My Greatest Race

My Greatest Race is a sports memoir like no other, a devastating contrast between the elite athlete road that so few get to travel and the all-too-familiar cancer journey that so many do.

‘A harrowing, heartbreaking and yet heartwarming story.’ MARY McALEESE‘We all know Ciara as a warrior on the athletics track. Now she faces the race of her life with the same grit and determination we have come to expect from her.’ SONIA O’SULLIVAN‘This book is devastatingly brilliant. Ciara’s life on the track has been world class and contrasting that with her cancer fight is compelling reading ... I genuinely couldn’t stop reading.’ DERVAL O’ROURKE‘A raw account from the peak of athletic success to the devastating life-altering blow of cancer, Ciara’s journey is both powerful and unflinchingly honest - one that forces you to pause and reflect on what truly matters.’ DAVID GILLICK‘An honest, raw, and heartbreaking account of what it takes to fulfil your dreams and endure the pain of having them taken away. Ciara Mageean is a national treasure.’ JACQUI HURLEYFew Irish track athletes are as universally loved as Ciara Mageean, who has remained endearingly down-to-earth, candid and optimistic despite the dramatic twists and turns of her world-class career. In 2024 she finally won a European title, crossing the line to secure that gold medal in a moment of pure euphoria. Two months later, at the peak of her power, an excruciating injury derailed her once again, forcing an eleventh-hour withdrawal from the Paris Olympics. In the City of Love she went, overnight, from competitor to heartbroken tourist. Nothing, she thought, will ever be as bad as this … and then she got the worst news of her life. My Greatest Race is a sports memoir like no other, a devastating contrast between the elite athlete road that so few get to travel and the all-too-familiar cancer journey that so many do.