Commonwealth Games: Kate O’Connor on having dad as coach

“It’s a really complicated dynamic, I don’t know how we make it work, but we do. He fits into all the different roles.”

Heptathlete Kate O’Connor has been coached by her father Michael from the age of 10.

He has been there through the highs and the lows of his daughter’s fledgling career to date, although the former have definitely outweighed the latter recently.

The 25-year-old truly announced herself on the world stage in 2025, winning four medals including gold at the World University Games, silver in both the World Indoor and Outdoor Championships and bronze in the European Indoor Championships.

Given it is all she has ever known and she has enjoyed so much success, O’Connor says that having her father as her coach “works so well for me” and shared an insight into the different hats he has to wear as he takes on the roles of her agent, coach and dad.

“He’s the middle man that organises things and decides when I have days off to do sponsors stuff. I know he’s fully on my side and understands both sides of being an athlete; of earning a living and turning up to training. That’s really helpful,” she explained.

“When I’m actually competing, it’s athlete-coach unless something goes wrong like in Tokyo at the World Championships. I hurt my knee and those moments can be really tough when I’m really upset, I can see he is really upset for me too.

“When something is slightly derailing me he does his best to give me pep talks and I do believe him, but it’s difficult, you can see how much it means to him too and you can see it in real life, you’re not letting someone down but you can see someone willing you to do well.

“It’s class to have someone 100% in your corner and he sets the standard really high for the rest of the guys that work for me.”