35 athletes have qualified to represent Team Ireland for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. They will compete across 9 sports with the first of the athletes competing on August 29th. The Games get underway today in Paris, and there are two Midlands athletes carrying the hopes of Ireland with them.
Portarlington’s Nicole Turner will compete in swimming, and Tullamore’s Josephine Healion will compete in the women’s tandem paracycling events.
Nicole Turner
Nicole Turner
Age: 21
Hometown: Portarlington, Laois
Club: NAC Swim Club
Disability: Hypochondroplasia (Short Stature)
Sport Class: S6, SB6, SM6
Nicole swimming career started with Portarlington Piranhas before moving to Laois Marlins in Portlaoise. She moved to train with Ireland’s top swimmers at the National Aquatic Centre in Dublin in 2017.
In 2018, she won silver in 50-meter butterfly at the European Championships in Dublin. In 2019, she won bronze in 50-meter butterfly at the World Championships in London. In 2021, she won medals in all four of her events at the European Championships in Madeira: silver in 50m butterfly and 100m breaststroke and bronze in 50m freestyle and 200m IM individual medley.
She won silver medal in the S6 50m butterfly final in Tokyo touching home in 36.30 seconds. It took a world record by her Chinese rival Yuyan Jiang to deny Turner the race win in their heat, and she finished second to the same woman in the final.
Nicole was a member of the team that represented Ireland at the 2023 Para Swimming World Championships in Manchester. At the 2024 Para Swimming European Championships in Madeira she won four medals one gold, one silver and two bronze. She is currently a student at Technical University Dublin (TUD).
Paris will be her third Paralympic Games. Following her brilliant performances in 2019, Nicole was nominated for both the RTÉ Sport Awards 2019 Sportsperson of the Year and was also named in the Young Sportspersons category.
Schedule for Nicole:
Day 1- August 29th
S6 50m Free (heat) 10:03am and S6 50m Free (final) 19:17pm
Day 6 – September 3rd
S6 50m Fly (heat) 09:12am and S6 50m Fly (final) 17:07pm
Josephine Healion
Age: 28
Hometown: Tullamore, Co Offaly
Club: Tullamore Cycling and Touring Club
Classification: B2
Josephine Healion competes in the women’s tandem events on both track and road. Since 2023, Healion has combined with pilots Eve McCrystal in international road competitions and Linda Kelly in international track competitions.
Healion and Kelly won a bronze medal in the women’s tandem road race at the 2022 UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships. Paris will be her first Paralympic Games.
Schedule for Josephine:
Day 2 – August 30th
TRACK: Women’s B 1000m Time Trial (qualifying & final) Q: 13:12 F: 15:34
Day 4 – September 1st
ROAD: B 3000m Individual Pursuit (qualifying & final) Q: 10:22 F: 13:31
The opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games will be held at the Place de la Concorde on August 29th marking the first time that the Opening Ceremony will take place outside of the main stadium. Sprinter Orla Comerford and Table Tennis star, Colin Judge will carry the flag for Team Ireland at the Opening Ceremony.
