World Athletics Championships: Ireland’s Kate O’Connor hungry for more medals after heptathlon silver

O’Connor has enjoyed the best year of her career in 2025.

European Indoor bronze, World Indoor silver, World University Games gold and now a World Championships silver medal.

As she alluded to in the build-up, O’Connor’s success was made possible by a mindset shift after finishing 14th at last year’s Paris Olympics.

“After Paris I genuinely did have a chat with myself. I felt like I know the athlete that I can be and I had to turn to my dad and ask him did he think that himself and the team that we had around me would be able to bring me to where I wanted to get myself to,” she explained.

“I suppose we had a pretty tough conversation where I kind of set out my goals to him and told him that I was ready to put my head down and work really hard towards them, but I needed everybody else to also be there with me.

“We had to make a few changes where I felt like if the coaches were expecting more of me, I would expect more of myself, so I made sure that I was hitting these really high standards that my coaches are setting for me.”

Going into the World Championships in Tokyo, she aimed to surpass 6,500 points.

She cleared that mark by some distance, with five personal bests helping her reach 6,714 points to come second behind gold medallist Anna Hall of the United States (6,888).

And O’Connor still believes there is more to come as she builds towards the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

“That’s one of the most exciting things for me is that I just scored 6,700 points and there’s so much there right now.

“So, what can I do with another winter behind me and another year behind me and another two years? Then obviously get to the Olympics, which will be another three.

“I don’t think I’ve reached my limit at any of the events.”