Senator Eamonn Coghlan

Eamonn Coghlan is known as the “Chairman of the Boards” for his unprecedented successes on the American indoor athletics circuit, winning 56 races on the trot. He won the famous Wanamaker Mile in Madison Square Garden a record seven times.

Eamonn broke the world record for the indoor mile on three occasions and held this record for 18 years.

In 1983 he became the first person to run under 3 min 50 sec for the mile with a time of 3:49.78. Also, in 1983 he became Ireland’s first World Athletics Champion when he won the gold medal for the 5,000m in Helsinki.

Eamonn is a three time Olympian and finished 4th twice, the 1500m in Montreal 1976 and the 5000m in Moscow 1980.

Eamonn’s last race ever will arguably go down as one of his most historic. On February 20th 1994 when he became the first and, still the only athlete in the World over 40 years old, to run under 4 minutes for the mile in a time of 3:58.17 in Boston.

In May 2011 Eamonn was nominated to the Seanad by An Taoiseach Enda Kenny as an Independent Senator and recently joined the Fine Gael parliamentary party. He has pioneered the “Points for Life” initiative in the Upper House, concentrating on the physical fitness levels in school-age children.

Eamonn is Chairman of the High Performance Committee in the Irish Sports Council and currently coaches a number of Ireland’s leading middle distance athletes.

Married to Yvonne, they have four children, Suzanne, Eamonn Jr., Michael, John and two grandchildren, Amber-Joan and Ethan.

He published his autobiography “Chairman of the Boards-Master of the Mile” and in February 2012 he won an IFTA for his documentary “Man on a Mission”.