the 5000m and 3000m steeplechase.

Her mother is a former middle- and long-distance runner. She won gold in the 10,000 metres at the 1991 World Championships and silver in the 3000 metres at the 1989 World Indoor Championships. Liz won the 1992 World Half Marathon, two Commonwealth Games gold medals, and two individual World Cross Country Championship medals. She won the World Marathon Majors three times: in 1991, in 1992 and in 1996.

By extension of her mother’s remarriage, Eilish is the stepdaughter of John Nuttall, a former long-distance runner who was a bronze medallist at the 1994 Commonwealth Games and a silver medallist in that year’s IAAF World Cup. To top things off, she’s dating Michael Rimmer, an English middle-distance runner. With this family of runners, transitioning to a professional runner was a breeze. Plus, she has always been coached by her mother, who’s a record-breaker in athletics.

Balancing career and personal life never been easy

Growing up, Eilish only understood the impact of her parents’ professional careers once she was in her late teens. She also only attracted media attention once she began to break records. The more her social media following grew, the more bullying she dealt with, as many commented on how she looked. Instead of giving in to the pressure, Eilish challenges body shaming online.

This is just one of the many things she deals with as a professional and record-breaking athlete. Balancing her career with her personal life is a challenge she must deal with daily. Thankfully, she has a mother as her coach, who ensures she puts in the work and remains on track and healthy for races.

Eilish’s training routine over the years has changed. She has reduced her training load to 45–50 miles per week, focusing on quality track sessions. Early in her career, when she wasn’t running or if she suffered an injury, she trained in the pool instead.

Gradually, she moved to the spin bike and then advanced to cross-training. She also trains to deal with different altitudes in different countries. In an interview with Athletics Weekly, Eilish noted that she still needs to work on getting stronger, both endurance-wise and in the gym.

McColgan won’t rest until she achieves all of her goals

A month after she broke Paula Radcliffe’s 10,000m record, Eilish smashed the half-marathon record in Berlin. This is just one of the many victories she’s set to achieve in 2023. Speaking with RSB Lindsays, the athlete said she wanted a repeat of 2022, the most memorable year of her life. The new year also brought a new challenge for her—a marathon.

She was to participate in the TCS London Marathon, which was held on April 23.

Unfortunately, she missed this event due to a knee injury. She also missed the marathon in October 2022 due to a medical condition.

Regardless of these setbacks, Eilish has vowed to return even stronger, and considering her dedication and training, she has the potential to excel at future races. She already missed the TCS London Marathon, but there are other marathons she can take part in once she’s fully recovered. She might set a new record at the next TCS London Marathon.