If she does qualify for the Paris 2024 Paralympics as expected, Limerick's Róisín Ní Riain will be one of Ireland's strongest medal hopes.
The 18-year-old swimmer -who was announced on Wednesday as a member of Team Visa ahead of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games - is already a world champion in the 100m backstroke, claiming Ireland's only gold medal of last summer's World Para Swimming Championships in Manchester, and will be a strong contender across the board should she reach this summer's games in Paris.
She has achieved a remarkable amount in her young career thus far and, speaking exclusively to Balls.ie this week, Ní Riain spoke about the whirlwind path she has taken to this point and her hopes for this summer's Paralympics.
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Róisín Ní Riain hoping to fight for medals at Paris 2024
18-year-old Róisín Ní Riain is hoping to become a two-time Paralympian this summer, having been the youngest member of Team Ireland at the Tokyo games at just 16 (she will have turned 19 by the time of the Paris 2024 opening ceremony).
A recent graduate of the Gaelcholaiste in Limerick City, Ní Riain is more than happy to conduct some of our interview trí Ghaeilge. Ní Riain only completed her Leaving Cert last summer and she says it has been a whirlwind 12 months that has taken in the State Examinations, a world record-breaking performance in Berlin in May, and a World Championship gold in Manchester.
7 August 2023; The 2023 Irish World Para Swimming Championships swimmer Róisín Ní Riain poses for a photograph with her Gold and Silver medals at Dublin Airport on Team Ireland's return from the 2023 World Para Swimming Championships in Manchester. Photo by Tyler Miller/Sportsfile
That has been the theme of her career thus far, and she says that it was a similarly madcap to travel to the Tokyo Paralympics amid the COVID-19 pandemic:
I think Tokyo was a really great experience for me. I was really young, I was only 16 and I suppose it was only my first or second international competition.
I definitely learned so much there and I really just tried to take in as much of it as I could and enjoy the experience and that’s what I did. It was obviously an unusual games with being in COVID and that but it was still an incredible experience.
I think I’ve learned so much from that and then going into worlds the year after, and worlds last year in Manchester, I think I’ve learned from every time I’ve gotten out, every time I get up behind the blocks at a major international like that, there’s always learnings and there’s stuff to take from it, towards this year and the summer.
Those Tokyo games saw her reach the final of every event she entered at just 16 years old, a remarkable achievement.
Growing up, Nicole Turner was among the biggest inspirations for Ní Riain and it was a 'pinch yourself' moment for the young Limerick swimmer to be competing alongside her heroes on Team Ireland.
When I was younger, watching the Worlds in 2019, I saw Nicole and Ellen [Keane] when they were racing there.
From then to now, it's been amazing. Now, Nicole's my friend and I've gone around the world with her. It's lovely to have been on that journey for the last couple of years.
Ní Riain suffers from a visual impairment called coloboma, which affects her visual acuity and peripheral vision.
She has spoken in the past about the unique measures she must take in the pool to adapt to her impairment, such as counting her strokes methodically to ensure she knows where in the pool she is.
6 August 2023; Roisin Ni Riain of Ireland competes in Women's 200m Individual Medley SM13 final during day seven of the World Para Swimming Championships 2023 at Manchester Aquatics Centre in Manchester. Photo by Paul Greenwood/Sportsfile
The world gold medallist tells us that, despite these challenges, swimming was more "doable" than many other sports when her impairment was taken into account, and that she fell in love with the sport from the first moment she tried it:
I think swimming has helped me so much when I was younger. I was in a couple of sports, but I found swimming to be the one for me, it was always the one I had loved from such a young age.
From the visual impairment side, it was one of the more doable sports for me.
My love for it has always come from when I first was thrown into the water by my parents at a young age, they just wanted me to be able to swim. I think it took off from there.
My coaches over the years have always been so supportive and trying their best to find different ways around things. It definitely is a lot of learning by yourself, because I’m the one who is in the water and I’m the one who truly knows how much I can and can’t see. For me, it’s trying to find the little things that have helped and have worked for me.
Ní Riain tells us that, though huge strides have been made to improve the accessibility of the sport in Ireland, there is still a long way to go on the road to improving that inclusivity.
Looking ahead to the summer, Ní Riain still has to confirm her place on Team Ireland for this summer's Paralympics, with the trials taking place in May. She is determined to make it to Paris - and to fight for silverware when she gets there.
We have just come back from a camping competition in Melbourne, so that was a nice start to the year. We’ll prepare then for the year ahead and we’ll have a couple of competitions here in Ireland over the next couple of weeks.
Hopefully we have Europeans in April in Madeira. That will be a nice prep competition with hopefully some fast swimming then.
Then we have our trials, the Irish Olympic and Paralympic Trials in May and then into the summer from then, and all going well, ending up in Paris in August.
The goal is to make it to Paris and make that team and hopefully be able to put down some good performances there.
Róisín Ní Riain spoke to us as part of her new partnership with Team Visa - a global programme supporting athletes on their journey to Paris 2024. The Team Visa programme provides financial support, assistance with philanthropic endeavours, financial literacy tools, and mental health and wellness resources to 117 Olympic and Paralympic athletes.
Ní Riain says their support will be invaluable as she fights for his place at the Paris Games:
Their support for me this year is going to be invaluable and as I hope to secure my slot for the Paralympic Games this summer they have so many different supports, their financial support, mental health and wellbeing and so much more.
It’s also the largest and most diverse team that they’ve ever had. It’s so exciting for me to be a part of a team, the values, diversity and inclusivity. Those are some of the values I will always champion.
Visa, the Worldwide Payment Technology Partner of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, announces today that 18-year-old Paralympic swimmer Róisín Ní Riain has joined Team Visa ahead of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. Roísín is photographed above with Conor Langford, country manager for Ireland, Visa.
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