Meet the athletes hoping to represent Ireland at the Paralympics
Kathy Donaghy meets three of our Paralympian hopefuls and talks training during a pandemic, maintaining motivation and what it takes to reach elite status
THE 2012 Paralympic Games in London were accompanied by an advertising campaign — ‘Meet the superhumans’. It said: “Forget everything you thought you knew about strength, forget everything you thought you knew about humans. It’s time to do battle. Meet the superhumans.”
While the team for Tokyo has yet to be selected, Ireland’s Paralympians are working hard to make sure they’re ready to step up and represent their country. And they’ve never allowed other people’s ideas about what they could and couldn’t do stop them following their dreams.
NIAMH McCARTHY — DISCUS
A chance meeting started Niamh McCarthy on her Paralympic discus journey. But very quickly the Carrigaline, Co Cork, native progressed onto the international scene, securing her first major medal at the World Championships in Doha in 2015.
Her greatest achievement so far came when she represented Ireland at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio. Niamh produced a staggering throw of 27.05m to record a new personal best in the event, which won her the silver medal.
Now 27, it was a random meeting with someone whose son was involved in a disability sports group in Cork when she was 18, that set Niamh on her own course.
After attending a Paralympics event in Dublin, Niamh was put on a fast track panel for athletes in the discus. “It was all a bit of a whirlwind. I had been involved in trampolining and skydiving at UCC and I don’t think I fully understood the implications of it all,” she says.
“I was always incredibly competitive. With anything physical, I’d tended to be good at it. Although I’d never considered myself disabled, I knew there were things that were more difficult for me,” says Niamh.
Adapting to what life gave her is something she’s good at. After moving to France for a few years, she went to the local school with not a single word of French. “I just kind of had to adapt. Sport is the same — you get on with it,” she says. Giving up on her college career to work to fund her training — Niamh, who works part-time with Dell — says people can relate to Paralympians because they’re doing normal things in life. Keen to use her voice for change, Niamh got involved in the 20x20 movement which champions women and girls in sport. “There’s a big difference between guys and girls in sport. It’s not an easy thing to change but with girls it’s never assumed you’ll do sport, it’s nearly out of the ordinary. That culture has a big part to play. I don’t think young girls are thinking about going all the way whereas young lads want to be the next Beckham,” Niamh says.
Like all the athletes, she’s waiting on an announcement that secures her place on the Irish team. And she is leaving nothing to chance and training hard.
Lockdown saw her begin training to be a Pilates instructor. “That came from a fear of Tokyo not going ahead. I also think about what happens when I stop training. I have my work but I want to do something within the fitness industry. I was having virtual physio
sessions including Pilates sessions and I grew to love it. I realised it’s something I could do,” she says of her new departure.
“My pipe dream is a log cabin where I’d have my Pilates studio where I could work from home,” she adds. But the big dream keeping her focused is Tokyo. “I don’t think it ever wears off — that you’re representing your country”.
While she hasn’t competed since the onset of Covid-19, like many athletes she’s been making modifications to her training, Zooming twice a week with her UK-based coach Alison O’Riordan.
Even though she feels she still has ‘big gaps’ to close in terms of her throw distance, she’s hopeful that if things go well she could come home with a medal. “Every year when I set goals I try as hard as I can. If that means gold or silver medals, I’ll take that. If Tokyo is my last performance I’d like to go out on a high, but with a medal ideally,” she says. Niamh is all too aware that she might never have tried this sport, but a voice in the back of her head told her it would be a waste not to give it a go. “I said if it works, it works. At least you’ve tried. It’s changed my life totally. I don’t know where I’d be without it. I’ve got to go to places I’d never have gone to. I’m a different person and my hopes and dreams for the future are different to what they used to be.”
‘I’ve seen many friends go to a dark place because they moved away from sport’
JORDAN LEE — HIGH JUMPER
Throughout his youth, 20-year-old Jordan Lee from Killarney, Co Kerry, showed huge sporting prowess in football and basketball, where he made history by becoming the first amputee to represent their country at international level.
Jordan was born without a forearm. When he was developing in the womb, the umbilical cord wrapped around his elbow, stopping the blood flow and stopping the growth.
He remembers his first basketball training session as if it were yesterday. He says: “I was five at the time and I remember opening the door. I felt people stop what they were doing. Everyone was looking at me and staring at me and saying, How is this guy going to play?’ as if I couldn’t hear them at all”.
Whatever their misconceptions or prejudices, they were soon forgotten as Jordan was a prodigious talent. But when he talks about that first moment, he sees it almost like a movie playing in his head.
At the age of 17, Jordan heard the world’s fastest Paralympian Jason Smyth talk at an event organised by the Cara Centre in Tralee, which helps people with disabilities get involved in sports. Smyth encouraged the young athlete to go to a national talent day for prospective Paralympians.
With his background in basketball and strength as a jumper, Jordan settled on the high jump. While he explains that he’s not astallas some high jumpers, he’s 6ft 1.5in and some high jumpers are 6ft 4in and over, what he lacks in height, he makes up for in strength and power.
In his first major competition, he came fourth. This was before he even had a coach. In January 2018 he met Tomás Griffin, who would become his coach and mentor. With Tokyo in his sights, Jordan is training six days a week with double sessions three times a week. He’s on a mission to prove that para-athletes are just as capable and committed as able-bodied athletes. He regularly competes and places in Athletics Ireland national championships.
After he won a bronze medal at the European
Para Athletics Championships in Germany, he went on to compete in national championships, coming second, competing against ablebodied athletes.
“That means a lot to me. I’m not just a good disabled athlete. I’m a good overall athlete,” he says, in the knowledge that high jumpers don’t reach their peak until their late 20s and he still has years to continue to get better.
Speaking to young people is something he’s also passionate about and deeply committed to. “Giving back is something that’s very important to me. I’ve been given lots of help from my family and my friends. Lots of people have helped me on my journey”.
Jordan is also in contact with young people, who like him, have a disability. Right now he’s in the process of helping a 10-year-old boy with only one arm learn to tie his shoelaces.
“He called me his hero. I didn’t have anyone like that to look up to and I take great pride in helping people achieve their goals. I try to use my social platforms to get people involved in sports. People with disabilities adapt, they do things in their own way,” he says.
“I’m very fortunate to be competing at a high level. I’m trying to show that people with disabilities can perform at this level if you give it 100pc. I don’t think people are encouraging enough to people with disabilities to get involved in sports. Everyone is equal; we all deserve to be treated with the same amount of respect.
“Getting involved in sports changes lives. It gives people a purpose and a goal. I’ve been involved in sport for my entire life. I couldn’t picture what I’d be doing if it wasn’t for sport.
“I’ve seen many of my friends go to a dark place because they moved away from sport. It gives you a goal and a target. It gives you motivation.”
He also credits his family and the wonderful adults in his life — his mother Mary Buckley, his father Jarlath Lee, his stepdad Dermot Buckley and his coach Tomás Griffin — as being guiding lights during his journey.
‘I’m not just a good disabled athlete. I’m a good overall athlete’