EIMEAR BREATHNACH

 

Eimear Breathnach is the President of Paralympics Ireland and has always been a powerful role model in terms of seeing the ability rather than the disability in a person.

At the age of 17, she dived into the sea off the Galway coast and broke her neck.

A promising sporting career was paused while an adjustment to life in a wheelchair was put first, alongside completing the Leaving Cert and a Commerce Degree at UCD.

She qualified to compete for Ireland in table tennis at the Beijing 2018 and the London 2022 Paralympic Games and became an Athlete representative on the Board of Paralympics Ireland in 2013.

She was elected President in May of 2021 and is deep in the preparation of the Paris 2024 Games.

 

********

 

This is the tenth edition of our Sport for Business listing of 50 Women of Influence in Irish Sport.

Read more about the list and nominate who you think should be a part of it in 2022.

We are proud to do so again this year with AIG, an organisation that has pledged its commitment to equality in its partnerships with Gaelic Games, Tennis, Golf and more, for whom “Effort is Equal” and with whom we have ambitious plans to extend the reach of this annual celebration of the Women who are making a difference.

This year’s list will be drawn as before from the worlds of leadership, partnership, storytelling and performance.

We began this journey in 2013 when challenged that we would never be able to produce a list of twenty Influential Women in Irish Sport. The 20 stretched to 30, then 40 and 50 and it still does not do justice to the talent that is out there.

This year once more, to keep things fresh we will introduce at least 30 per cent of fresh names from last year. That will be the hardest part to have some names replaced but if it was too easy it would be of less value.

The list we will build over the coming weeks is a snapshot of those women who are making a mark on how sport is played, consumed, grown and delivered.

They are part of making the role of women in sport unexceptional by being exceptional in what they do.