Olympics:Kieran Behan, who became just the second Irish gymnast in history to qualify for the Olympics last week, has been awarded a €20,000 grant from the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) in order to assist his preparations for the London Games.
The Surrey-based 22-year-old, who had been self-funding his gymnastics career up until now, will follow in the footsteps of Barry McDonald who competed at the 1996 Games in Atlanta as a wildcard.
“Kieran has shown tremendous grit, determination and courage in achieving the very high and exacting Olympic standard,” Pat Hickey, president of the OCI, explained this evening. “He is a winner and undoubtedly has the drive necessary to make his Olympic dream come through.
“We in the Olympic Council are pleased to provide essential grant aid to assist this stunning newcomer to team Ireland at the London Olympics”.
Behan’s against-all-odds achievement caps a remarkable journey that has seen him call upon all the qualities needed to be an Olympian after he was twice told he may never walk again. He has battled back from several serious setbacks — among which was him ending up in a wheelchair when he was 10 after complications in removing a non-cancerous tumour from his leg.
Behan recovered, and 15 months later he was back in the gym, only for a freak training accident to leave him with a form of brain damage.
Then aged 12, he slipped while working on the high bar causing the back of his head to land on the apparatus, which damaged his inner ear and caused him to black out with any sudden movement. It meant he had to once more teach himself how to do simple things such as sitting and how to move his head, while he was unable to train for three years.
After a great deal of rehabilitation and support from his family and friends, Behan returned to the gym and gained several youth accolades, only to then rupture the anterior cruciate ligaments in both knees in separate incidents, sidelining him until the end of 2010.
However, despite all those challenges, Behan was crowned as the 2011 World Cup floor champion. He also had an expensive trip to last year‘s World Championships in Tokyo, but he saw an instant reward on his investment, earning the chance to bid for Olympic qualification at last week’s London Prepares test event, which he duly took to qualify as an individual in 34th place.