Katie Nolan: Kilkenny Camogie Star Does It Her Way
Katie Nolan, Kilkenny's two-time All-Ireland senior camogie winner, has built a career on her own terms. From rejecting a senior panel spot to chase real game time, to embracing the role of impact sub at 29, the Coolcullen native proves that sporting excellence and personal authenticity need not be at odds. This afternoon, she faces Waterford in the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland quarter-final at Croke Park (1pm throw-in, live on RTÉ One), part of a double-header with the Cork-Galway hurling semi-final.
What drives Katie Nolan's approach to elite sport?
There are non-negotiables in high performance sport, and Katie Nolan respects every one of them. But the effervescent Kilkenny forward does things her own way, and that independence of spirit is precisely what makes her remarkable.
Brian Dowling, the former Kilkenny camogie manager, once identified her as one of the most professional players in the panel, someone obsessed with camogie and the gym. Yet Nolan's professionalism emerged from a deeply personal decision. On realising she needed to get fitter to compete at elite level, she gave up alcohol and dedicated herself to peak conditioning. Not for her the cult of sacrifice for its own sake. She simply decided what mattered and acted accordingly.
So enthused did she become by her new lifestyle that she qualified as a fitness instructor. She now runs classes for James Bergin of JB Fitness a couple of mornings a week at Castlecomer Community School, including on Thursdays before heading to her work as an additional educational needs teacher at the Presentation Convent Secondary School in Kilkenny city.
She plans to add a weights room and mini-gym to the cottage 200 metres down the road from the family home that she bought and is renovating. Her father, Séamas, is doing most of the labour, by the sounds of things. There is something grounding about that image, a family pulling together, building something lasting.
How does Nolan balance elite ambition with community life?
Someone who values playing above status, Nolan turned down a chance to be a senior panellist with Kilkenny in 2018, preferring to be in the thick of it with the intermediates. It is a choice that tells you everything about her priorities. She wanted to play, not to sit.
Now she has embraced the role of impact sub, coming off the bench to score goals when Kilkenny need them most. She wants to start, naturally, and is motivated to force her way into the starting side. But there is a maturity in her acceptance of where she is right now.