The Cork athlete was bidding for his second Olympic medal and maintained a steady pace throughout the final however he couldn’t keep up with the speed set by the race leaders.
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The race walker was leading the race for 30km and was a minute ahead of his opponents at one point of the race.
Despite all the issues he encountered, the 38-year-old proved himself to be a true Olympic hero by refusing to give up and persevering. He eventually finished in seventh, which we can all agree is a pretty remarkable achievement in the circumstances.
Slovakia’s Matej Toth went on to win the race in a time of 3:40:58, with Jared Tallent from Australia and Japan’s Haruki Arai winning silver and bronze respectiviely.
The unfortunate sportsman had suffered stomach problems before the race – but didn’t want to pull out, according to French newspaper L’Equipe.
Footie fans may remember Gary Lineker’s famous fecal accident when he pooed himself on the pitch at the 1990 World Cup. “It was messy, it just came out, it happened”.
“I was very fortunate it rained that night and I could do something about it”, he told the BBC in 2010.
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Long distance runner Paula Radcliffe answered the call of nature during the 2005 London Marathon in front of millions of viewers, later describing the incident as “an embarrassing necessity”.
