Why did you start coaching, what was your avenue into your coaching journey, did someone encourage you in the early days?
At the age of Ten, two events affected my life forever. In 1988 my sporting journey began. I watched in wonder the Seoul Olympics, particularly the Steeplechase. And the Rás Tailteann (RAS – International Cycling Race held in Ireland) passed by my primary school. For me, that was an amazing feeling, the whoosh of the peloton, I got goose bumps, I held that feeling in my soul for almost 20 years, until I got the opportunity to race bikes.
I immediately started running with the Tullamore Harriers. In track and cross-country, we were quite successful at a national level. My running was interrupted due to several family relocations.
Four years later I had the chance to run again. A highlight was team gold in the Senior Schools cross country. The dream was an athletics scholarship, which I made happen and headed to the USA in 2000. The highlight was running into 5th at NCAA Nationals, and 12th at the Oregon Invitational in the Steeplechase. I survived the USA scholarship, but if being honest I was totally burnt out from the training over load & lack of support.
Fast forward seven years and that wonder of the RAS was explored. I had won the National Women’s League in my first year on the bike. In 2010, I tested and was invited to join the Irish Paracycling Squad as a sighted tandem pilot with stoker Catherine Walsh. 2012 was very successful for us, we became World Track Champions in the February then in August at the London Paralympic Games we won Silver on the Track (Ireland’s first ever Track Cycling Olympic Medal) and bronze in the Road Time Trial. During that time I was still wining road, time-trial, and cyclocross races, the latter I won five national titles in a row.
As part our journey in 2010 we won the world Para Duathlon Championships. Para Triathlon was being introduced to Rio 2016. We were approach to seek qualification for this event. Catherine and I were well established on the bike and we both had a running background. We threw ourselves into the qualification process and thankfully secured a slot. We finished a 8th in Rio, we gave a good account of ourselves we hoped to help put the sport on the map in Ireland. That is my sporting history, I don’t want the knowledge and experience to go to waste, whether it’s fit for sport or for life. I want to give back to the sport, pay it forward, so that’s why I coach.
In 2018 I started Coaching in Cycling: achievements to date would be coaching a C3 female Paracyclist, from beginner to the elite squad and she competed in Tokyo 2020. In 2019 I was coaching two youth girls one went on to take bronze in the National Road Race Championships, the other was top Irish finisher at Summer European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF). In 2021 I took on a club cyclist with a visual impairment to see if she would like to explore moving to competitive cycling. I used my coaching and piloting skills to ensure she got the necessary experience. She secured a road Medal at the World Championships in Canada 2022. She has transferred to the elite squad and hopes to secure a place in Paris 2024.
What is your ambition in coaching, and what is it that you love about it? Describe a moment that sums up what you love about what you do?
I love identifying an athlete and working through a process and seeing them flourish. My ethos as a coach is to provide opportunity to athletes to become their best self in a balanced, consistent and educated way.
I hope to continue to develop well rounded elite athletes for cycling and triathlon, but if I felt an athlete is better suited to another Olympic discipline then encourage that, because an athletes pinnacle is so short and precious. Or for those who don’t succeed at elite level they would continue to be fit for life. I would encourage everyone to take their lived experience beyond the finish line, pass the baton.
How did the course go? Describe some of the main activities you did?
The opportunity to do the Level 2 World Cycling Centre arose. I approached the OFI who supported me obtaining funding through the Olympic Solidarity Scholarship. I completed the course in February this year. The course covered the Olympic disciplines of Track cycling, Mountain Bike, Road cycling and BMX, four very different disciplines that demand high levels of technical skill, tenacity and excellent physiology. The participants on the course were from all around the World; Israel, China, Taiwan, Namibia, Kenya, Trinidad and Rwanda. We all shared our different experience and knowledge, but a common goal. The course included becoming a and Mechanics Level one and Bike Fit & National Technical Classifier for Paracycling.
