The Inspiring Story Of Orla Comerford: Paralympian & Visual Artist

Meet Orla hello and welcome to the her Sports show I'm your host Jessica Gardner joining me today is the two-time paralympic Sprinter or locomophid we got to chat a bit about Ole's athletic Journey how she managed to overcome the numerous challenges that she's faced and get a bit of insight into her training towards Paris 2024 qualification Ola also shares with us her experience being both a visual artist and an athlete and how these two passions have shaped her life today let's get into it thank you okay so I'm gonna start off so just to do something a bit different a bit fun um what is your routine before you race oh that's fun um my routine before my race it obviously depends like what time of the day you're racing so if you're up early I'm my routine's definitely condensed a bit I'm not a girl who loves an early morning so I kind of try and leave myself in bed as long as I can but if I'm later in the day I definitely like to take my time in the morning I'm definitely very relaxed day of racing I'm not someone who gets too jittery or nervous I'm kind of listening to a good podcast or a playlist and like taking the day fairly handy and then like an hour before I'm going up to the track I'm like getting ready doing a little bit of makeup doing the hair it's definitely like a bit of Athletics everyone kind of has their own like a little bit of style yeah and which is definitely like nice um so that kind of thing and then pack in the bag and ready to go out um I'm definitely someone who likes to arrive at the track way earlier than I need to be there anyone in athletics knows the sprinters like to take their time with their werewolves so I'm definitely um I don't like being under pressure on a day like that I'm kind of often in my everyday life a bit of a last minute Annie I'm running late to things I'm like frantically running all over the place but on race day I try to be as relaxed as I can be as early as prepared um and usually speaking I am so um yeah I kind of I like a relaxed lead into a race what is in your bag that you take with you so all The Usual Suspects you have like your foam rollers spikes a thousand layers so there's like well I think that's probably an Irish thing isn't it like you're in Ireland you're like I have a rain jacket I've shorts I have a t-shirt I've long sleeve and but I think it kind of carries into when I'm abroad I just like to have every option so if I'm like too hot or too cold I've something in the bag so these inevitably way more in my bag than there ever needs to be there's a few resistance bands tons of snacks every snack you can imagine always jellies on race day we like to have a bit of like it's not a suspicion or like um a good looking but I kind of like to have five jellies before I race it's sort of like a car room thing that I like to have it's just a little you know um baby jelly babies or my my choice too but I'm kind of I'm converting over to kind of like sour jellies these days anyway that's super boring but really fascinating um yeah mainly just everything you expect like three different types of hydration every type snack every type of layer for any weather condition spikes stuff like that it's kind of the more you have in the bag the less you worry once you're there you kind of know whatever comes up if there's a delay you have something to eat if it's super hot and there isn't like a water stand before you're there like you have everything in your bag so just kind of having every base covered and then there's inevitably a competition where you realize you don't have something you'd like and then that becomes a part of the bag routine that kind of lives on forever so you kind of learn and and grow but it tends the same okay well that's the same awesome thanks for sharing what's what's in your bag um and also you ran this weekend um what competition was that and how did it go thanks um I ran at the AI um national league so basically all of the country all of the clubs in the country put forward a team so there were 20 Women's teams put forward and um it's sort of like a round one everybody runs in different events and they get points for their Club so depending on how many points a club gets they get all added up and then the top eight clubs go through to the Premier Division in the final and then Division One Vision Two um so I was running for my club rohini Shamrocks I've been with them since I was probably six or seven so I'm a die hard rainy girl and so I was running in the 100 meters for the club and it went fairly well and we've had a few hiccups this year in season so it's definitely nice to be back on track and moving in the right direction so um I was fairly happy I ran uh personal best which is oh well done kind of nice um it's definitely you know I think I've I well I hope and I think I have a lot more in the tank and a lot more to come but it's definitely moving in the right direction so I'm happy and picked up the all-important few points for the club so it was a good day out okay that's great and going way back to the beginning of when you started your athletic Journey um were you involved in any other sports before you got into Athletics before Starting athletics probably a few Sports I can't remember too clearly I was fairly Young when I started Athletics um but I do specifically remember asking my mom if there was a sport where you just ran because that was what I liked about every other sport was the running desk okay I was quick um and so I think a teacher in the school told her about the local Club set me up with rohini so I joined when I was quite young but I did always play other sports so I was kind of a very active kid very sporty I played a rake of team sports and individual sports swimming running tennis basketball football you know there was a bit of everything kind of thrown in there but I will admit that I was never a great team player as much as I loved the kind of you know the the team aspect like having all your friends there I was I definitely have always been quite competitive I have brothers so I think it was kind of set in motion early on I was very competitive and liked to do things my own way so uh I definitely I'm not surprised that I ended up in an individual sport but I suppose I like I would have done a lot of sports and then at age 11 or 12 is where I lost I like began to lose my eyesight so that kind of is definitely where things changed a little bit like I didn't drop Sports overnight and I didn't have people tell me there were Sports I couldn't do anymore definitely people said those things but I was quite stubborn and competitive and I was fairly adamant that I would like keep doing a lot of those Sports and um so I did keep a lot of them on not very successfully in some cases you can imagine I was not great at tennis but like I kind of I I gave everything a go and then kind of as I got older realized like what was kind of viable for me where I could put in place different like structures to help me overcome those challenges and where I just couldn't and you know I had great like swim coaches who'd teach me how to count my strokes and stuff like that that like hadn't been done before so I had some amazing coaches who were really Keen to to help me adapt and fit in without feeling any different which was really important um but ultimately like Athletics was always my favorite sport so it was just kind of a matter of time and when I hit about I think 15 or 16 I kind of left all the other sports go and focus on the Athletics solely I had been playing basketball with school and I broke my ribs playing basketball when I was like maybe 14 or 15. it was a big wake-up call for me I just remember being really pissed off that I was going to miss my athletic season and I kind of noticed that I didn't care at all about basketball season I was like I'm not upset that I can't play with the team anymore I'm just really annoyed I'm gonna miss the season and that kind of was a bit of a light bulb moment for me I was like right well like I'm at an age now on a stage where I can give it more time and I can really give it a go and it's what I love to do anyway so yeah it was until later on that I kind of just individualized down into into the Athletics okay and also you Being diagnosed with Stargardt's disease touched a bit about when you started to to lose your sights um can you also just share a bit more about that as well yeah it was fairly quick to be honest like I was in like fourth class in school had no issues and when I came back into school in fifth class so like over the space of the summer months the two or three months I came back into school and I couldn't read my books anymore I couldn't read the boards and like stuff like that I was just struggling and I my parents like fairly swiftly got like my mom wears glasses my dad you know so we were kind of like I probably just need glasses and um the first person I went to was like is she may be pretending like does she maybe want a trendy pair of glasses and my parents were like no she's not that kind of kid there's something more here so um through all the Jigs and rails I found out then that I had star guards which is my eyesight condition which basically me it's a genetic condition but it's degenerative so I'd had fine my eyesight had been fine until I was 11 or 12 and then I it like deteriorated fairly significantly sort of like there was a big drop off quite quickly and that's how I ended out noticing and finding out that I had it um but quite I'm like I've been lucky enough in that like since 11 like I'm now 25 my eyesight is much worse now than it was when I was 11 but I've never lost a lot of eyesight really quickly like I did initially like it's all been very gradual like I'll sit here and I'll think about something I could do or could see a year ago or two years ago and I realize I can't see it now where I struggle with it now where I do it a different way so it's kind of it's much easier to adapt to those sort of things when they happen gradually and but yeah the Stars was kind of Fairly uh fairly shocking at the age of 11 like I had a laptop in school and a computer and large print books I was like this is the age I want to fit in and be like everybody else um so it's definitely um it was definitely a weird time but I I'd like great friends great family like I was definitely always treated the same people you know by the people who actually knew me and were close to me they were the people who still asked questions pushed me to do the things I wanted to do kind of encourage me to be myself and there was plenty of other people who had other judgments and ideas and thoughts about what I could or couldn't do but like thankfully they're not the people I ended out listening to so yeah wow and I can imagine as well it was probably also a bit of a scary and confusing time as well as a kid yeah I to be honest like now when I look back and I don't I like I've no overwhelming memories or thoughts of being scared or being fearful about it I definitely know it's something my parents would have felt because obviously like they were in a situation where their child was losing their vision and like they couldn't do anything about it so I kind of I feel more like I feel more upset for them when I remember that time I'm like that must be very scary for them and made it very um like challenging for them but I honestly I really don't remember it being too upsetting I just remember it being like more like I felt more embarrassed than I felt fearful about the future I was like what are people gonna think of me like it's just that age really you know but I think that the people around me very much shaped than who I became like I've definitely always been a glass half full kind of person and obviously with my eyesight there's no way to know like how much size I will lose in the future or how much I'll be left with and so I think like there is there is definitely a chance there that someone could end up being like Oh God like what am I gonna what's tomorrow gonna be like what's the future gonna be like what will I be able to do but I think it's kind of like I have the vision I have now so I might as well make use of it and do what I can and live the life I can and and be happy about it and then deal with those things when they come instead of being worried about them so yeah yeah that's where I'm at it's amazing though um yeah so he obviously didn't let your condition Becoming a 100m sprinter stop you from pursuing your athletic dreams um so you mentioned you decided to pursue Athletics a bit more seriously when you're about 15 16. um and were you always running the 100 meter Sprints or were there other events that you were also doing as well yeah I did lots of other events as a kid I think the clubs are really good at encouraging kids into like leagues and cross-country get everyone to try everything and figure out what they like and what they're best at so I was definitely pushed into doing a lot of those when I was younger me and the cross country were never friends I was definitely not doing well at the cross country um but I like it was very it was very apparent very quickly that sprinting was what I really enjoyed and what I was very good at and jumping as well like when I was younger I would have done a lot of long jump and hurdles those were things that I would have really enjoyed and hurdles was actually kind of a funny one because it was something I had started doing and learning and obviously anyone who does hurdles knows it's it's a process of you know counting out steps so I lost my eyesight and kept doing the hurdles because I felt that it was something I didn't I was kind of like I don't need to see them I know how many steps I have to take I know how to how to do them so it was something I did keep on until I was maybe 17 or yeah maybe 16 or 17 but I just found it was the kind of thing where you when you make a small mistake maybe you come off a hurdle too soon or too late you know something I wasn't able to make those adjustments to be able to like yeah get back into the running of things I just couldn't like visually there was no way I could make up that difference and then I kind of had some injuries so that's those kind of fell away and at this stage now my eyesight's a lot worse it's not something I would feel very safe going back to um but yeah I would have definitely been keen on the jumps and Sprints when I was younger um but it was it was nice to have the opportunity as a kid to do all of the events the throws the jumps long distance everything like that so it's nice to have that that base and that foundation in the sport and it also I think it helps give you a great appreciation and understanding for all of the events and which is nice and then helps you find the one that you love the most yeah that is true yeah I just sorry I was also thinking now it's actually so funny so you're strousy friends with my husband yeah for just fun training fun training um I remember looking down and because he had measured out obviously 100 meters yeah I thought oh my gosh this is so far I know how I'm going to do this but I managed but my quads are definitely feeling the distance going or like it's 100 meters you're like it's 100 meters and then you made your paralympic debut um when you went to Rio 2016. I did how Qualifying for #RioOlympics old were you I was 18. yeah so it's still in your teen years that's really something to go at that age um so yeah do you remember what was going through your head when you found out that you had qualified and you were heading there yeah I definitely remember being shocked and over the moon I had had a very chaotic year I'd done my leaving Sears and I'd done a portfolio to try and get into art college and I tried to qualify for Rio so it had been a fairly full-on year and I had definitely had a lot of probably in school I I definitely underplayed the the qualifying for Rio to part in school because I had a lot of teachers or people kind of doubting the fact that I was doing the leaving cert and the portfolio they were kind of saying like it's too much to take on like do the other next year and you know I so I I was definitely someone who who took on a loss but also I'm glad didn't let the kind of people who were negative about it or the people who kind of doubted me let them shape my decisions so um I do remember feeling a lot of pressure around a lot of angles and trying to kind of keep that secret or keep it quiet because if I didn't make it I didn't want everybody to know I didn't make it and if I was going for it I didn't want all the teachers on my back being like it's too much like something has to give um so I I definitely think it was the right way to play it at the time but it was definitely a very full-on year and so I kind of probably did have that kind of inner feeling that like maybe everything wasn't gonna work out and so when I found out there was a European championships actually that year while I was doing my leaving cert so I missed the European championships but I remember coming home each evening and looking at the results to see how the other athletes had done to see where that left me and in terms of qualification and what I'd have to do and I remember doing a couple of races locally in Dublin while I was doing the leaving sir to try and get standards or times and but yeah I remember feeling like huge relief as well as excitement when I found out I made the team it was definitely a very surreal moment um and I was actually with friends when I got the phone call so it was like nice to have their support and we were all very excited which was which was really cool it was definitely really cool no that's so awesome and I've always wanted to ask and athlete this question obviously going to the Paralympics like what was the experience like like and amongst the athletes what was the vibe so weird honestly like nothing will ever compare to my first experience of that like it was my first major championship so like I hadn't been to the Europeans I've been doing what even said I hadn't been to a world so I really jumped in at the deep end so you're not only like me not meeting the Athletics team but yeah kind of meeting the Athletics team for the first time like as a whole as well as every other Sport and as well as like this massive team of like staff who make it all possible for you behind the scenes but you don't know who they are and like flying into the most insane environment in the world when you think about it like it's this Village of athletes of high performance people all coming together from every corner of the world every sport it's just so surreal it doesn't it feels something like a bit of a dream but also like a movie because you feel like you've you've maybe had Snippets of it from like hearing other athletes talk about it or you've seen it online and I suppose there wasn't as much access into it when I was like say in 2016 like there was a very odd athlete who'd done like a YouTube video about like the Olympic Village so like it definitely it felt very like unknown territory or Uncharted Territory whereas going back in 2021 then to Tokyo I feel like because I'd been to a games already I kind of knew what to expect in terms of like how it feels the vibe like the environment of it but also I'd watch two weeks of tech talks of everybody in the village so I was kind of like I know where the shops are I know where the dining hall is I kind of feel like I know the environment which is really weird but also like a really nice I'd say it's so nice for people to get to like see inside that world because it is so unique and it's so nice that there there is uh you know there's a way for people to engage with that side of the games as well as just what they see on TV which is kind of cool okay and would you also say obviously the the games like the biggest thing ever um but would you say there's also just that that hint of competitiveness as well when you like almost scoping up the other other athletes I would definitely say that the village like progressively gets more chill as people are finished so like you know like you there is definitely an air of tension or sort of like anticipation or nerves or bravado or whatever you know there's there's kind of something that's there that you do definitely notice as the days go on and the competitions like people are done you notice it's slipping and people being lighter and more friendly and fun and you know I think there's different people like to compete different ways some people like to be very straight laced and serious other people like to be chatty and outgoing so like there is always kind of a mix when you're there but I it is definitely very obvious to see that change and that shift and like especially like in athletics like I know a lot of the girls I race against and like we are not chatting pre the race like really like you see them at the track it's pretty unusual for any of us to be chatty at attractive maybe one or two girls you know well they might say hi but it's not really it's not a not that it's unfriendly but it's not a friendly like chit chat environment um I would find anyway between competitors different events are different like you know field events are historically and famously all great friends and Pals because they're all out on the infield together for however long but um I definitely find in the Sprints now we're all a bit cooler and you know straight lace but then like she you're in the call room everyone's serious nobody talks you finish the race and everyone's like well done oh if you're amazing and everyone's chatting after it's kind of like we all like yeah have this build up and then everyone's kind of like nah we can let it go now and it's almost as if the appropriate time too yeah to socialize exactly What is the #T13Paralympic category? um and then you also for those who may not know you run under the t13 category so if you can also just please elaboratively yeah so in paralympic sports there are different categories for different uh disabilities or impairments so for visual impairments there are three categories t13 T12 and t11. it's the general rule of Tom in in in pyrosport is that the higher numbers down to the lower numbers kind of is more ability to less ability so I would be the least visually impaired so I would have more more vision and then as you go down T12 would have less vision and t11 they would have no vision so they're they always wear like eye masks because obviously most people who were blind like legally blind don't see nothing like I would be legally blind everybody in in t13 down to T12 and t11 are but in t11 they all wear eye masks so that they're all completely blind they all run with guides T12 you can choose to run with a guide or by yourself and then t13 which is the category that I'm in and none of us run with guides so it's sort of to make sure that the people that you're running against it's it's kind of the most fair that we're all sort of of the same ability and and sort of like obviously we don't all have the same eyesight everyone has their kind of um their nuances in in their Vision but t13 is my category and yeah thanks for for elaborating on that um and so while you were preparing for Tokyo Road to recovery um your whole routine in preparation was disrupted with your ankle injury um so yeah let's let's just chat a bit about that what was going through your head first of all what happened and then also what was going through your head when you found out you needed surgery yeah so I actually sustained my ankle injury in probably 2015 2016. so it was something that I had kind of been dealing with for a number of years I'd had different programs of rehab different doctors advice different physios you know I'd gone through a number of years of a lot of different treatments I'd done injections I'd done different programs and it was it was definitely holding me back when I look at like my performances and my training through 2016 into 2017. when I yeah 2017 and 18 so I had a world championships in London and then a European championships in Berlin like all of them my year training was massively affected by my ankle and there was huge work done and it just was never seemed to get right and I'd kind of explored the idea of having surgery before but I'd had some doctors say like I don't think so it's not a good idea and like it's maybe more of a risk than a reward like keep running keep going but my coaches and myself knew that I had a lot more potential and a lot more ability to go faster but it was definitely what was holding me back so we kind of um we kind of made the decision when the ankle injury caused other injuries right it was this compensatory cycle because it wasn't working well everything else was changing like my biomechanics the way I ran shifted like dramatically over those years and so I picked up a lot of like really bad habits of spending more time on the other foot which makes you slower but also puts more pressure on it so I ended up stress fracturing a few bones in the other foot and that kind of was the big like we have to do the surgery now like I know people talked about risk and reward but like this is where we're at and I would have to be done so um I was definitely very keen to get the surgery done at that stage I think um it was it's obviously like you know that's spoish like these things these decisions come along with it but if ultimately you're looking for like the best level of performance and you feel like you've done everything possible before you do the surgery then you can very confidently go into the surgery and accept whatever the outcome is like if you if I jump to the going and gone for the surgery and it hadn't worked I might have been like oh what if I'd spent a year or two doing this or that or if I tried another thing but um yeah so I had the surgery in 2019. so I didn't compete that year and there was definitely a long road to recovery with it and what I sort of hadn't anticipated with it was the recovery I'd have to do for the rest of my body not just the ankle so there was a long there's a long road as there is with any surgery coming back in after and that kind of went according to pan but then I I got caught in this situation where I was like oh my God I have so much to correct I've I've done so much damage everywhere else that it's gonna take a really long road and it's going to be a really long process to get on top of all of the compensatory issues and this like get out of this cycle of injury like one thing flares up and then everything else reacts and then something else flares off so that was definitely a very stressful process to say the least um boss yeah it was it was very difficult and I through 2019 into 2020 I had ongoing issues in my right foot and they were kind of all as a result of having had a left ankle injury I'd spent way too much time I'd done a lot of damage to that foot so um those issues really carried on for a long time and when I was targeting 2020 for Tokyo honestly I wouldn't have made a team you know like I definitely was like holding out hope and like pushing and seeing if it was something that could happen but when the announcement came that they were going to shift the games a year and postponed them to 2021 like I remember this massive weight lifting and being like Oh my God like I could actually make it now like I've been given this extra year and I know it's terrible circumstances and nobody wants this but like this could actually mean I'm gonna make it um and it was it was like a wait I didn't know I felt until it lifted that sort of thing you know and so it was yeah it was a big year then training at home and I think even that opportunity to train like I obviously didn't have access to a track at the start so like really going back to basics with my great like my team were so good um you know taking things all the way back to basics running on grass doing all my drills getting all my pliers in all of that like biomechanic work that I could really like go back to it it had been what I was doing on the track and then almost like being on the grass gave it more time to kind of just you know settle in and ease and build up then into into that year and I had a few like I did have a few little injuries like you know I had hamstring tears and tendons and stuff like this that were kind of things like never really dealt with before in in that run up so it had it was not smooth but it was it was all it was all a rolling you know issue which is I mean it's I'm it's not unique you know there's lots of people in sport he'll know that uh you know one thing leads to another so um it kind of left me in a position where I was up and running and going really well and then something would kind of trip me up and I'd have to go back a few steps to go back again and um so I managed to to race in in May of 2021 to qualify for Tokyo and came up and raced and then I kind of ended out with a hamstring tendon tear that kind of set me back again and so you're building back up and then I got into a position for Tokyo that I kind of I definitely felt really competitive I was really confident in making a final I knew it wasn't the best version of myself and I I would want more for myself in the future but I I knew that I could be competitive and in the mix in the finals so I was like really you know it and it was laid a lot I didn't find out I was going to Tokyo until like I think a week before the plane left like it was really late in the game so it was definitely a year of complete highs and lows um and so I got on the plane and headed out feeling feeling like a final was definitely on the cards for me it was definitely possible so feeling quite confident about that and then on Camp 10 days before my race I got a small quad strain like small tear in the quad yeah so I ended up down in a position I never imagined I would be in it like I've dealt with injuries and dealt through the training of them all but I'd I'd never I'd never been at a competition and like arrived there feeling one one way and then go into the competition feeling another way like you know I arrived at Rio we're at London knowing where the ankle was at knowing where training was at and knowing kind of how things would turn out but Tokyo was definitely very different uh that was it was a loss and my my coach Brian had been very unwell in 2020 and I had found out a couple of weeks before it was when we were on our training camp in Portugal before we went to Tokyo I found out that they were going to move on to palliative care and it all happened very quickly and he was brought home so I got to see him before I went to Tokyo and when I qualified which was really lovely to to see him and like he knew where I was going and he it's where he wanted me to be um but yeah so there was definitely like a lot of emotion wrapped up on it and I'm not you know naive enough to think the quad thing happened out of nowhere I'm sure that the emotional toll kind of played its peace in it but I am I'm glad that I I lined up you know I think there was a stage once the choir happened at the training camp that we kind of were like is it am I going to be able to line up am I going to be able to race and I'm glad that I did because I was like I want to be able to look back at this and feel like I at least gave it a bit of a go um and so yeah lined up raced finished it um but obviously performance wise it just wasn't anywhere near where I would have hoped to be or or should be um so yeah that was definitely a very unusual experience but that's sport well done to you because I think also your your mental game you need to be so strong to overcome all these injuries and like you said there was a lot of emotional things happening as well um so yeah really well done nice well I'm like you know what anyone in sports knows that Andrea is part and parcel of sport I've definitely been a little bit more on the Unlucky side I think there's been a lot of them and it's been a very long road and a very long journey but I am you know grateful sounds weird to say about having an injury but it was something I had early on and I think it's it's created a good mentality and it's created a sort of a drive in me and a motivation and at this desire to be able to to get back to where I I know I can be and push towards those competitive um spaces because I've always had that like hunger I think sometimes when you have a lot of success in your early sporting career and then you get an injury later in life it's quite hard to take that hit and it's hard to be able to pick yourself back up to get back up there because you've not had to experience that before so I think having had that experience young is probably the reason I've been able to to stick with it through all the highs and lows of it um but I'm not the first athlete to be injured and I won't be the last and I'm sure I'll I'll still have have plenty of ups and downs to contend with but um yeah it's definitely been a difficult Road and a Rocky one but I'm hoping it'll stand to me in the next half of my journey yeah and [Music] so just going a bit more to something a bit more General um so Thoughts on Paralympians' representation in mainstream media I read the other day there was this article by this professor um and she was basically saying how there's been a shift of news coverage from print online and that's really expanded the opportunity for more visibility especially for sports women and she was saying that she believes that paralympic games are increasingly a good news story for women's sport with Sport with sports women dominating coverage they are they are far more visible than Sportsmen featuring in 65 percent of photographs promoting paralympic stories that was just a quote um but obviously as a para athlete um yeah what do you think of of that statement when you when you hear it I never knew that advice there being like more coverage for women in parisport that is really brilliant but I think Powersport definitely offers a different opportunity and perspective right it's it's obviously it's a space in an arena where there is a different level of understanding and experience for athletes there's it's high performance but you also have athletes and people who've who are very they do things different ways like I don't want to say everyone has overcome challenges because that's true for everybody and every Walk of Life like we all have challenges and we all have things that we have to overcome and work around but I think in Paris Sports like that's that resilience and that commitment to high performance and that commitment to to working you know in your own unique ways or ways that that work for you kind of like almost bleed into the way there's coverage around it we're like I hope that it does it doesn't always and but I think in like people are starting to pay a lot more attention I think 2012 was the big shift for paralympic Sport with it being in London and with there being such um such a big community of disabled people in in the UK who were very vocal who are very knowledgeable who were very on top of things having the media tune into the paralympic games but also take note from those people was really important and I think it is really important in the coverage of paralympic sport to have the perspective of people living with disabilities as well as the perspective of people who deal with high performance Sports it's having those two come together because it's not you know athletes aren't one or the other they're both of those things and and both of those you know identities are incredibly important to paralympic athletes so I think you know Athletics is especially a sport where there's definitely always been a really nice gender balance if you turn up to see the women's race you turn up to see the men's race if you turn up to see the men's right you're seeing the women's race there's always we've we've been lucky that we've never had that struggle of like you decide which one you're coming to that's that's a really special thing about Athletics but it doesn't always translate then into the coverage that those Sports get like for example everybody knows the fastest man in the world do any of us know well I do but you know a lot of people don't know who the fastest woman in the world is and that's because of the coverage that that they get and so um I think the Paralympics offers a unique opportunity if they're saying this there's already a lot more coverage for women that's a huge opportunity that this hopefully athletes can take advantage of yeah it's actually something usually something so interesting now which I've never even considered and I always I love watching Athletics but it's so true how if you're watching them in you're going to see the woman because they just they organize it in such a way that the events are just running after each other in such a way that you're going to see both yeah um so yeah that was very no it is and it's a real it's it's a real privilege of our Sport and it's uh I think it's one of the nicest things about our sport it doesn't compare the two but it always it always highlights and uplifts both and it makes sure that you know I think it is different if I want to go to a football match or like a rugby match or hurling or camogie match like I have to make the decision about which team I'm going to see am I paying money to see the women's team am I paying when you see the men's team like there is a decision about who you're going to see and like historically those decisions have been made around men's team who've had more coverage and that's where there's been that difficulty of getting that coverage and that like appreciation understanding for the women's teams because people don't have to to watch vote which is crazy you shouldn't like it shouldn't be the way it is but it is but Athletics is definitely has had the advantage of whoever you come to see you see everyone yeah yeah no and yeah and and I do think also just speaking about it more generally as well like we've obviously seen for for years mainstream media has just focused on them in now we surely like oh and slowly but surely assigned to see it yeah moved to giving women more exposure as well but it's also like having having Outlets like this like having having people who were there and doing the work to highlight women in sport which push it more so into the mainstream like you guys do it day in day out and that pushes the bigger kind of players in in sport it kind of it shows them up it says like well we're doing it every day of the week why can't you include it you know it really forces their hand and it's such important work because without without that that coverage and that highlight those women in sport don't get those opportunities the same opportunities that that man often get in sport it's it's not even the opportunities in sport it's the opportunities outside of sport that make your sport more viable it's those financial opportunities um that help to fund and you know push on your your career yeah so hopefully we'll continue to yeah to see progress um and so you went on to study Fine Art and media at the National College of Art Studying visual arts at NCAD and Design what made you decide to study that degree um I always loved art and school it was my favorite subject and never felt like work it was always something I really enjoyed it's definitely something I got a bit of like push not push back on but like questioning like people are like you're officially impaired like what are you doing in art school surely you can't see what you're doing you know there's definitely lots of uh preconceptions and ideas about uh about where I should or shouldn't be and I think more so it was it was an unusual decision for me at the time because sport is obviously such an important part of my life and ncid is certainly not known for its sporting prowess so I you know I was looking at a situation where like a lot of the other colleges like offered these great environments for sport and these communities and and groups but I just I I didn't really ever feel as connected to any of the other subjects or courses like I've lots of loves and passions and there's a million things I could have done in a million colleges but I'm really very glad I ended up going to ncid I had a great art teacher who was very encouraging who pushed me you know to to to Follow that dream and and to follow that love um and so I ended up getting into ncid I wildly only applied for one course in one art college I did so much so much work on my portfolio but I really just had a feeling at the time that if it was meant to be it was meant to be and if I got the points in the portfolio and I made it there that's just where I was meant to be um and so thankfully that worked out and I went to ncid and I loved it so much I think the advantage of being in a smaller college is that like and even in a place where there haven't been a lot of athletes is there's there's a lot more leeway you know if you're in DCU or UCD and you ask for something they can't always give it to you because they're like if we give it to you we have to give it to every other auth leader if we make this allowance once we have to make it a thousand times whereas in my case I was often the only person who'd ever come to them to ask them could I go on a training camp or go to a championships and they were always very good at accommodating and kind of helping making me making those things work and then when I had my surgery and ended out doing that kind of big year of rehab they I was really struggling to keep up in college because it's not it's not like a traditional College you can't split your modules and do it out over a certain number of years you're either in or you're out there's no part-time um and I was really struggling to keep up and like my raids were slipping the quality of work I was making was slip I just wasn't enjoying it and I wasn't liking what I was making and um they were really really good at helping me defer so I deferred for what was meant to be a year but then with covet everything ended up being a bit more so it was definitely a big joke in my friend group when I ever graduate [Laughter] but I went back last year and did my final year um and I'm so glad I did honestly and I even think the time away from it like gave my my practice in college like definitely a huge shift in perspective and I think it definitely helped to elevate my work um and obviously the work I do I was in fine art media which is mainly sort of tech-based art so it's a computers film photography software so those are something that's really accessible for me as someone who's visually impaired so there's there's softwares and there's ways of working I'm definitely a little bit slower on some of those things than my peers were but I there was always a way for me to access and to use those softwares and to to be creative in a way maybe in some other like something like fashion I can't even try to need it obviously like it wasn't really gonna work out for me so um I was really glad to find a passion in something that also I felt really fit me and kind of was accessible to me and and I had great support and help in college with it and I love it so much and it's so nice to have something outside of the Athletics World as well that kind of helps and serves as a bit 2022 RDS Visual Art Awards of a distraction from you know sport can be very all-consuming so it's nice to have something that kind of takes you away from it yeah yeah definitely and you also won an award last year yes so let's chat a bit about that and yeah yeah what was that all about so I won the RDS members fond Awards which um is an award at the RDS Visual Arts award so the RDS Visual Arts awards are kind of the biggest graduate awards for the visual arts so curators go range to all of the degree shows so they would have done it in the last couple of weeks for this year so they go around the country to all of the art colleges and all of the degree shows and they nominate people for a long list for this award so you're nominated I was nominated and I nearly died I didn't think I would ever get the nomination let alone what came after it but um you're then sort of invited to apply for it so there's a whole application process and then a short listing process which again I nearly felt like I had to pinch myself after being shortlisted and then from that they choose 13 13 not athletes 13 artists and to exhibit their work as part of the RDS Visual Arts Awards um exhibition and which took place in the RDS this year last year and this year it's going to take place in the Irish Museum of Modern Art and so it's definitely a very important um it's a very important piece for coming out of college that graduate um position it's a huge springboard for for visual artists it gives them the opportunity to share their work with a larger audience with a very engaged audience it gives people in the visual arts World in Ireland and in the community to to see your work and to see kind of the level of work and the sort of work that's coming out and that's kind of the emerging art scene and and so to be a part of that was like a massive mass of honor and hugely exciting and really a massive opportunity for my career in Visual Arts um and then somehow I won an award too which was so surreal and so amazing but um yeah definitely really huge but also huge for my confidence in it as well I think I've definitely always felt a little bit of imposter syndrome I've always felt like I have an identity as an athlete and that's who I arm and trying to to help myself understand that like I can have a jewel kind of career and a dual identity and I can can be a visual artist and I can be an athlete and those two things don't have to be one or the other um so definitely helped me I kind of thought art would probably be something that was there for me when I finished Athletics it was a career that I would look towards in the future but it definitely brought it home that like that's something I can be working towards now that's something that is viable for me now and it's there for me to take and it's there for me to to to push on so it gave me a huge confidence boost and it also gave me huge exposure and it gave me you know a lot of insight into into the world so I've been applying like this note tomorrow to different grants and bursaries and awards and everything like that so it's definitely been a really exciting year and it's been um it's been yeah it's been a roller coaster but I'm really looking forward to like what is to come on that side of things as well and it's it's always been a really nice a really nice space outside of training for me yeah 100 and your your exhibition um she ended up winning and of course I'll chat a bit about that yeah so it was a piece called Iraq so it was an installation based piece so I had large I I made large sculptural wooden objects that I projected video Work onto and so the video work was all centered around and my dad is building uh a wooden boat at the moment and he has been for the last number of years so I was kind of documenting his work as he he went through that process and progress of that project and and I kind of wanted to take a personal perspective and lens on that experience and create a work where a viewer's experience of my work was dependent on their movement through the space so basically as you came into the exhibition space there would have been visually you could see these three large boards with video work that was very heavily distorted so you wouldn't have been able to recognize what was happening but there was very loud audio sounds that gave you Clues so you could hear the noises of of garage work going on so there's hammering there's you know drilling there's the radio in the background that sort of a noise would help to give you a context of what you might be seeing and as you moved closer in towards the piece then the visuals sharpened and the sort of reality of them emerged in order to sort of mirror my experience of someone with a visual impairment so the further away I am from something the more I need to rely on my other senses to make up an idea of what's in front of me and then as I move in closer towards something I can start to see what's going on so the closer I am to something the better I can see it and the further away I am the more I need to rely on those other senses so I didn't want to make work that was a crude sort of this is what I can see you know representation but I wanted something that was almost like a metaphor for it and helped people engage with artwork I think Modern Art and Contemporary Art can sometimes create a bit of a barrier for users and for for viewers and it can people find it hard to know how to access it but I wanted to make a work that helped to draw people in towards it and helped get people engaging and immersing with the work um so hopefully that's what it did but yeah the use of like the tech in it the sensors the projectors that sort of stuff was definitely something that was really fun to play with and it's something I'd love to continue to do on my work I'd love to kind of push that sort of perspective of of the lens and how we all view the worlds through different perspectives whether those are physical or sort of cultural and so that's something I would like to continue to explore in my work yeah it sounds very interesting thanks and I know I'll just also was just thinking that I remember in school like Sports and athletic sports and Athletics Experience as an artist and athlete Sports and arts always seem to be like yeah they're complete opposites now the fact that you are both yeah I think that that is super awesome and would you say that I was also having this debate with someone the other day yeah we were just chatting about like different like dancing typical example I did ballet growing up yeah and I always considered ballet to be a sport yeah and some people may say no it's not it's an art form yeah so as someone who is both an artist and an athlete would you say the two go hand in hand I think in some worlds they're so separate but in other worlds they're similar like there's there is you know there's in both there's a commitment to really hard work there's a commitment to you know the process there's a commitment to the way things go and then there's also this like big sort of fanfare as well whether it's a big show of your artwork at an exhibition that everyone comes and ooze and Oz at or you run on you know the biggest stage in the world those both have like a Fanfare about them and a sort of like entertainment purpose you know of some sort so they definitely do it in some ways go hand in hand and I think the the experiences I've gone through in athletics have definitely like 100 shaped who I am as an artist the way I work my process everything so I definitely one wouldn't be possible for me without the other like when I even look at Athletics and the years I struggled most with injury or the years I've really didn't love us in a way that I do now those were the years I Didn't Have Art those are the years I I left college and I said I'll leave that behind now for a couple of years and go back to it when I didn't carve out the space to have that I didn't do as well in athletics so for me I'm someone who definitely needs to have time for both to be able to do well at either you know I'm kind of um I think both really play into into the other and and for me have helped success in either has has definitely been thanks to the others so I definitely think they I know in some people's minds they're not the same thing but they do they do play play nicely together okay cool now I know I was right but again like you said it's different yeah for everyone um so you're heading to the par Athletics World Championships on the 5th of July how are you feeling for this Training toward #Paris2024 qualification yeah I'm definitely feeling not nervous isn't the right uh term but it's definitely comb around so much quicker than I expected I feel like I've I've spent two years almost looking towards it because I didn't compete last year and I had a big kind of rehab process and so I've been I feel like looking towards these championships for so long and then they've almost arrived without me even realizing they were so close um but they're hugely important like this year is really important for next year so qualification is the big goal for this year um usually at a world championships the year before paralympic games for us anyway top six guarantee slots for their country so if you guarantee a slot for your country that kind of that means it doesn't mean you get to take the slot it means Ireland have a slots for the country but the following year your job is then running the fastest you can or the best you can to be able to fulfill to take that spot instead of trying to qualify a slot and take it so it takes the pressure off massively to be able to do that the year before games boss thanks to covert which is still a pesky little um thorn in in the foot um there's there's been a delay and a pushing back of some competition so we're in a position now where we have a world championships this year in Paris and next year in Japan in May okay obviously competing in Japan in May at a world to then compete in August in Paris out of paralympic games isn't really ideal and doesn't really fit with a lot of athletes sort of um General plan towards Peak Performance so because of that and because of the two World Championships and because they certainly knew that a lot of people wouldn't feel too Keen about Japan those slots have been divided so now instead of top six in Paris qualifying it's only the top four it's the top four people in Paris will qualify slots for their country and if you're not in that top four you go to Japan the next year to try and qualify the next two slots okay there are other processes and other ways to qualify thoughts for your countries that are a lot easier in bigger countries that have bigger paralympic Athletics or paralympic you know Sports kind of communities Arlen's quite a small country and we have a small group of athletes so the best and most kind of concrete way for us to do that is is this so for me I've I've definitely especially with the injuries over the past number of years it's been very difficult for me to compete early to try and qualify for a championship so to qualify a slot to then compete and it's kind of almost been a little bit of my downfall it's that trying to Peak twice has sort of caught me out and you're trying to run fast to qualify maybe before you're ready to and then that's caused me issues and so for me my big goal for this year was is to hopefully try and take that pressure off myself next year to qualify that slot this year to not have to go to Japan and to be able to focus next year solely on Peak Performance for Paris so I think for me there's obviously like obviously you're always focusing on on your goals and you have a load of goals to get up to the big ones eventually but for me that is is the sole focus and the most important thing about this year um so that kind of top poor position is really important and really where I'd like to be this year um which I know is unusual because I'm sure you come forth and people are like oh you must be so disappointed but you know in Paris whoever comes for it's going to be like I'm delighted I'm qualified um so yeah that's definitely I think for me the main focus for this year I I kind of earlier in the year would have had very specific goals around times I wanted to run and you know through ups and downs those have kind of changed and had to shift a little bit but that that top four is really the most important part of getting performance right next year okay you know yeah we are rooting for you thank you Words of advice um and yeah I think just to to end off you really early you have such an amazing story and you really are such an inspiring person um and if you were given an opportunity to just share any piece of advice to other girls and women what would you say I definitely always say to stick with it I know I know that there can be a lot of factors that pull you away from whatever it is that you love whether it's a sport or you know another passion what you love to do and what brings you Joy and what brings you you know comfort in life what brings you a sense of community is always so so important and it's so easy to get pulled away from those like life life can drag you in in different directions and people's ideas and perspectives can can shift how you think about those things but it's so important to really try and stay true to yourself and do the things that you you love and that you enjoy because inevitably they're always going to be the people who who have your back who you fall back on it's going to be the thing that brings you Joy on a tough day and I know there can be ups and downs with sports or without whatever your passion is in life but I think being able to to stick with it and unless that sort of um let that love for it really guide you I think I see so many girl girls leaving Sport and I even see there's sort of an age group but not in athletics and in our club at the moment that like I'm like the most important age group because they're they're not an age group where they either stick with the sport forever or they leave forever and it's so important to be you know the I was that age at one stage and there were really important people who who supported me who propped me up who who were my Champions who kept me in the sport and so it's important then when when you're on the other side of that to try and do that too to be able to support those that younger group of girls in athletics to be their Champions to cheer them on to help them come through because I thought I wouldn't have have been able to go through it in the sport and so I think it's really important to to be able to do that in your own Community as well because it it helps it lifts you up as well it furthers your enjoyment of the sport when you know that there's there's that like next Generation coming through and that there's um that kind of sense of community it's it's so important in a sport and especially in an individual sport where you're right there on the track by yourself when you know there's a team of people behind you that that really makes all the difference thanks for tuning in we hope to see you again for the next episode be sure to subscribe to her Sports social platforms to get the latest women in sports content [Music]