After her Paralympics debut and emotional aftermath at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, Katie O’Brien found herself at a crossroads. The Galway rower had achieved her dream, but her body was sending a clear message — it was time to rest and repair.
“I had surgery on my back after Paris,” she explains. “It was something that had been building for a while, and I knew if I wanted to keep going, I had to deal with it properly.”
O’Brien was born with Spina Bifida and has had over 20 operations in her life.
The months that followed were tough. Rehab was steady but slow, and for an elite athlete used to measuring progress by the millisecond, the forced pause was a challenge in itself.
“I tried to treat recovery like training. Some days were great, others were frustrating. But I’ve learned to be patient with my body.”
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Katie discovered Para rowing through a Paralympics Ireland ‘Come and Try’ sports day, after being inspired by the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
She began rowing with Galway Rowing Club with the goal of qualifying for the Paralympics, and also rowed for UCD Rowing Club while pursuing her studies in Veterinary Medicine.
She won her first World Championship Medal at the 2019 World Rowing Championships in Linz, securing bronze in the PR2 W1x category.
By 2022, Katie had made significant progress, winning gold at the World Rowing Championships and setting a new world record in the PR2 W1x.
She was named Irish Times Sportswoman of the Month for September 2022.
At the 2023 World Rowing Championships, Katie placed 5th in the PR2 Mixed 2x alongside Steven McGowan, qualifying the boat for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. The pair also achieved a 5th-place finish at the European Championships that year.
Her partner in Paris, though, was Tiarnán O’Donnell, a rising talent in Irish para rowing.
“We qualified the boat, Steven and I, and we were training away together in the National Rowing Centre. But our focus wasn’t just on us as a boat. From the start, we were thinking bigger: building an Irish para rowing programme.”
“I’m always on the lookout for new athletes to join the programme, to make it a team, not just a ‘Katie and Stephen’ show. We wanted to create something that would last, that would hopefully go on for years to come.”
In 2018, when I came back to rowing, there was no setup. Nothing. Now, if I have to step away because of injury, there’s someone ready to step in. That’s incredible. That’s the goal.”
Their partnership with O’Donnell began not through official channels, but through a bit of initiative from O’Brien herself.
“I literally slid into his DMs,” she laughs. “I’d seen him race, knew what kind of person he was, and thought — why not ask? Thankfully, he said yes.”
“It’s very different from rowing the single, but it’s exciting. We’re learning how to move together, how to push each other. It’s a new dynamic and I’m loving it.”
Outside of training, O’Brien recently appeared as a special guest at the Her Sport Festival, where she participated in workshops and meet-and-greets designed to inspire the next generation.
“It was honestly one of the best days I’ve had off the water,” she says. “There’s something so powerful about young girls seeing someone who looks like them, talks like them, and has made it to elite sport. I never had that growing up.”
“Visibility matters. If they can see it, they can believe it — whether they’re from Galway, using a wheelchair, or just wondering if there’s a place for them in sport. I want them to know there is.”
Meanwhile, wider support for Ireland’s elite athletes continues to grow. This week saw SPAR and EUROSPAR announced as Official Retail Partners of both Paralympics Ireland and the Olympic Federation of Ireland — a move O’Brien welcomes for the platform it offers to athletes like her.
“I’ve been shopping in SPAR since I was a kid. Seeing Paralympics Ireland athletes featured in stores around the country? That matters. It brings us into everyday life.”
O’Brien is a great personality to be around, and she is already looking to the next horizon.
“Paris was a dream. But I’m not done yet.The new dream, please God, is now myself and Tiarnán will get to LA together.”
“We have an unbelievable relationship, inside the boat, and outside the boat and I respect him so hugely as a person, but massively as an athlete and he has what it takes to go the whole way.”
“So I really hope I can be the person. I know he’ll be in the boat, I just have to make sure I’m in there too.”
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