Sonia O’Sullivan is truly an icon in Irish sports.
And now her daughter is following in her footsteps.
Sophie O’Sullivan is also an accomplished runner and over the weekend she picked up a historic win.
She picked up the gold in the 1500m race at the NCAA Championships.
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It was certainly a big moment for Sophie as her mother had also won the race 35 years previous.
The 23-year-old crossed the line in 4:07.94 to win gold at the race in Oregon.
Sophie now joins an exclusive list of Irish women who have won the NCAA. Only five women have picked up the gold from our shores.
That list includes Sophie’s mother Sonia who won in 1990 and 1991.
Rhasidat Adeleke, Mary Cullen, and Valerie McGovern are the other three women who have come first in this prestigious race.
Sonia was so proud of her daughter sharing a picture of the two of them on social media writing: “Well done @sophie.osullivan @ncaatrackfield Championship 1500m”.
“Being the person that wants to win the most and I think there’s bit of that like, maybe I really wanted to win the most,” Sophie told FloTrack after her win.
“But I think also I was probably okay with it if I didn’t win, if it meant I gave my best. I was just confident I could do the best that I could and I was going to be okay with that.”
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When asked about how she was feeling about nabbing first place, she added: “Pretty f***ing happy. I just kind of really thought someone was going to close on me there.
“So I was probably a bit scared and just run as far as I could and then kind of finished, looked around, I was like actually that’s not too bad.
“I heard them say my name I was winning so I kind of think there was at least some separation but you kind of just never know.”
She made her Olympics debut at Paris 2024 where she failed to qualify for the 1500m finals.
