Final members added to Irish team for Paralympic Games
The names of the final 11 Team Ireland athletes who will represent the country at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games have been announced.
Para equestrian will have a team of four representing 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 will be hoping to make a significant impact with her horse, Davidoff.
Michael Murphy will be an integral member of the team on Cleverboy, and he will be aiming to maintain some of his outstanding recent form.
Sarah Slattery will be making her debut at the Paralympic Games. The Galway native will bring her horse Savona to the Games and will be hoping to make an immediate impact on the biggest stage.
Para triathlon will be represented in Paris by three female athletes and two guides.
Cassie Cava will make her first appearance at the Paralympic Games for Team Ireland. She is an athlete that has been competing very well in recent times and will be very much looking forward to her opportunity to compete in Paris this Summer.
Chloe MacCombe, accompanied by her guide Catherine Sands, is looking forward to her first ever appearance at the Games having worked towards this dream for several years.
She is a silver medallist from the Commonwealth Games and is currently ranked number 3 in the world.
Her twin sister Judith MacCombe will also be competing as part of Team Ireland in Paris 2024. Judith found her best form when it matters as she surged up the world ranking along with her guide, Eimear Nicolls, to secure her place in Paris.
An Irish Para rowing boat makes its return to the Paralympic Games for the first time since London 2012. It will be crewed by 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.
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 enormous potential as one of the best wheelchair basketball players in the country and highlighted his ability in the PTSB NextGen programme before finding his way to rowing.
The entire team featuring nine sports was presented at the RDS in a ceremony in front of their friends, families, Government dignitaries and the wider Paralympics Ireland community.
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 absolute best over the coming months.
Paralympics Ireland Chef de Mission Neasa Russell said: “We are really delighted to be presenting our full Team Ireland for the Paralympic Games. 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 in 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.”