As Dublin’s Portland Row painted the lamp-posts gold in preparation for the return of boxing champion Kellie Harrington, another group of Irish athletes made their way to Paris.
The Paralympic Games take place from Wednesday, August 28th, to Sunday, September 8th, using many of the same venues.
Paralympics Ireland president Eimear Breathnach, herself a former Paralympian in table tennis, is hopeful the team can emulate their able-bodied equivalents in Team Ireland.
“They will do their best and perform to the best of their ability and the medals will come from that, We have a really good mix of athletes,” she said.
“Some of our athletes will be going out here for a second Games not having really experienced the real Paralympic games. We are really excited for them.
“It’s almost a home Games for us. We are hoping that people will travel to support us as they have done for the Olympics.”
The first of the Irish Paralympians, cyclists and triathletes, left Dublin Airport on Aer Lingus flights for their training camps in Europe.
Among them are twins Chloe and Judith MacCombe (29) from Claudy in Co Derry. They were born with congenital albinism which affects their eyesight.
They finish each other’s sentences, but all’s fair in love and war as they will be competing against each other in the PTVI (vision impairment) paratriathlon. They swim, cycle and run with the help of a guide.
“There’s a lot of conflicting emotions,” said Judith. “We want to do well for yourself but you hope she does well too.”
“We do our best to avoid competing against each other,” adds Chloe. “It’s a lot of added pressure to have those conflicted emotions.”
It will be Eve McCrystal’s third Paralympics as a sighted pilot in the tandem cycling event. She won a gold and silver in Rio and a silver in Tokyo with Katie-George Dunleavy.
This year the stoker or co-rider will be Josephine Healion who is vision impaired. The pair have been competing internationally since last year.
Healion only took up paracycling seriously three years ago and is training full-time for the Paralympics.
“I didn’t think I would be here. I’m honoured any day to wear an Irish jersey. Hopefully, we can bring our best performances to Paris and follow the rest of the Team Ireland that have been doing amazing in the Olympics.”
Ronan Grimes (35), who competes in the C4 Paracycling category, narrowly missed out on a bronze medal in the individual pursuit in Tokyo.
“The standard has improved a lot and so have the times. If I can get a personal best in the timed events, in the past it has been good enough for a medal,” he says.
“It will be a completely different Games to Tokyo where racing in an empty velodrome was like a training session.”
