‘The click has happened’: Jack O’Leary riding career-high momentum into 2026

Jack O’Leary has spent little time on Irish soil so far in 2026 as he prepares for what he hopes will be the best year of his career.

The 28-year-old is fresh off a 90-second personal best over 10km on the famed Valencia course two weeks ago.

His 27:41 finish put him under the previous Irish record, though countryman and record holder Efrem Gidey crossed the line three seconds ahead.

Crucially, Jack’s Valencia performance met the A standard for the European Championships in August, putting him on track for a major summer.

There was no downtime after Spain. Following a short layover in Dublin, Jack travelled directly to an Athletics Ireland training camp in Flagstaff, arriving, he admitted, with tired legs.

“I got out here a little later than everyone. I was racing the Valencia 10k on January 11. That was the Sunday, and I flew to Flagstaff on the Monday… I was quite a tired man on Tuesday’s easy run. I got dropped very badly from the group,” Jack told the Irish Athletics Podcast.

Looking ahead, he outlined plans to race indoors in the United States before returning home in March for a short break.

After that, all focus will turn to producing another top-class performance at the European Championships.

“Birmingham is 100% the focus. I’m going to race indoors here. I’m going to take a proper break in March, and then start building back up towards Birmingham and make sure I’m ready to produce.”

The last year has been transformative for Jack.

In 2025, he ran personal bests over 10,000m and 5,000m on the track, and delivered the performance of his life in December with a fifth-place finish at the European Cross Country Championships.

“The 2025 season… everything just aligned for me. Training all come together; the click has happened. I’m really just getting to show how good I can be and how good I know I can be. But, you know, that’s only 10–20% of the story most of the time.”

Buoyed by his recent run of form, Jack said he wishes everyone could experience the exhilaration of a runner’s high.

“I feel like I’m smiling the whole time now, and I’m really just enjoying life… If I could hook this feeling of happiness up to everyone’s veins – this is why we do it.”

His joy becomes even more understandable given the challenges he faced earlier in his career.

In 2021, he suffered a sacral stress fracture, which was followed by a sequence of injuries that took nearly four years to overcome.

“I started getting hamstring tendinopathy, Achilles issues, and that all in all took the guts of a year and a half to sort out, to get my body back in one piece.”

Despite his recent success, Jack remains aware of the struggles most athletes endure.

“It’s the moments before that, where you can’t run. There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes that maybe people don’t see, or maybe people forget when they see you up on a European podium. I was the one standing on the podium, but there were probably 100 different people standing up there with me.

“And that’s the same for every single one of us. Brian (Fay), Dalton (Cormac), Efrem (Gidey), Darragh (McElhinney)… we’ve all been on our own journeys. That’s all part of it; that’s the beauty of sport too.”

Jack says he wouldn’t trade anything from the path that led to his 2025 breakthrough and his electric start to 2026.

“I would have gone through 10 years of injuries for 2025 to happen again. That European podium is the greatest moment of my life.

“I don’t want to sound too dramatic, but to stand up there with all your friends, with European medals around your neck, seeing the Irish flag being raised… it’s the most incredible thing I’ve ever experienced.”

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You can listen to the full interview on the Irish Athletics podcast here. The episode is hosted by Cillian Sheeran. Phtoos by Sportsfile.