Eight graduates and staff from the Department of Sport and Exercise Science at SETU’s Cork Road Campus in Waterford, travelled to the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games to work or perform with Team Ireland.
Gold medal win
Linda Kelly, a graduate of Exercise and Health Studies (now SE902) was the pilot for paracyclist Katie-George Dunlevey. Together, Linda and Katie secured Team Ireland’s single gold medal at the Games in the Women’s B Time-Trial, along with another silver medal in the Women’s B Road Race.
Recreation and Sport Management (SE906) was also well represented at the Games. Richard Doyle was Deputy Chef de Mission / Performance Operations Manager for Team Ireland, while Michael O'Rourke was the High-Performance Operations Officer.
David Tobin, a graduate of Exercise and Health Studies (now SE902), is currently employed by the Sport Ireland Institute where he provides performance nutrition advice to a range of Irish athletes, including Ireland’s Paralympians. Dr Ciara Losty (Performance Psychology) and Dr Emma Saunders (Performance Life Skills) who are both lecturers in the Department of Sport and Exercise Science, travelled to the Games to continue their athlete support work.
Meanwhile, two graduates worked with the Paracycling Team. Jamie Blanchfield, a graduate of Sports Coaching and Performance (SE904) is the National Paracycling Coach. Jamie completed both his undergraduate degree and more recently his Masters degree at SETU in Waterford.
From placement to Paris
Less than 10 months after graduating with a BSc (hons) Sport and Exercise Science degree from SETU, Darragh Whelan was chosen as the High-Performance Athlete Assistant for the Paracycling Squad.
Speaking about his experience, Darragh said, “I would love to say that it was a linear path to getting there but much like anything in life I feel that this was not the case, however, I certainly believe that being known to the right people and being in the right place at the right time was critical and this is something that I began to pave out for myself whilst I was a student at SETU.”
As part of Darragh’s four-year undergraduate degree at SETU, he completed a coach education and development internship with the national governing body for Cycling Ireland (CI).
After completing his degree, Darragh was employed by CI as Interim Development Officer within their participation department. For six months he oversaw a nationwide community-based cycling initiative called ‘Community Bike Rides’. This initiative catered for 5,000 plus members and was funded by the Department of Transport until the end of 2023.
Darragh was subsequently approached by Neill Delahaye, CI Head Coach, and Jamie Blanchfield, CI National Paracycling Coach, in February of this year to assume a new role of High-Performance Athlete Assistant for Paracycling.
High-performance sport
“High-performance sport was where my main interests lay. I had expressed an interest in this to them whilst I was an undergraduate on placement and I believe that this subsequently stood to me in the long term,” Darragh explained.
This new role was jointly supported by Paralympics Ireland (PI) and CI. “My primary responsibility in this role was to assist our visually impaired (VI) paracyclists during camps and major competitions working on a variety of tasks including training support. I had worked with the paracycling team briefly for a training camp in Mallorca prior to the 2022 Paracycling Track World Championships during my undergraduate placement so I was already familiar to the team and support staff,” Darragh said.
The Team Ireland paracycling squad for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games comprised of 10 athletes, including four visually impaired riders, known as stokers, who compete on the back of a tandem with their pilots at the front. Having an additional support staff member to assist these athletes not only would allow them to perform better but it allowed their pilots to have greater control over their own performance, enabling them to focus more on themselves. This contributed to an enhanced high-performance environment and ultimately proved highly effective throughout the year and during the games.
This year’s experience has solidified Darragh’s desire to continue working in a high-performance sporting environment. He hopes to pursue a research MSc or PhD focused on performance cycling or paracycling.
Banner image shows: Emma Saunders - Performance Life Skills; Linda Kelly - Pilot (athlete) Paracycling; Ciara Losty - Performance Psychology at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris.
