Thomas Barr would not be surprised if, one day soon, he is informed he has won an Olympic bronze medal. Another letter may soon follow that telling him he has won silver.
You never know in athletics. That, in itself, is the biggest shame.
The Waterford athlete ran two of the best races of his life at Rio 2016 to win his 400-metre Hurdles semi-final and come fourth in an extremely fast final. Barr missed out on a bronze medal by just over a tenth of a second.
However, with athletes already getting flagged for negative drug tests from Rio, Barr believes it would ‘not be unlikely’ for him to be upgraded to the medal positions. It has happened with Rob Heffernan and Olive Loughnane in the past year so Barr’s comments are not far off the mark.
As a guest on the Late Late Show, Barr gave an honest take on modern sport that is somewhat depressing. He said:
“I don’t think sport is ever going to be completely clean.
“Anti-doping is so far behind doping. I don’t think it will ever be clean. All we can do is go out and race whatever is in front of us.”
It’s a wonder any clean athletes have the motivation and spirit to go on.
“I don’t think sport is ever going to be completely clean” @TomBarr247 on why he may end up with a medal #latelate https://t.co/ZtA5EYAkeb
— RTE One (@RTEOne) September 9, 2016
Fair play to Barr for speaking so openly on a subject that needs to be hauled out into the light.
The GAA Hour Hurling Show relives Tipperary’s sensational All-Ireland victory with Paidí Maher. Listen below or subscribe on iTunes.
