Limerick's Tiarnan O'Donnell set to make Paralympics debut in Paris

LIMERICK'S Tiarnan O'Donnell has booked his place on the plane to Paris as he will compete in the PR2 Mixed Double Sculls alongside Galway's Katie O'Brien. This marks the return of an Irish Para rowing boat to the Paralympic Games for the first time since London 2012.

For Tiarnan to book his spot in the boat is one thing but making his Paralympic debut after only recently taking up the sport is an incredibly impressive feat for the Boher native. 

Tiarnán, a relative newcomer to rowing, has already shown immense potential. Initially making a name for himself as one of Ireland’s top wheelchair basketball players, he transitioned to rowing through the PTSB NextGen programme. His rapid progress and natural talent have earned him a place alongside Katie to compete in Paris.

He made his first international appearance in Lucerne, Switzerland for the 2024 World Rowing Cup where he placed second in the single sculls to claim his first rowing medal for Ireland. The 25 year-old followed this performance up with another sliver in Poland in the PR2 class, which is for rowers with weakness or absence of leg function.

O'Donnell was diagnosed an AV malformation in his leg when he was only 11 years-old. After consultations with hospitals in America, he decided along with his parents to amputate his leg, which had started to get progressively worse during his teen years. 

Tiarnan travelled to London where doctors were able to remove the cancer from his calf and rearrange his knee to make it a pressure point for his prostatic leg. Since then, he has had to learn to walk again with his prosthesis and thankfully the cancer has not returned to the rest of his leg.  

This lead him down the path of wheelchair basketball in which he picked up at the age of 15 playing with local club Limerick Celtics. 

A graduate of Mechanical Engineering at UL, Tiarnan featured on the U23 Irish wheelchair basketball team while collecting cup and league wins with his club before changing sports to rowing in the hopes of qualifying for the 2024 Paralympic games.