Echo Women in Sport Award: Nicola Tuthill throws her name in the mix as a rising star 

West Cork’s Nicola Tuthill is fast becoming one of Ireland’s top athletes.

Despite her young age, 21, she is already an Olympian and recently won Ireland its first-ever gold medal at the European Throwing Cup, the West Cork native throwing 69.74m to take victory in the women’s U23 hammer at Nicosia, Cyprus.

Tuthill, who made the European final and competed at the Paris Olympics last summer, won silver in the same event in 2023 and 2024 but took control of the competition with her opening throw of 67.86m, which she improved to 69.70m in round two.

That left her clear of Sweden’s Thea Lofman (69.06m) and ’s Aileen Kuhn (67.25m). Her winning mark was just shy of her Irish U23 record of 70.32m from last May.

And there is a lot more to come from Nicola, who has set herself a number of targets in the next few months, all aiming towards the World Championships later in the year.

Not bad for someone who got involved in hammer throwing almost by accident, thanks to a neighbour.

“I was doing athletics at the time, but I was doing all kinds of running events because my mum would have been into it, so all three of us (Nicola and her sisters) wanted to do it,” said Nicola.

“Then when I was 12, I guess I tried it at an athletics camp during the summer, where you do every event at the camp.

“I really enjoyed it, and then I was at my neighbour’s (Kevin Warner) daughter’s communion. I was just joking around saying how I’m going to try it in a competition, the counties the next day. He then ended up bringing a big 7.26kg hammer and said that he used to take part in the event.

“He said that if I liked it he would coach me and sure enough it started from there. I started throwing it in on the grass outside my house, not even in the field.”

Nicola was training with her local club but she jokingly said that family were getting fed up waiting for her in the car while she trained

So, the solution was easy, her father built her a training ring beside their house so she could train anytime she wanted.

As I got more serious, I guess mum and dad kind of decided to build a cage because my two sisters were waiting in the car, doing their homework and stuff, and I was training at Bandon and it was just taking a long time to cross the town and stuff.

“So around 2019, I started to concentrate on hammer throwing and not compete in other events. I was doing a lot more of the kind of longer distances and then for throwing it's all speed, so everything started to happen quickly and I made to decision to stick with hammer throwing.”

UNBELIEVABLE

This has now led to an unbelievable athletics career to date, with a lot more to come.

She won her first Irish senior hammer title in 2020 with a best of 60.04m, aged just 16, a new Irish U18 record. She qualified for the final at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Cali, Colombia, finishing in eighth place.

Competing at her first senior international contortion for Ireland, she finished second in the 2023 European Team Championships in Poland, throwing a lifetime best of 67.85m. She won the Irish U23 title at Tullamore, setting a championship record 64.89m.

Competing at the Irish Universities Track and Field Championships in April 2024, Tuthill took victory with a new Irish U23 record throw of 68.65m. Last week she retained that title with a throw of 68.70m, beating her own record in this competition.

She threw a new personal best of 70.32 metres in Banská Bystrica in May 2024.

She finished ninth in her first major final at the 2024 European Athletics Championships in Rome, having thrown a distance of 69.85 to rank seventh-best qualifier for the final.

In July 2024, she qualified by ranking and competed in the hammer throw at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

She is only the third female Irish thrower to become an Olympian, following Patricia Walsh (ninth in discus in 1984), and world finalist Eileen O’Keeffe who competed in the hammer in 2008.

In March 2025, she won the gold medal in the U23 hammer throw at the European Throwing Cup at Nicosia.

The Olympics is an event that Nicola will never forget and an experience that she would to relive again at Atlanta.

It was completely surreal, I was travelling all summer to try to get points to get there and I'm so lucky I had so much from so many different people to help me get there.

“Having got there walking into the stadium and hearing the Irish ers cry out was unreal. It was kind of like a home games because it was in and so many people got to travel out.

“My family are a very big to me and my mum comes out training with me if my coach isn't there. She even comes out to learn things so that she can help me on days my coaches aren't there.

“It was nice for me to be able to look up into the stands and see them and see my sisters and see a few of my friends and all of my other family and stuff. I think that definitely kind of calmed the nerves.

“There were around 80,000 people in the stands and I was the youngest at 20 in the hammer, so I did feel like quite young and I was looking at all these people around me, who I've been watching on TV for years.

“Last year was my first year competing against a lot of the senior girls so it all kind of happened very quickly me in that regard, considering my age.

“But even within the Irish team itself all of the older athletes were so nice and they were able to give advice and were happy to help if you had any questions about anything, which I thought was really nice.”

Nicola’s busy schedule doesn’t stop and in the next few months the European Athletics Team Championships, the World University Games, the European U23 Championships and the World Athletics Championships are all events she hopes to be competing at.

“I'll have my own goals for each of them, this is my last year at U23 so I want to do well in that. So it's nice to be able to have stepping stones and they'll all help towards qualifying for the World Championships."