SHARLENE MAWDSLEY plans on retiring after the 2028 Olympics – and has revealed what life might look like afterwards.
The 26-year-old is one of the most popular and decorated Irish athletes after a star-making 2024.
Amongst it all was winning a mixed relay gold medal at the European Championships, which set the stage for her Olympic debut in Paris.
She crossed the finish line in the anchor leg to take home gold in the 4x400m alongside Chris O’Donnell, Rhasidat Adeleke, and Thomas Barr.
Speaking to the Irish Independent, the Tipperary-native revealed her plans on carrying on until 2028, at which point she is eyeing a different life milestone.
She said: “You have to plan everything when you are an athlete — even when it comes to friends and family getting married.
“It’s events like that you have to look at and think, ‘Am I going to be able to make this event?’
“I have missed out on a few during the past year.
“I definitely want to be a mother, so my plan is to run until 2028 and then retire.”
Mawdsley was part of the 4 x 400m relay team which went agonisingly close to claiming a medal in Paris in August.
The Tipperary athlete ran the final leg and entered the home straight in second place but was overtaken by Holland’s Femke Bol and Amber Anning of Great Britain as Ireland came fourth.
She also competed in the individual 400m, clocking a personal best of 50.71m in her heat although it was not enough to see her progress to the semi-finals with the repechage not bringing her any joy either.
She will be keen to improve on her performances in Los Angeles in three-and-a-half years time.
And Mawdsley would be happy to call a time to her career at that point.
She added: “I always said I would retire in 2024, but because things are going well and I’ll be 30 in 2028, that will be enough.
“I definitely want to do something other than athletics, but I will be really happy if I make it to the LA Olympics and finish there.
“If I don’t have to sit at a desk for the next four years, I’ll be pretty happy.”
Should she get to Los Angeles, Mawdsley has previously teased competing in a new discipline.
Mawdsley told SunSport: “I have the standard for Tokyo so that’s definitely something I can look forward to.
“And I think in the next few months I can maybe try new things that I haven’t already done before and see if it works out or not because there’s obviously time to play with between now and the next Olympics so I think that will be nice.
“When you’re so close to an Olympics, you kind of stick to what you know so it will be interesting to see if we can change a few things in the next few months and see where we go from there.
“I would love to try the 400 hurdles. I don’t know if my coaches are going to agree to that but I’d love to try and see if I was any good.
“I used to do sprint hurdles when I was younger and I used to swap my legs so I suddenly think I can magically run 400 hurdles but we’ll see.”
