Virginia McGrath competed in the team and individual eventing at two Olympic Games – Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000, where she was part of the Irish team that finished 5th.

At Atlanta she made equestrian Olympic history: her aunt Diana and her father Patrick Conolly-Carew had competed in the 1968 and 1972 Olympics respectively, and Virginia’s participation at Atlanta made the Conolly-Carew father and daughter the first such combination to have both represented Ireland at the Olympic Games – a distinction that speaks to the depth of the family’s equestrian tradition.

In the team event at Atlanta, the Irish team was effectively eliminated when two of the four horses were ruled out by veterinary inspection before the show jumping phase. In the individual event she accumulated 49 penalty points with The Yellow Earl in the show jumping before retiring her mount from the arena. She returned four years later at Sydney 2000, providing a significantly more satisfying Olympic chapter.