BARR Thomas

General
POST-TOKYO PLANS
Until the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo were postponed, he was contemplating retirement before the 2024 Games in Paris. After the 2020 Games were moved to 2021, he reconsidered and said he was optimistic that he would go on to compete at another Olympic Games. "If we'd gone ahead as normal, I was already at the point where I was asking myself, 'Can I do another four-year cycle?' I definitely could have gone for another two, three years, but the fact I got that break this summer [2020], I'm feeling a lot more refreshed. The next Olympic cycle, to Paris 2024, only being three years is much more manageable. All that has given me a fresh push and perk up. I've been involved in high performance sport since 2010, and having a summer off, it was a bad year to have a summer off, given it was an Olympic year, I was in fantastic shape, and I was disappointed." (irishmirror.ie, 09 Dec 2020)

SOAKING UP SUPPORT
He says that at competitions, he "feeds off" the hype of media coverage and the support he receives through social media. "As you make your way through the rounds, a lot of sports psychologists will recommend that you avoid the hype, don't look at your phone or social media or news reports from home to see the reaction. I'm the opposite. I love looking at that. I feed off that. The fact that some random person gets on Twitter to send me a message saying, 'Best of luck, you're doing the country proud', or whatever, the fact that I could entertain people in one lap of a track and give people enjoyment is unreal. It's class." (thesportschronicle.com, 04 Jun 2020)

EARLY DAYS
He almost gave up athletics when he started university, but his parents persuaded him to stick with the sport for one more year. "I'd been doing it for so long and I was kind of getting sick of it. College was a whole new start and everyone was going out drinking and I wanted to get involved in all that. I moved to a new training group and I was dedicated to athletics, but at the same time I didn't let it get in the way of college, and I was having a good time to a certain extent. Then the training just really fell into place and I ended up going to the European junior championships which was something I never even expected, and I ended up taking six seconds off my personal best which was astonishing." (campus.ie, 10 Aug 2015)

FURTHER EDUCATION
After he graduated with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Limerick in Ireland, he studied for a master's degree in sports performance and sports and exercise at the same institution between 2015 and 2016. (LinkedIn profile, 01 Jul 2017)