Women of the Irish Paralympics Team

Fifty-eight days to go to the London Paralympics and all round the world teams are filling up. The Irish team has been fully announced with a couple of the women we've had on here grabbing their place.

This is the full list of the women heading to the Paralympics for Ireland:

Orla Barry

Ladysbridge, Cork
F57 Discus

Ailish Dunne*

Mountmellick, Laois
F11 Discus F11 Shot Put

Heather Jameson*

Garristown, Dublin
T37 100m, T37 200m,
F37 Long Jump

Nadine Lattimore*

Baldoyle, Dublin
F11 Discus, F11 Shot Put

Roberta Connolly

Dublin
BC2 Mixed Individual,
BC1/2 Mixed Team

Katie-George Dunlevy*

Crawley, UK
Track – WB 1km Time Trial,
WB 3km Individual Pursuit Road,
WB Time Trial, WB Road Race

Sandra Fitzgerald*

Cobh, Cork
Track – WB 1km Time Trial,
WB 3km Individual Pursuit Road,
WB Time Trial, WB Road Race

Fran Meehan*

Kilurin, Offaly
Track – WB 1km Time Trial,
WB 3km Individual Pursuit Road,
WB Time Trial, WB Road Race

Catherine Walsh

Swords, Dublin
Track – WB 1km Time Trial,
WB 3km Individual Pursuit Road,
WB Time Trial, WB Road Race

Eilish Byrne

Drogheda, Louth
Grade II Team Test
Grade II Championship

Geraldine Savage*

Dublin (living in York, UK)
Grade Ia Team Test
Grade Ia Championship

Helen Kearney*

Dunlaven, Wicklow
Grade Ia Team Test
Grade Ia Championship

Sarah Caffrey*

Clonlara, Clare
Mixed Cox Four

Anne Marie McDaid*

Ramelton, Donegal
Mixed Cox Four

Helen Arbuthnot*

Christchurch, UK
Mixed Cox Four

Bethany Firth*

Seaford, Down
S14 200m Freestyle, S14 100m Backstroke,
SB14 100m Breastroke

Ellen Keane

Clontarf, Dublin
SM9 200m Individual Medley,
SB8 100m Breastroke,
S9 100m Butterfly

Eimear Breathnach

Ballinteer Dublin
TT1 Singles,
TT1-3 Team

Rena McCarron-Rooney

Buncrana, Donegal
TT2 Singles,
TT1-3 Team

And even though we all know that it's a huge honour to step up and represent at this event, winning is always nice too. Paralympics Ireland put out this release with the full list:

"Five reigning world champions will line up for Team Ireland – athletics’ Michael McKillop and Catherine O’Neill, plus cyclists Mark Rohan, Catherine Walsh and Colin Lynch. McKillop and fellow track star Jason Smyth will also defend the Paralympic titles they won at Beijing 2008. In addition, Ireland will compete for the first time ever in the sports of shooting and rowing at the Games."

The men and women together are listed here on Paralympics Ireland.

Dragon Boats on the River Liffey

Paddling at speed up the Liffey in a dragon-boat with 21 other women, all of us with our eyes closed while a helmswoman calls the beat was not something I’d ever planned on doing.

I spent last night with the Plurabelle Paddlers – a group of women who race dragon-boats around Ireland. And while sunset on the river might conjure up some relaxing images, there was no hanging about with this group.

Chairperson Fiona Tiernan told me their coach plans on videoing the next session so she can “scrutinize” their strokes. I’m not quite sure if she was joking.

Getting the boats into the water was exercise in itself – wooden and heavy, lifting them out of the sheds and down into the water meant a lot of “mind your fingers” and “no, no, you’re other left”.  

The long boats are similar to stretched kayaks with wooden seating for up to 50 rowers at a time depending on the size of the boat. And they have drums.

Yup, drums. Sadly of the two boats out last night, I was in the drum-less boat but hearing the other run thump its up way up the river as the wooden oars flashed in and out of the water in time more than made up for it.

Our boat was mainly filled with beginners but we managed to make it up and down, even went under a bridge – with rather fabulous graffiti underneath asking: “Who’s that trip trapping over my bridge?”

The closed eyes? Helps with your timing apparently, also with skinned knuckles and clashing oars. 

And as we flashed – ahem, I use that word rather loosely – past the bars on the Grand Canal Dock, I wondered did those people know what they were looking at?

We paddled in a pink boat, many of the regular crew were wearing pink fleeces or headbands and a HSE sticker decorated both boats.

Pink, pink to make the boys wink.  But it’s also the universal Breast Cancer colour. Many of these women were recovering from treatment, but you had to look closely to notice. 

There was just a quick flash of intensity to queries about someone’s health as we readied the boats, but that disappeared when it was time to get in the water. 

Sit up straight at the edge of your seat, brace your feet for the kick … Ready? Attention! Go!

The PlurabellePaddlers is the first dragon boat team in Ireland. The team was set up by Fiona Tiernan, in order to keep fit after a recurrence of breast cancer. From a membership of two and no boat in 2010, we now have 60+ active members, a wonderful coach Julie Doyle and two dragon boats.

Pic: Plurabelle Paddlers Gallery 

Achieving dreams in the UAE

A reminder that stereotypes about Muslim women are just that ...

The tournament started yesterday in the UAE





Have a great weekend! 

Inspiring Sports Women in pics 2011

And the end of the year is almost here. Thanks to the mysteries of download counter, these are the photos and the women you loved the most this year. And yes, Wonder Woman was one of them - this pic held the top position for months, was beginning to get a bit worried!

As always, if you are downloading pics from here, please link back to the photographer's site if it's not mine or at least to here where people can follow back to the original sites.

Adventure Links in Ireland

Antrim Northern Ireland

There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes. That’s what my kayak-mad sister says whenever anyone mentions the water this time of year in Ireland is just a little chilly. Just a little you know.

And the people behind new Irish website AdventureLink would definitely agree with her. Stephen says the site’s aim is to open up the outdoors to people who don’t know where to start. It’s a pretty simple idea for a website, but seems to be working well.

And it saves on the hours we all seem to spend now trawling the internet looking for deals where before we would have just taken the first thing. “One of the key features is the easy access to all adventure links and tourism from every corner in Ireland, with the adventurer in mind. There are 44 areas of adventure activity, nine extra areas and we have sub-divided the country into seven regions,” says Stephen.

They have about 800 links up already – including this blog which is how I found them, thank you trackback – and cover pretty much anything you might like to try out. Plus he says their “long-term mission” is to encourage sustainable tourism. They’ve got links up to Leave No Trace and Rothar (um, that’s bicycle in Irish) as well as a few others.

So anyone feeling lazy, no more excuses! All details at Adventure Links

That BBC Sports Personality list

The BBC has named its shortlist for Sports Personality of the Year. But oops, looks like they really meant Sportsman of the Year. The ten finalists, whittled down from a list which did include some women, were chosen by 27 sports editors from national and regional newspapers.

It's not that I begrudge any of the men on the list their moment of glory. But in a country the size of the UK and as successful in sport as they are, was it not possible to find one woman worthy of this title? 

Some of the women on the long list include world champion swimmer in 10km open water Kerri-Anne Payne; triathlete Chrissie Wellington World Champion for the 4th time this year; sprinter and Paralympian Stefanie Reid with 2 bronze medals from the IPC championships; World Taekwando champ Sarah Steveneson, cyclist Victoria Pendleton with 2 golds from the European championships, gold medal rower Kath Grainger, European champion boxer Nicola Adams and world champion swimmer Rebecca Adlington who has now spoken out to say well, let's just get on it next year. 

But why wait? If these women are good enough to perform successfully on the world stage, then why not be recognised at home? You can find articles about all of these women in the British newspapers who have now snubbed them. 

Ah, but not quite all - the nominating editors includes eds from Zoo and Nuts who both sent in all-male lists - no big surprise there if you've ever read 'em - but so did The People, The Independent (very surprised at this one), Metro, Irish News, the Evening Standard, the Daily Post, the Western Mail, and the Daily Star Sunday. That's ten of the 27 papers.

The Beeb announced yesterday they would review the process for 2012 in a watery statement that made no concessions to anything: ""It is too early to say what, if any changes will be made to the process..." Gee, thanks. 

If it's this hard for women to get recognition in sport, what chance at work or in the home? 

You can see the full list and shortlist here on the BBC Sports site. 

Coolangatta Gold Ironwoman

Lots of focus on the male rugby teams down in the Southern Hemisphere this month and while reading the Aussie papers for news of their reaction to the Irish win (see how I got that in there), an interview with Ironwoman Courtney Hancock scrolled-up.

Ironwoman Courtney Hancock AUS

The Coolangatta Gold takes place this weekend in Queensland, Australia. Having twice finished in the top three, Hancock is going all out this year. The race - 46 kms of ocean swim, surf-ski, and board paddle broken up by three runs - is the longest of its kind in the world. Competitors can also go for what's described as "the short run" at just 30.5 kms.

In the interview Hancock,23, describes the respect she has for this race, compared to other Ironwoman events. "The Coolangatta Gold takes 3½ hours - and it can feel like a lifetime. Grandfather's (a life saver in his day) notion of an inner belief is crucial when you stand on the line and wait for the race to start. I don't know how anyone could compete if they had any doubt about their preparation or training. Confidence in sport comes from ticking all the boxes, and then doing more."

Another article focused on how she gave up a vegetarian lifestyle three years ago for her sport. You do hear of veggie Olympians and other elite athletes but it must be difficult to get that much protein in from soy especially for events like this.

Courtney Hancock AUS

And like many water-sports fans, she's involved with an eco-group working to protect whales and dolphines. The "Get wet for whales' initiative helps fund research through sponsored sports-events. You can read more about that on Hancock's website here.

Wordless Wednesday

Oars for skiff-racing Wicklow regatta

Wordless Wednesday is a group of bloggers who give words a rest once a week.

Girls talk skiff-racing in Ireland

Messing about in boats … Yesterday I met some girls and women who do just that. But they mess about in quarter tonne wooden rowing boats, using 16-foot (4.8m) oars to get out to sea in waves which could swamp other types of rowing boat.

Skiff-racing Wicklow Regatta August 1

I was at the Wicklow Regatta in Ireland yesterday, and the sun almost remembered to shine, almost. The crews – four people – race for distances between 700m and 2,700m. I was amazed to see the U-12 crew setting out, they barely looked big enough to get in the boat but once out, they skimmed the waves.

Training

Sarah Carroll, Renee Armstrong and Heidi Keogh from the Wicklow Rowing Club chatted with me after their races. The three started racing aged 13 – 14 and now compete in the U-18s and Junior races.  I thought training must involved weights and gym-work but it seems not.

“We just go out and do the course and most people do it every day but we (u-18s) take Saturday off,” Renee said. Heidi said doing well in a race is all about the first few seconds. The boats line up in front of the pier, each cox holds a long rope thrown down from the crowd and a bull-horn sounds for the start.

“It depends on the start,” she said. “It’s about where you start from, what berth you get. And it depends on the tide where you are, the tide and the wind.” Sarah explained that’s all decided in a draw using balls pulled out of a bag, so they have no choice in where to go. “It’s all very random,” she said.

Skills you need in a skiff

Surprisingly for such a tough sport, the three said they haven’t suffered any injuries. Heidi said the hardest thing to get right is the timing. “That’s hard, getting into the water and back out of the water at the same time as the rest of the people,” she said as they all laughed. “Other than that, it’s kind of Ok. It’s not as hard as you think it’s gonna be.” Sarah added: “Yeah, you have to get the timing. If you’re not in time (together) the boat rocks.”

Racing with ‘the boys’

Most of the races are single-sex but each age division has a mixed race. Sarah said it can be easier for girls to row in those teams. “The boys are bigger. They encourage us to keep going so we can row with them.” Speaking over each other, they said the power in a boat comes from the middle so the boys take that position in a mixed team which makes it easier for them. And, with great timing, The Boys appeared from the boat-room just then and the conversation disintegrated.

Getting ready to race Skiff-racing Wicklow Regatta Aug 1

You can read more about yesterday's races here in a piece I did for the Irish Times.

Canoeist is Sports Woman of the Month

Irish canoeist Jenny Egan won the monthly sports award for her silver medal at the 5,000m sprint canoe K1 at a World Cup in May. Egan already holds a silver from the 2005 World Junior Marathon Championships, and silver from the 5,000m at the Senior Sprint Canoe World Cup last year, only losing out by six seconds to Hungarian Renata Csay - ouch. For the record keepers among you, that the first medal for an Irish female sprint canoeist.

Her training session was described in one of the Irish papers as: 'training twice a day, doing 'three paddling sessions, three gym sessions, three swims and three runs every week'" That would be while completing an Athletic Therapy and Training course at university.

Jenny Egan pic Irish Canoe Union

Every month the The Irish Times/Irish Sports Council 'Sportswoman of the Month' goes to a woman who has gone above and beyond in her commitment to her chosen sport.

Egyptian rower Heba Ahmed

Heba Ahmed pic

France24 reported this week that Egyptian women are "out in force" at the Tahrir Square this week. And as today could be the most significant day in modern Egyptian history, it seems a good moment to post again about another inspiring woman from Egypt.

Heba Ahmed made it to the quarter- finals in the single-scull in Beijing - getting a raft of coverage for her clothing and her political stance in competing at all - but had earlier taken bronze at the All Africa Games.She was one of the first athletes to compete at an Olympics wearing a hijab.

Heba Ahmed, Beijing

Looking for recent reports of her competition didn't bring up much, the coverage is really dominated by the clothing issue once again. Fair enough, she didn't win gold but surely getting to the last 24 in any world competition deserves a small mention somewhere?

I posted here and here on some other Egyptian athletes.

Top Ten Inspiring Sports Women 2010

1922 Washington USA flickr

It's the time of year for polls and surveys and in that spirit I offer the women you loved the best on this blog. It's a tad unscientific as ISW only started at the end of May but Statcounter says these are the sports women you enjoyed reading about the most:

1. Caley Lewis, Australian Muay Thai fighter 
2. Zenyatta, American race-horse 
3. Jessica Kurten, Irish showjumper 
4. Marjan Kalhor, Iranian skier 
5. Melissa Ray, British Muay Thai fighter 
6. With this Ring - a film on Mary Kom and other Indian boxers
7. Dr Jessie Stone, American kayaker 
8. Irish Surf Kayak team - Aisling Griffin and Muireann Lynch 
9. Silken Laumann, Canadian rower  
10. Mischa Merz, Australian boxer 

You also rated this post 'Sweat and the City' on the four girls we'd really like to be. 

Did Statcounter miss any of your favourites?

Silken Laumann, Rower and Accident Survivor

A few weeks ago I posted on my choice of ‘Sweat and the City’ girls. A Canadian reader recommended some stars from her hometurf to add to the list.  And being a sucker for Overcoming Injury and Adversity stories I have to share the adventures of Silken Laumann with you.
Laumann was a rower in the 90s and retired with three Olympic medals. Her 1992 win came 78 days after her lower leg was shredded by another boat in training. Shredded; as in nerves and muscles gone, fibula broken. Laumann spent a month doing what the doctors said, then trained in a specially adapted boat. Even during the Olympics she was hobbling around on a cane. But she found the determination to power over the line for a bronze medal.

A Sports Illustrated article quoted her as saying:
“Rowing kept me honest. It's so black-and-white. You can't hide. Before '92 I was a strong person, but I wondered how strong I would be if something bad happened. Then something bad did happen and I didn't wallow in sorrow. I just figured, O.K., what do I do now? Sport strips you from all barriers, from all social conventions, and you see people for who they really are."

Do you know anyone else who steamed back from a nasty accident?

Pic from Sports Illustrated                              

Pic from Library and Archives Canada