Deirdre Murphy competed in the women’s road race at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, becoming the first Irish woman ever to qualify Ireland for Olympic road cycling.

Her story was one of the most remarkable in the Irish team at those Games. Born in New York City to Irish-American parents – her father from Corofin, Co. Clare – Murphy obtained Irish citizenship at her father’s urging while still in high school. She worked on Wall Street before taking up competitive cycling at the age of 32. Within eight years she had become Women’s World Masters Road Race champion (1997), a two-time US National Masters champion, and winner of 81 races. She qualified Ireland for Sydney with a 4th place finish at an international race in Montevideo, Uruguay. At Sydney she was 41 years old and 10 to 15 years older than most of her competitors in the 119.7-kilometre road race.

After retiring she founded and served as executive director of Star Track Cycling, a free programme teaching track cycling to children from under-resourced communities in New York City. She passed away on 11 November 2014 in the Bronx, New York.