Christopher O'Donnell

Christopher O'Donnell (born 17 May 1998) is an Irish track and field athlete competing in sprinting events. He was part of the Irish Mixed 4 × 400 m team who won a gold medal at the 2024 European Athletics Championships. He represented Ireland at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in the Mixed relay, where he was part of the first ever Irish team to run in an Olympic final, and competed in the same event at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. He was also part of the team who reached the final of the 2022 and 2023 World Championships. His personal best of 45.26 seconds sits joint-3rd on the Irish all-time list and he is a record equalling five-time National 400 m champion.

Biography Early life and career Born in Sligo, Christopher O'Donnell grew up primarily as a football player, representing his local side Benbulben FC and the Sligo/Leitrim Youth Schoolboys League. Operating mainly as a winger, O'Donnell was selected to represent the Sligo/Leitrim Youth Schoolboys League at the prestigious SFAI Kennedy Cup tournament in Limerick in June 2012. Described as a "formerly deft underage footballer", his raw speed on the football pitch was gaining attention and was encouraged to start competing in track and field sprint events for his local club North Sligo AC. He attempted to juggle both sports for a couple of years before eventually deciding to focus his efforts full-time on track and field at the age of 16 in 2015.

In 2014, coached by former Irish International athlete Roddy Gaynor, O'Donnell earned his first International vest at the SIAB Schools International in Cardiff, competing in the 100 metres and the 4 × 100 metres relay. In the relay he was part of the silver medal-winning team which finished with a time one-hundredth of a second outside of the Irish U18 record. He went on to gain another International call up that year, competing in the same events at the Celtic Games U18 International in Dublin, winning two silver medals. He won three national titles that year in the U17 category in the 100 m and 200 m, narrowly missing out on the Championship records in both events outdoors. In 2015, O'Donnell had his first taste of the 400 metres, and despite finishing runner-up in the national U18 indoors, his time of 50.25 was under the previous Championship record held by Brian Gregan. He went on to go one better in the outdoor equivalent, while smashing the previous record with a time of 48.70 which still stands to this day. He won double gold at the Celtic Games U18 International in the 400 m and in Grangemouth.

In 2016 he was prolific at national underage level, winning the indoor and outdoor U19 and U20 400 m, along with the outdoor U19 200 m, beating the Championship record with a time of 21.59 (+0.7) which is still standing. He also still holds the Ulster schools 400 m record of 48.57 which was achieved on his way to winning his first senior schools 400 m title. He was also part of the national U20 winning team with his club. In 2017, he successfully defended his indoor U20 400 m title along with the senior schools 400 m title, where he was 0.12 seconds off the Championship record. That summer seen a big breakthrough over 400 m where he won his race at the IFAM International in Oordegem in 46.92, which was an "A" standard for the European U20 Championships in Grosseto. The Sligo athlete competed magnificently at the Championships, comfortably winning his heat before winning a competitive semi-final in a personal best time. He again beat his personal best in the final, finishing 6th in 46.54, which is currently the Irish U20 record. He gained his first senior International vest that year, finishing 2nd in the relay at the European Team Championships First League in Vaasa.

That winter he moved his training base to Loughborough University under the guidance of Nick Dakin, who had previously coached Irish record holder David Gillick, where he would train full-time alongside studying for a degree in Sport and Exercise Science on a sports scholarship. In 2018, O'Donnell won his first national senior title in the 400 metres, and represented Ireland in his first senior major Championships at the European Championships in Berlin in the 400 m and relay. In July 2019, following disappointment at the European U23 Championships and failing to improve on his personal best times under Dakin, O'Donnell returned to Sligo to be coached by Gaynor again on an interim basis until the end of the season. From there he ended the season with four consecutive seasons bests, concluding with an equal personal best. Firstly, he successfully defended his national senior 400 m title before finishing 2nd and 3rd in the 400 m and respectively at the European Team Championships in Sandnes, where he was an integral part in helping Ireland remain in the First League. He then equalled his personal best of 46.54 from 2017, finishing runner-up in the Brussels Grand Prix.

Ahead of the 2020 season, O'Donnell would return to Loughborough to be coached by former GB youth International Michael Baker. A limited season resulted with no International Championships due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but he still managed to improve his personal bests in the 400 m and 200 m, while also winning the national 400 m title (1st U23) for the third year in a row, and bronze in the 200 m (2nd U23). The Nationals were held across two weekends and amalgamated the U23 and senior Championships together. The 2021 season saw O'Donnell become a mainstay in the Irish mixed team, where he was part of the first ever Irish team to run in the final of the World Athletics Relays in Silesia and in doing so broke the national record and qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. In Tokyo he anchored the team to further improve the national record on the way to becoming the first ever Irish team to run in an Olympic Final. His season's best of 45.55 seconds would place him 3rd on the all-time list of Irish 400 m running. He parted company with Baker during the season and teamed up with Swedish sprints coach Benke Blomkvist in Loughborough following the Olympic Games.

O'Donnell moved to joint-2nd on the Irish 400 m all-time list in 2022, while being part of the first ever Irish team to run in a World Championship final, once again with the Mixed relay team, in Eugene. He was also part of the National Indoor record-breaking team who achieved a 7th-place finish at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade. Individually in the 400 m at Championships, O'Donnell achieved a semi-final and 20th-place finish at the World Championships, while also bowing out at the semi-final stage of the European Championships in Munich with an 11th-place finish. He won his fourth national 400 m title in five years in June. In 2023, he won his fifth national 400 m title, equalling the most won by any Irish 400 m athlete. He was again part of a record-breaking mixed team who finished 6th in the final of the World Championships in Budapest - the highest ever global finish by an Irish team outdoors. He also competed in the 400 m individually at these World Championships but did not progress to the semi-final stage.

2024 provided another coaching change with O’Donnell under the guidance of Stewart Marshall in Loughborough. He was controversially left out of the starting team for the World Athletics Relays in The Bahamas early in the year, but was back running for the team in the European Championships in Rome. It was there where he ran the lead-off leg as Ireland stormed to victory in the 4 × 400 m Mixed Relay, winning their first gold medal at the European Championships since 1998. It was Ireland’s only gold medal at the Championships aside from Sonia O’Sullivan and was the country’s first ever relay gold at a major Championship. Their winning time was a Championship record, a National record, 0.05 seconds behind the European record, and 1.12 seconds behind the world record. He ran again with the team at the Olympic Games in Paris later that summer, but with the absence of Rhasidat Adeleke they finished 10th in the semi-final, missing the final by two places. 2025 was a season plagued by injury and illness. O’Donnell competed at the World Athletics Relays in Guangzhou but struggled with form and fitness and did not compete at the World Championships later that year in Tokyo. His national U20 400 m record which stood since 2017 was finally broken. In November he was homoured as the first ever recipient of the Freedom of County Sligo award.

International Championships

Honours International European Mixed 4 × 400 m: 2024 Top 8 finish at Olympic Games: 2021 Top 8 finish at World Championships: 2022, 2023 Top 8 finish at World Indoor Championships: 2022 Top 8 finish at World Athletics Relays: 2021 European Team Championships First League 400 m: 2019(2nd) European Team Championships First League : 2019, 2017(2nd)

National 400 m: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023

International underage Celtic Games U18 400 m: 2015 Celtic Games U18 : 2015 Celtic Games U16 100 m: 2014(2nd) Celtic Games U16 : 2014(2nd) SIAB Schools : 2014(2nd)

National underage Schools 400 m: 2016, 2017 U20 400 m: 2016 Indoor U20 400 m: 2016, 2017 U19 400 m: 2016 U19 200 m: 2016 Indoor U19 400 m: 2016 U18 400 m: 2015 U17 100 m: 2014 U17 200 m: 2014 Indoor U17 200 m: 2014

University BUCS : 2022

Individual Irish Schools' "Male" athlete of the Year: 2017 Sligo Juvenile All-Star: 2014, 2015, 2016 Connacht Athlete of the Year: 2022 Connacht Sprinter of the Year: 2021, 2022 Athletics Ireland Team of the Year: 2021, 2022, 2023 Freedom of County Sligo: 2025 Ocean FM ‘International’ award: 2024

Records National Mixed (3:09.92): 2024 National Indoor (3:08.63): 2022 Connacht 400 m (45.26): 2022 North Sligo AC 200 m (21.09): 2022 North Sligo AC 400 m (45.26): 2022 BUCS Championship (3:05.11): 2022 National U19 200 m Championship (21.59): 2016 National U18 400 m Championship (48.70): 2015 Ulster Schools 400 m Championship (48.57): 2016 Connacht Schools 400 m Championship (48.92): 2017

Personal bests 100 metres – 10.73 (+0.6 m/s, Lee Valley, 2024) 200 metres – 21.09 (-1.2 m/s, Kettering, 2022), 20.94 (+2.3 m/s, Lee Valley, 2024)* 400 metres - 45.26 (Madrid, 2022) 600 metres – 1:22.55i (Athlone, 2016) 4 × 100 metres relay - 42.19 (Cardiff, 2014) 4 × 400 metres relay - 3:04.41 (Rome, 2024) Mixed 4 × 400 metres relay - 3:09.92 (Rome, 2024)

Season's bests Year 100 metres 200 metres 400 metres 600 metres 4 × 100 metres 4 × 400 metres 4 × 400 metres Mixed 2014 11.05 22.21 - - 42.19 - - 2015 (U18) 11.33 22.33 48.70 - - 3:20.18 - 2016 11.61 21.59 48.07 1:22.55i - 3:29.31 - 2017 (U20) 10.89 21.57 46.54 (NU20R) - - 3:05.08 - 2018 - 21.75 46.81 - - 3:06.55 - 2019 - 21.85 46.54 - - 3:08.83 - 2020 (U23) 10.99 21.17 46.16 - - - - 2021 10.83 21.24 45.55 - - - 3:12.88 2022 10.86 21.09 , 21.07* 45.26 - - 3:05.11 3:13.88 2023 - 21.35 45.73 - - - 3:13.902024 10.73 21.41, 20.94* 45.69 - - 3.04.41 3.09.92 (NR)2025 11.00, 10.90* 21.47 46.27 - - 3.04.42 -2026 - 21.99i - - - - -