Behind the Paralympic podium: The Sport Ireland experts supporting Team Ireland's success

It takes a dedicated, multidisciplinary team to help athletes achieve their best on the world stage, especially at the Paralympics.  

Here we talk to some of the key figures from the Sport Ireland Institute about the essential part they play in Team Ireland’s success.  

From medical expertise and strength & conditioning to mental health support and performance analysis, these professionals ensure that each athlete is equipped to push to their limits and fulfil their potential. 

We spoke to some of the key individuals supporting Team Ireland: 

• Jennifer Pugh, Chief Medical Officer 

• Eamonn Flanagan, Lead of Strength & Conditioning 

• Emma Saunders, Life Skills Consultant 

• Ciara Sinnott O’Connor, Head of Physiology 

• Toni Rossiter, Deputy Chef de Mission 

Together, they provide insight into the vital support systems that help athletes navigate the mental and physical challenges of elite competition, emphasising the collaborative effort required to reach Paralympic success. 

 

1. Jennifer Pugh, Chief Medical Officer (main picture) 

What is your role within the support team, and what are your primary responsibilities? As Chief Medical Officer, I support our 35 athletes competing at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. My primary role is monitoring pre-Games health, wellbeing screening, managing illness and injury, and preparing and co-ordinating medical cover throughout the games.  

Here in Paris, we have a full medical team, including physiotherapy, physiologists, nutritionists, psychologists, and welfare officers, ensuring a holistic approach is provided.  

I also form part of the Village leadership team alongside Neasa Russell, Chef de Mission, and Deputy Chefs Toni Rossiter and Richard Doyle. It has been incredible working alongside this team and to see the level of professionalism on display to ensure the success of Team Ireland.  

How does your role contribute to the overall performance and well-being of the athletes?  

Management of illness and injury at this time of preparation and amidst competition is key. Decisions must be made quickly and often mountains moved to ensure an athlete gets to the start line. Encouraging athletes to report and seek advice for any issue, no matter how trivial, is key to ensuring we identify any potential problem as early as possible. Health screening and scenario planning before we travel has played a significant role in our preparation. 

How did you first become involved in this field, and what inspired you to pursue this career?  

My background is in horseracing, where I work as chief medical officer with the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board looking after the health and wellbeing of jockeys. I was delighted to join Team Ireland a few months ago, enhancing my knowledge base in the space of elite athlete performance and working alongside the Institute team in a Paralympic year. 

Can you describe a typical day during the Paralympics?  

I meet daily with the leadership team to ensure we are all aligned on our approach to solving or assisting with whatever issue may arise. It really highlights the benefit of having this level of expertise on hand within the one support team. It’s early starts and late nights most days as you work around the training and competition schedules. 

What have you most enjoyed about the Paralympics?  

At this point, seeing everyone’s journey through their respective competitions, no matter the outcome, is what I’ve enjoyed. Seeing that effort come to fruition and them reaching their goal of becoming a Paralympian is an honour to watch.   

How do you ensure the team are mentally and physically prepared?  

The health and wellbeing screening performed before the games is key for the medical and psychology teams’ preparation strategies. Our sports and clinical psychology team do an incredible job of supporting athletes. The physiotherapy team are working constantly with the athletes. Their knowledge of the athletes is key to ensuring they are in prime physical position for competition. The physiology team have put in an enormous effort in terms of cooling strategies, recovery, and alongside the nutrition team focus on hydration and fuelling.  

How do you support athletes who might be struggling with their performance or mental health?   

My experience is that your best work is often done in a chance conversation in the corridor. In a less formal setting, people will often open up more than if you bring them into a formal appointment in the clinic. While there is, of course, a need for more formal assessments and treatments, it is the relationships that you build with people around the village here in Paris, similar to the canteen and living space in the Sport Ireland Institute that allows trust to be built. Once trust is built progress can be made. Building that trust with our team and our athletes is key.  

 

2. Eamonn Flanagan, S&C lead for Paralympics 

What is your role within the support team, and what are your primary responsibilities? I'm the head of the Strength and Conditioning Department at the Sport Ireland Institute. I lead a team of staff working across all the Paralympic and Olympic sports. Within paralympic sport specifically, I work closely with the paralympic athletics team on a strength and conditioning basis, but also in a performance support role. 

How does your role contribute to the overall performance and well-being of the para-athletes?  

In athletics strength and conditioning plays two or three different roles, obviously there's a direct performance effect, you're trying to help the athletes be more physically able to meet the demands of their sport and help them develop the strength and power qualities that they need to succeed in their sport. That’s particularly relevant for an athlete like Orla Comerford in one of her sprint events. For an athlete like Mary Fitzgerald, a thrower, it's a lot more about strength and power.  

In the paralympic space generally strength and conditioning can play quite a big role in helping athletes generally with the quality of their life.  

How did you first become involved in this field, and what inspired you to pursue this career?  

I studied sport science and did a PhD in Limerick, and along the way I started working part-time, and then full-time in professional rugby, so I had a decade of working in professional rugby before I moved to the Sport Ireland Institute.  

Working in the Sport Ireland Institute our brief is all around Olympic and Paralympic sport so trying to get myself upskilled and to understand the demands of paralympic sport would’ve been a real necessity from the day I started in the Institute. 

What’s your favourite Paralympic memory? 

I’d say for me watching Markus Rehm, who's been competing at that level for years. He competed in Paris this year. He’s a single limb amputee blade jumper, long jumper, he jumps 8m 70cm, 8m 75cm. You watch him take off, it doesn't look like anything else in sport, it's a confluence of human ability, and the technology of the blades to produce this performance that is just off the charts. I think paralympic sport really pushes the envelope and changes the perspective people have of what human capability and technology are capable of.  

How do you ensure the para-athletes are mentally and physically prepared?  

You try and work with the support team, with the athletes themselves and their coaches to figure out what their needs are and to figure out what the performance gaps are, where our programs can add value.  

Within Paralympic athletics I work not only within strength and conditioning, but also overall within the service support so I'll work closely with James Nolan, who's the program lead for Paralympics Ireland, and we’ll build holistic support packages for the athletes.  

For some athletes that may be very performance focused. For some athletes those supports might be a lot more holistic, it might be about helping athletes around their life outside of sport, getting college or work experience sorted. For some athletes it might be around psychological support or medical support.  

What strategies do you use to help para-athletes recover?  

Paralympic athletes all have different events, different impairments, they all have different training and injury histories, so there's no one off-the-shelf solution for any athlete in terms of how you support them and drive their recovery.  

The most important things really are how you manage your lifestyle - do you get enough sleep? Is your nutrition on point? Do you get psychological recovery away from your sport? Those should be the non-negotiables for any athlete. 

If you hadn’t chosen a career in sport, what would you have done? 

As I mentioned earlier, I think one of the cool things about paralympic sport is that you have this confluence of human ability and technological advancements, whether that's the wheelchairs that they use, or whether that's the blades they use in running or jumping events for amputees. I’ve always been really interested in ergonomics and product design, probably something in that field. 

 

3. Emma Saunders, Life Skills 

What is your role within the support team, and what are your primary responsibilities?

As part of the Paris 2024 transition team, my role is to support the athletes pre, during, and after the games. In Paris, I’m one of two welfare officers. 

How does your role contribute to the performance and well-being of the athletes?  

I work as a part of life skills and psychology team focused specifically on the mental wellbeing of the athletes.  

When it comes to athlete performance it is important for athletes to be in a good headspace. A lot of our work is about making sure everyone is happy and healthy, and that helps them to perform to their ability.  

We try to be pro-active and plan ahead to meet the needs of the athlete before any issues arise, instead of reacting to it later.  

How did you first become involved in this field, and what inspired you to pursue this career?  

I have been a lecturer in Sports Psychology in Southeast Technological University Waterford since 2008. I focused on student athletes while doing my PHD, in sports psychology as well as researching the ‘dual career’ for athletes, focusing on how we support our student athletes competing at a high-performance level. That led to me supporting and working with Eoin Rheinisch, Niall O’Donoghue, and Carol Keenan in the Performance Life Skills Team.   

Can you describe a typical day during the Paralympics?  

I work closely with the Sports Psychology team ensuring that there is support for athletes at the venues and in the village. So, I'd have meetings with the psychology team and the support staff here. At this time, a lot of the preparation has been already done so it's all about making sure everything is working well.  

What have you enjoyed most about the Paralympics? 

It was great to be a small part of the Team Ireland machine and see the Paralympians compete, especially being able to see those who have competed for the first time was really enjoyable. 

As a Life Skills consultant how do you prepare athletes for the Games?  

A lot of the work is done in the lead up to the games, and with our services we try and take such a proactive approach not only before and during the games, but throughout their athletic career.  

We make sure that they have a post-game plan, whatever that might mean for them. That could be taking a holiday or going back to college or starting back training. For some it might be retirement.  

We try to make sure athletes have that certainty, so we plan beforehand and then when it comes to the games, they can perform to their best.  

How do you support athletes who might be struggling with their performance or mental health?  

At the games in Paris athletes have access to all the staff, whether that is the physio or medical staff, or the psychology team. We check in regularly with athletes, simply having a chat to see if there is anything going on or anything we can help with, so it’s all about providing and facilitating the support that’s required. 

 

4. Ciara Sinnott O’Connor, Head of Physiology 

What is your role within the support team, and what are your primary responsibilities? For this Games I am the physiologist for the para-swimming team with primary responsibility during Games time on recovery and performance.  

I work with the swimmers on their post-race protocols including swim downs, ice baths and fuelling. I also have the role of Head of Science, working with the Science and Medicine team over the last 18 months to agree our support strategies and prepare Team Ireland for Paris 2024, as well as coordinating our lead service providers from the science team including nutrition, strength and conditioning and performance analysis.  

How does your role contribute to the overall performance and well-being of the athletes?  

Para-swimmers will have heats for their events in the morning time, and if they qualify for the final, they will race again that evening. Often, they will have multiple events in their program, so our goal is to keep them as fresh and recovered as possible across the 10 days of competition.  

My role is focused on this recovery process, getting it started as soon as possible after their morning race, getting them back to the village as quickly as we can so they can rest and eat before returning to the pool that evening.  

How did you first become involved in this field, and what inspired you to pursue this career?  

I was part of the Institute mentee scheme in 2012, aimed at providing high-performance service delivery experience to practitioners and have been part of the team since!  

My PhD, which was jointly funded by Sport Ireland Institute, examined training and recovery methods of Paralympic athletes. I was part of the support team for para-swimming for Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. I was appointed the Head of Physiology at the Sport Ireland Institute in 2018. 

What’s your favourite Paralympic memory?  

Watching James Scully’s 200m freestyle final in Rio 2016 where he finished 7th in swimming, a personal best in his last Paralympic swim before retirement.  

Can you describe a typical day during the Paralympics?  

I would head to the pool in the morning time for the heat’s session. I work with the swimmers on their post-race protocols, prescribing duration in ice bath and appropriate swim-down distances.  

Fuelling would also be a focus, with swimmers typically opt for recovery shakes or simple foods such as jellies. Once recovered sufficiently, I would head back on the bus to the village where we have a short break and a quick staff meeting to communicate plans for finals before heading back to the pool for the evening time finals.  

Again, once swimmers are finished with racing and media commitments, I monitor their recovery and swim down. Then we would head back to the village for dinner and bed.  

What have you most enjoyed about the Paralympics?  

Being a part of the team, seeing athletes perform on the world stage in a pinnacle sporting event is always a privilege. It was great to be able to watch those moments and being part of that atmosphere. Within swimming, it was Ellen Keane’s last race before she retired, that was a special moment for the team.  

How do you ensure the athletes are physically prepared?  

I work closely with the coaches and swimmers across the Paralympic Games cycle, travelling with the team. This ensures I have a good understanding of each athlete and their needs.  

Each week I monitor the training and wellness responses of the swimmers to ensure they are positively adapting to the stimulus, flagging any concerns with the coaches and support team.  

Before the Paralympic Games, I supported the team during their holding camp for two weeks in their final preparations and training. I travelled with them to the Village and monitored responses of the athletes and adjusted plans as needed.   

What strategies do you use to help athletes recover?  

From a physiology perspective, during racing we focus on ice bath and swim-down protocols to clear lactate quickly and efficiently. Tied into this is nutrition support to maximise recovery in a short space of time.  

Around the Village we focus on limiting step count to ensure athletes are not expelling too much energy, with some using bikes or scooters to assist with this. 

How do you support athletes who might be struggling with their performance or mental health?  

As a multi-disciplinary support team, we would approach any struggles holistically, discussing with both the athlete and coaches to agree a support plan, prioritising service delivery in a phased approach so as not to overwhelm - ensuring supports are addressing any gaps identified.  

 

5. Toni Rossiter, Deputy Chef de Mission  

What is your role within the team, and what are your primary responsibilities?  

I’m Deputy Chef de Mission for Performance Support. My key responsibility in Paris is to support a team of sport science and medical practitioners to deliver expert services to the athletes in their final preparations to perform at the Games. 

How does your role contribute to the overall performance and well-being of the athletes?  

Our support team in Paris is made up of 12 practitioners across a range of disciplines, which include medical and physio support, psychology, nutrition, physiology, and performance analysis: with many more operating and linking in remotely.  My role is to identify the athletes' support needs with their team leads and to coordinate the development and delivery of this support.   

How did you first become involved in this field, and what inspired you to pursue this career?  

I have been working as a performance physiologist in high-performance sport for the past 17 years, and with the Sport Ireland Institute since 2010.   

My research while in the Physical Education and Sport Sciences Department in University of Limerick involved physiological testing of endurance athletes. When I started working in Paralympic Sport there was little in the scientific literature that could prepare me for being a performance scientist in this space.  But I loved the challenge of thinking outside the box to make physiology services viable for Paralympic athletes so that they had access to the same level and quality of service as able-bodied sport. 

What’s your favourite Paralympic memory?  

My favourite memory is from the London 2012 Paralympic Games, when Mark Rohan became double paralympic champion in the handcycling road race and time trial. I had worked closely with Mark and his coach for several years and had witnessed firsthand his growth and development as an athlete. It was such a wonderful and special moment to witness all his hard work and dedication pay off.  

Can you describe a typical day during the Paralympics?  

Our day is generally shaped by the training and competition schedule of the athletes. An early start to make sure we have everything prepared for the day ahead, check in with the sports’ leads and sport science teams to identify any challenges that may have arisen and to devise a plan for the day ahead.  

A key part of my role is to check in with the support staff to ensure that their stress and energy levels are also in good shape, it’s crucial for them to have recovery strategies in place to ensure that they are also in a physical and mental state to perform optimally to support the athletes when it matters most.  

What have you most enjoyed?  

I enjoyed seeing Irish Paralympic athletes showcase their incredible talent and skills on the world stage. 

How do you support athletes to physically and mentally prepare and recover? 

The Team Ireland sport science and medical team have collaborated to develop tools and resources to optimise physical and mental preparation and recovery. The foundation involves doing the simple things right, ensuring a positive mindset, good sleep hygiene and sound nutritional practices.  

The Village can be overwhelming, so we have created an environment that allows athletes to switch off when they are not training and competing; providing snacks and drinks that the athletes are familiar with and that will promote fuelling and recovery.  

The warmer conditions in Paris had the potentially to hinder athletes’ physical performance and wellbeing, so we worked to ensure that athletes had heat-management strategies and tools in place.  

Sport Ireland Institute is the official performance support delivery partner to Paralympics Ireland.