Niamh McCarthy (born 4 January 1994) is an Irish

Paralympic The Paralympic Games or Paralympics is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disabilities. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Kore ...

discus throw The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field sport in which the participant athlete throws an oblate spheroid weight (object), weight called a discus in an attempt to mark a further distance than other competitors. It is a ...

er, competing in the F41 classification, a classification for persons of reduced stature. She is the 2018 European champion in the event at her classification and, as of August 2018, the European record holder at 31.76 metres.

Career

McCarthy started competing in discus events in 2013, winning world and European medals before taking a silver at the

2016 Summer Paralympics The 2016 Summer Paralympics (), the 15th Summer Paralympic Games, were a major international multi-sport event for disabled sports, athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, f ...

. McCarthy won the gold medal at the European Para Athletics Championships in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, August 2018, setting a new European record of 31.76 m In October 2021, McCarthy retired from competitive throwing after her participation in the deferred

2020 Paralympic Games The , branded as the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, were an international multi-sport event, multi-sport parasports event held from 24 August to 5 September 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. They were the 16th Summer Paralympic Games as organized by the Inte ...

Personal life

McCarthy has lived in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. is a former student of Biological and Chemical Sciences at

University College Cork University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC) () is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, and located in Cork (city), Cork. The university was founded in 1845 as one of three Queen's Universit ...

. She also practises sky-diving. She has

lordosis Lordosis is historically defined as an ''abnormal'' inward curvature of the lumbar spine. However, the terms ''lordosis'' and ''lordotic'' are also used to refer to the normal inward curvature of the lumbar and cervical vertebrae, cervical regio ...

and competes in F41 classification events, which for women is for those under in height. After discovering that none of the Irish press or TV channels had sent any journalists to the 2018 Para Athletics European Championships, Niamh decided to cover the Championships herself via her Instagram account.

References

External links

*
Niamh McCarthy
at

Paralympics Ireland Paralympics Ireland (formerly known as the Paralympic Council of Ireland) is the National Paralympic Committee in Ireland for the Paralympic Games movement. It is a non-profit organisation that selects teams, and raises funds to send Irish compet ...

(profile 1)
Niamh McCarthy
at

(profile 2) 1994 births Living people Paralympic silver medalists for Ireland Athletes from County Cork Medalists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Irish female discus throwers Paralympic medalists in athletics (track and field) Paralympic athletes for Ireland Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Paralympics 21st-century Irish sportswomen {{Ireland-Paralympic-medalist-stub