Sive Brassil Inches Closer to Paris Olympics

Sive Brassil had her best result to date at the European Championships in Székesfehérvár, Hungary when she finished eighth. Before this her highest result was 13th at the World Championships earlier this year.

Luckily she is one of the few athletes in Ireland who was awarded the Paris Scholarship. This was given to a handful of individual sportspersons and teams who are training to qualify for the Paris Olympics. The aim is to help support them to train and travel to camps and competitions in the lead up to the games.  

Right now, Sive is enjoying some down time and getting ready for a long Winter training block. Her next competition will start in February 2023.

L to r: Coach Andrey Fedotov, Sive, coach Evan Scully, coach Martina McCarthy.

Even with her result at this year’s European Championships she hasn’t qualified for the Olympics. The qualification process begins next year. If she finishes in the top eight again of the European championships she will automatically qualify. Every competition in 2024 will carry ranking points for the Olympics as well.

The youngest of five siblings, all her older brothers and sisters were in the East Galway pony club, Ballinasloe swimming club and the Ballinasloe and District AC. Naturally enough, she wanted to follow in their footsteps, so from a very young age, she was running, swimming and horse riding.

She competed at Pony Club tetrathlon and then when she heard about modern pentathlon, she decided to give it a go and never looked back. For youngsters thinking of taking up the sport, “try as many different sports as you can and keep doing it as long as you enjoy it”, she advises.

For anyone looking to try out the sport there are usually taster sessions at the Sports Ireland Campus. People can keep an eye on Pentathlon Ireland website for details.

She has finished college and graduated with an honour’s degree from UCD in Spanish and French and is currently training full time. While she is training, she doesn’t have a specific diet because modern pentathlon is an endurance sport, she needs to make sure she is eating enough to recover from her training and to fuel her performance, which means taking in a lot of calories.

Her training sessions are intense, as she trains two to four times a day, six days a week. Every week she completes five runs, four swims, four fencing sessions, two shooting sessions, one horse riding lesson and two gym sessions.  After all this she likes to unwind by watching TV in the house as she is usually too tired to go out.

Sive tries to get back home to Ballinasloe as often as possible; this is usually once a month or every six weeks.

“I have a great team of coaches, nutritionist, and sports psychologist around me that help me every day. I also must thank my first coaches from Ballinasloe. Michael and the late Anne Burke in the Ballinasloe and District Athletics Club who were so good to me and helped me to discover my love for competing. Liz Scott in the East Galway Pony Club taught me almost all I know about horses. John Jordan was a fantastic coach too in the Ballinasloe Swimming Club.", she concludes.