SCULLION Stephen

General
RETIREMENT AND COMEBACK
In 2014 he took about a year and a half away from the sport, before returning to try and qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. After failing to make the marathon qualifying time for the Games, he retired from athletics in 2016 to play rugby union for Belfast club CIYMS in Northern Ireland. He returned to athletics in 2017. "Before the [rugby] games, there would be guys smoking, eating chow mein and all the rest of it and I was thinking, 'This isn't sport as I know it but it's fun'. I was as unprofessional as everybody but by December or January [2016/17], my mental health had fallen apart. I could quit as a professional runner but I needed the routine and the joy you get from running. When I made a comeback, it wasn't about the [2020] Olympics. It was just really good for my mental health, my happiness, and my drive." (bbc.co.uk, 19 Jul 2020; irishtimes.com, 13 Jul 2020)

COVID-19 IMPACT
After the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo were postponed by a year, he says he considered quitting the sport. In July 2020 he posted on social media that he was retiring, but later retracted the statement. "Things got a little too much for me and I made a rash decision to announce some form of retirement. I've found training solo tough and I'm used to training camps with coaches, physio and friends around me 24/7. When it [the 2020 Olympic Games] was first cancelled, I handled it pretty well, or I thought I handled it pretty well. But I think I joked that if I was a fly on the wall and had seen myself with bottles of wine and takeaway food, I'd probably think I didn't handle it well. I thought about retirement during lockdown due to the cancellation of big races and the postponement of the Olympics. Training hard but not being able to race was hard to take. My best years are ahead of me. Maybe a major medal isn't such a long shot any more." (extra.ie, 20 Jul 2020; belfasttelegraph.co.uk, 05 Oct 2020; thesun.ie, 14 Jul 2020)

OTHER ACTIVITIES
He has worked as a web developer and has coached in athletics. He also produced a podcast documenting his preparations for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. (LinkedIn profile, 01 Jan 2014; Jemima Bird Twitter profile, 31 Dec 2020; Stephen Scullion's Road to Tokyo 2020 podcast, 21 Jan 2021)

OTHER STUDIES
In 2007 he took up an athletics scholarship at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, LA, United States of America, where he studied health and human performance. (mcneesesports.cstv.com, 08 Sep 2010)