The final 11 athletes have been announced to compete for Team Ireland at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
Para equestrian have a team of four that will represent Ireland at Versailles. Kate Kerr Horan returns to the Paralympic Games having made her debut at Tokyo 2020. The Wicklow native will travel with her horse Serafina to compete at the Paris Games. Jessica McKenna will be making her first appearance at the Paralympic Games. She hopes to make a big impact with her horse, Davidoff. Michael Murphy will be an integral team member on board of Cleverboy, as he aims to maintain some outstanding recent form at Paris.
Sarah Slattery will be making her debut at the Paralympic Games. The Galway native will bring her horse Savona to Paris and hope to make an immediate impact on the biggest stage.
Para triathlon will be represented at in Paris by three female athletes and two guides.
Cassie Cava will make her first appearance at the Paralympic Games for Team Ireland. She has been competing very well recently and will be very much looking forward to her opportunity to compete in Paris this Summer.
Chloe MacCombe is the first of the MacCombe sisters to introduce this afternoon. Accompanied by her guide, Catherine Sands, Chloe has worked towards this dream for several years and is looking forward to her first-ever appearance at the Games.
She is a Commonwealth Games silver medallist and is currently ranked number 3 in the world. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Chloe MacCombe and her guide, Catherine Sands.
Judith MacCombe makes this an exciting time for the MacCombe family, as the twin sisters will compete as part of Team Ireland in Paris 2024. Judith found her best form when it mattered, surged up the world ranking along with her guide, Eimear Nicolls, to secure her place in Paris and ensure that both of the tandem twins will compete for Team Ireland this Summer.
An Irish Para rowing boat returns to the Paralympic Games for the first time since London 2012 consisting of Katie O’Brien and Tiarnán O’Donnell.
Katie O’Brien is a rowing star and traces her interest in Para sport back to watching the London 2012 Paralympic Games. Once she found rowing, there was no turning back, and she became a world champion Para Rower in her own right.
She clinched qualification for Paris 2024 through an outstanding performance at the World Championships last September.
Katie will be joined in the boat by Tiarnán O’Donnell. Tiarnán is a relative newcomer to the sport but had shown huge potential as one of the best wheelchair basketball players in the country. He showcased his ability in the PTSB NextGen programme before finding his way to rowing, and now he will compete at Paris 2024.
The entire team, featuring nine sports, was presented at the RDS yesterday in a ceremony in front of their friends, families, Government dignitaries, and the wider Paralympics Ireland community.
“We are really delighted to be presenting our full Team Ireland for the Paralympic Games,” said Paralympics Ireland Chef de Mission Neasa Russell.
“We are incredibly proud of the performances the athletes have put in to get to this point and we are really looking forward to supporting them reach their potential at Paris.”
“We also must acknowledge the wonderful support staff around them that have worked tirelessly to get their teams to this point. Tús maith leath na hoibre’”
Minister of State at the Department of Health and at the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth Anne Rabbitte was in attendance to wish the team the very best over the coming months.
The Para Athletics, Para Swimming and Par Cycling teams were all confirmed separately recently.
In the run-up to the games, we have Podcast interviews with each of the five Para athletes, telling their stories and getting to know them before they represent Ireland at the Games from August 28th to September 8th.
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