Lisa Kearney represented Ireland in the women’s under-48 kilogram judo event at the 2012 London Olympic Games, becoming the first Irish woman to compete in Olympic judo.

Born and raised in Belfast, Kearney began judo at primary school to join her friends at the Yamakwai Judo Club, where she trained throughout her career under coach Ciaran Ward. In 1999, aged ten, she won silver at the Northern Ireland Judo Championships and went on to become Ireland’s most decorated judoka of her era – winning four World Cup gold medals and in 2009 becoming the first judoka representing Ireland to reach the final of a Judo World Cup.

She qualified for London by finishing in the top 14 of the International Judo Federation world rankings, having recovered from a serious injury in the build-up. She studied psychology at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. She subsequently won a bronze medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow representing Northern Ireland – Northern Ireland’s first medal of those Games. A knee injury prevented her from competing in the qualification tournaments for Rio 2016 and she announced her retirement from competitive judo in 2017, later taking up boxing.