Gary Ryan competed in the men’s 200 metres at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, setting a new Irish national record of 20.78 seconds in his first round heat before being eliminated in the second round after clocking 20.89.

He became the first Irish athlete to break the 21.00 seconds barrier, achieving it twice in a single day. He went on to compete in the men’s 4×100 metres relay at the 2000 Sydney Olympics as part of the team that set a new Irish national record of 39.26 seconds.

Ryan devoted his teenage years to playing soccer at junior level with various Limerick and Tipperary teams before becoming seriously involved in athletics as a post-graduate student at the University of Limerick.

He set a personal best of 21.00 in Riga to qualify for Atlanta and also won his first national 200 metres title (21.10). In his opening heat, a metre behind eventual silver medallist Frankie Fredericks, his time of 20.78 smashed Derek O’Connor’s eleven-year-old Irish record of 20.95. He was also a key member of relay squads that won World Indoor bronze medals in subsequent years.