“The strength that Nicola has built up from constant gym work has often come in handy down the farm, one example being covering silage,” west Cork farmer, Norman Tuthill, told Agriland, after his hammer thrower daughter’s fine Olympic performance in Paris last weekend.
“It’s back to reality now”, said Norman as he and his wife, Colette, returned to work on their 300ac of land 500ft above sea level in Baurleigh, Bandon, milking 200 Holstein Friesian cows.
At the Paris Olympics Nicola’s final throw of 69.90m meant that she finished in 16th place, just four places short of making an Olympic final.
She was “delighted” to pull out a 69.90m throw, especially since her first throw didn’t go her way. At 20 years of age, she was the youngest competitor in the field for the Olympic hammer competition.
In 2020, Nicola set a new Irish U18 record, when she won her first Irish senior hammer title with a throw of 60.04 m.
In 2023 she won the Irish U23 title, setting a championship record of 64.98m.
Nicola is the middle child of Norman and Colette’s three daughters.
“Herself and her sisters were always on hand to move cattle and feed calves over the summer months and Nicola would often run down to give me a hand milking the cows and help with any tractor driving jobs, since I do a lot of tillage on the farm also,” said Norman, who supplies Five Farms Irish Cream Liquer.
Growing up, Nicola tried a lot of sports: “She did horse riding, camogie and athletics. It was 2012 and she was 12-years-old when Kevin Warner started training her.
“In 2019 Killian Barry, throwing coach, and Roland Korom, gym coach, came on the scene.
“The hammer throw was a unique sport that required a lot of technical work and gym work to progress in, and once Nicola started it, she was hooked in aiming to perfect it and it went from there,” Norman continued.
Norman made a throwing cage and circle on the farm so she could train easily: “I made a wooden template for the circle, poured the concrete around it and then poured the circle. We then dug holes, stood the poles in them and hung fishing netting around it.”
Nicola’s sisters, Olivia and Aoife, are both involved in their own interests.
“Olivia was a member of Bandon AC for many years and has lots of county, Munster and national medals but hip hop and contemporary dancing won out with her and she now dances with the University College Cork (UCC) dance team and has competed in intervarsities in the Helix, Dublin and Cork Opera House. Aoife is racewalking and recently won the U19 nationals in Tullamore,” said Colette.
Nicola’s goal is to continue to improve technically and strength wise and keeping pushing to get consistent throws out over the 70m mark.
An enthusiastic band of family and friends travelled to Paris to support her at the Olympics.
“For us, it was a fantastic experience. The atmosphere in the stadium was unbelievable and the Olympics being so close to home meant lots of Irish went over to support,” Norman said.
He was able to leave the milking in the capable hands of Danney O’Regan who has been working with the family for over 20 years.
“He was well able to take over the running of the farm while we were away,” said Norman.
Nicola’s proud parents are thrilled with her Olympic debut: “I suppose 2028 was always Nicola’s Olympic goal until 2024 became a reality. Her main goal for next year at the moment is the European U23s,” Norman added.
Nicola is on the Ad Astra scholarship in University College Dublin. (UCD.)
“She has great facilities up there and huge support from the Ad Astra Academy. It is difficult to keep a balance between studying and training, as she has a very busy course with lots of lectures and tutorials and obviously a few hours of training most days, but is making her way through it and is heading into third year now.
“She is heading down the route of secondary school teaching of biology and maths,” the proud dad added.