Siobhán Hoey (born 17 July 1970) is an Irish sportswoman from Portarlington,

County Laois County Laois ( ; ) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and in the province of Leinster. It was known as Queen's County from 1556 to 1922. The modern county takes its name from Loígis, a medieval kingdom. Hist ...

. She has competed in both

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

and

bobsleigh Bobsleigh or bobsled is a winter sport in which teams of 2 to 4 athletes make timed speed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobslei ...

Athletics career

Hoey's junior athletics career saw her focus on sprinting and long jumping. As a senior athlete she was national junior long jump champion and record holder both indoor and outdoor. From 1993 to 2000, she was national champion in the

triple jump The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down the tr ...

, and also national indoor champion (1993, 1996–1999). Hoey was national

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

champion in 1989. She was the first Irish record holder for the women's triple jump. In inter-varsity competition competing for

University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...

(UCD), she won golds in the long jump, triple jump,

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

and the two sprint relays. In 1992–1993 Hoey captained the UCD women's squad both in Ireland and at events in Belgium and America. She was also selected captain of the Irish women's Europa Cup team.

Bobsleigh career

In 1999, Hoey and sister,

Aoife Aoife ( , ) is an Irish and Gaelic feminine given name. The name is derived from the Irish Gaelic ''aoibh'', which means "beauty" or "radiance". It has been compared to the Gaulish name ''Esvios'' (Latinized ''Esuvius'', feminine '' Esuvia'') ...

, were selected for Ireland's first women's

team however as she was under-age, Aoife couldn't compete. Hoey became the first Irish woman to drive a bobsleigh at bob school in Lillehammer, Norway. As brake athlete, she competed in European Cup events with sled pilot Audrey Garland (winner of the famed British Gladiator competition) in Lillehammer and Igls, Austria (2000). Sheesley Fitzgerald were the first Irish women to compete at the

FIBT World Championships The IBSF World Championships (known as the FIBT World Championships until 2015), part of the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, have taken place on an annual basis since FIBT World Championships 1930, 1930. Starting with 2002, no Wo ...

, doing so at

Calgary, Canada Calgary () is a major city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a Metropolitan area, metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the List of ...

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

. She, Lesley and Aoife competed in European Cup and World Cup events in their bid to qualify for the Salt Lake City Games in 2002. In 2001–2002 she took a year off from being a teacher in Dublin while Aoife took a study break. The sisters received partial funding from the

Olympic Council of Ireland The Olympic Federation of Ireland or OFI () (called the Irish Olympic Council from 1920 to 1952, and the Olympic Council of Ireland from 1952 to 2018) is the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Ireland. Athletes from Northern Ireland have the op ...

but no commercial sponsorship. Following the Games in 2002, the Hoey sisters teamed up; Aoife in the driving seat and Siobhain as brake athlete. Together the sisters contested European Cup and World Cup events, and the European and World Championships. The sisters placed 13th in the FIBT World Championships in Koenigssee, Germany and placed among the medals in European start championships. Their bid for qualification for the 2006 games got off to a disastrous start when Siobhán was badly injured in a freak accident in the ice house at Calgary, Canada. Mid-training, her heel was hit by the sled runner and cut right through to the Achilles tendon. She had to compete in both the Calgary and Lake Placid events with her foot stitched. The remaining events of the World Cup circuit went well, however the team missed qualification for the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics (), officially the XX Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February in Turin, Italy. This marked the second time Italy had hosted the Winter O ...

.Irish Winter Olympics team to be announced
, ''

Morning Ireland ''Morning Ireland'' is an Irish breakfast news programme broadcast by RTÉ Radio 1 and is noted as the country's most listened to radio programme. It is broadcast each weekday morning between 7 am and 9 am and alternate items are normal ...

'' (

RTÉ Radio 1 RTÉ Radio 1 () is an Irish national radio station owned and operated by RTÉ and is the direct descendant of Dublin radio station 2RN, which began broadcasting on a regular basis on 1 January 1926. The total budget for the station in 2010 w ...

), 26 January 2006. Following the last qualification event in Koenigssee, Germany in January 2006, Hoey retired from the sport. As an officer of the IBSA she has worked with young athletes. Recruiting David Connolly who qualified in the

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of most animals. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is a rigid outer shell that holds up an organism's shape; the endoskeleton, a rigid internal fra ...

event for the Torino Games 2006 and Patrick Shannon who qualified in Skeleton for the Vancouver Games 2010. Recruiting and coaching Jennifer Corcoran, who medalled with Aoife Hoey in the bobsleigh World Junior Championships, and

Claire Bergin Claire Bergin (born 1 February 1985) is an Irish bobsledder who has competed since 2008. She finished 17th in the two-woman event at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Bergin's best World Cup finish was 19th in the two-woman event at Altenber ...

who partnered Aoife for the Vancouver Games 2010. In acknowledgement of her contribution to Irish winter sport, Siobhán was appointed ''chef de mission'' for the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada 2010 (Siobhán was the first Irish woman to be given this role at either a Winter or Summer Games).

References

External links

Athlete profile at IAAF Athletics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoey, Siobhan 1970 births Living people Irish female bobsledders Irish female triple jumpers Irish female long jumpers Athletes from County Laois People from Portarlington, County Laois