Thomas Chamney (born 16 April 1984) is an Irish runner who was born in

Clonmel Clonmel () is the county town and largest settlement of County Tipperary, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The town is noted in Irish history for its resistance to the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, Cromwellian army which sacked the towns of Dro ...

and brought up in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

. He specialises in the

800 metres The 800 metres, or 800 meters (American and British English spelling differences#-re.2C -er, US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of a ...

event. He was educated at

Kilkenny College Kilkenny College is a Church of Ireland co-educational day and boarding secondary school located in Kilkenny, in the South-East of Ireland. It is the largest co-educational boarding school in Ireland. In 2013 it transferred to the state/public se ...

and at Saint Columba's College, Dublin. Chamney runs for the Crusaders AC club whilst in Dublin and has been on an athletics scholarship at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac (known simply as Notre Dame; ; ND) is a Private university, private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1842 by members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, a Cathol ...

, South Bend,

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

where he studied English from 2002–2007. He is a four-time Irish Senior 800m champion and competed at the Beijing Olympics in that event in 2008.

On the field accolades

In 2006, Chamney earned All-America honours at the NCAA Indoor Championships, picking up his first career citation with a sixth-place finish in the 800-metre run at the Randall Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Chamney repeated his performance that spring at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Sacramento, California, again finishing sixth and picking up All-America honours. This winter, Chamney became a three-time All-American with his performance in the NCAA Indoor Championships. In international competition, Chamney has represented Ireland in the 800 metres at the European Athletics Championship in 2006 and at the European Indoor Championship in 2007. Chamney is a former Irish U23 800m champion and was 5th in the 2005 European U23 Championship when he recorded a personal best time of 1:46.82.

Off-the-field notoriety

Chamney developed a

cult following A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The latter is often called a cult classic. A film, boo ...

on the Internet amongst both track fans and non-fans when he began posting training journals on the college track and field site TrackShark.com. An English major at the University of Notre Dame, Chamney was able to use his literary talents and his personality to build a loyal fanbase of American readers who appreciated his humor. Chamney's entries were generally quite a lengthy fictionalised version of events written in an Irish

vernacular Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...

, drawing inspiration from a similar column in Dublin's ''Sunday Tribune''. Chamney's last journal entry was written on 23 February 2006. In a 2007 interview with TrackShark.com, Chamney stated that he enjoyed writing because of the positive feedback and widespread praise that it drew from his fans, but stopped writing them because he felt slighted by those who accused him of exploiting the literary styles of some notable Irish columnists.

Post-collegiate career

Having graduated the University of Notre Dame in May 2007, Chamney trained briefly in Soria, Spain, with coach Enrique Pascual before moving to Tallahassee, Florida, to prepare for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In somewhat controversial circumstances, Chamney was selected for those Olympic Games having only attained the B standard for the 800m when he ran 1:46.66 at a meeting in Lignano, Italy. At those Olympic Games, he placed 5th in his heat in a time of 1:47.66 and failed to progress to the semi-finals. After the Beijing Olympics Chamney moved to Limerick, Ireland. He has since competed at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin over the 800m and the 1500m as well as the 2010 European Championships in Barcelona over 1500m. At both those competitions he failed to qualify for the final. He lowered his personal bests to 1:45.41 (Bislett Games, Oslo, 2009) and 3:36.83 (Meeting Ciutat de Barcelona, 2010). He retired from competitive athletics in 2013 and now runs a restaurant chain in Gothenburg, Sweden.

References

External links

runmadra
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chamney, Thomas 1984 births Living people Irish male middle-distance runners Olympic athletes for Ireland Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics World Athletics Championships athletes for Ireland Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's track and field athletes People educated at Kilkenny College Sportspeople from Clonmel Athletes from County Tipperary 21st-century Irish sportsmen