Niamh McCarthy: Gold Medallist 2018

Cork is known for many things but particularly for having sporting gods. Roy Keane,Sonia O’Sulivan, Christy Ring and many more. In 2016 the O’Donovan brothers becameworld-renowned during the Rio Olympics, but someone equally as quirky as the twosiblings is another Corkonian, Niamh McCarthy. The former UCC student also rose tostardom in Rio during the Paralympic games but recently Niamh claimed gold in what isto date her most successful achievement. Always up for a chat, Niamh sat down with melast week to discuss her latest triumph. Click hereNiamh is a native of Carrigaline in the south of Cork and previously studied Biological andChemical Sciences at UCC for a year before putting it on hold. That was nearly five years agoand a lot has changed for the now 24-year-old. Niamh has always known that she is was shorterthan others, as she describes to me, but never before had it ever dawned on her that there wasactually a reason for her small stature. It was only when someone who her family knew hadsuggested that maybe Niamh should try and take up a Paralympic style sport that she actuallybecame aware of her dwarfism.Ever since then Niamh’s life has been consumed by one sport in particular, discus. Competingin the F41 classification, McCarthy has been winning medals over the past three years, with herfirst being a bronze at the World Championships in Doha, 2015. Since then Niamh has gonefrom strength to strength and her medal haul includes a silver at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.While she also secured a silver medal last year in London, Niamh was not very pleased with herpersonal performance. There were a lot of distractions for the young woman in 2017 but all ofthat seems to have been put behind her.A new training structure amongst other things has propelled Niamh to the top of her powers andin late August this year she won her first major championship by securing gold at the WorldPara Athletic European Championships. In doing so McCarthy also broke the European recordfor her classification with a throw of 31.76 metres and as a result has written herself into thehistory books. “I felt quite nervous on the day of my event”, Niamh tells me. “I’m not usually thatnervous and I don’t know why I was, I think maybe it was me just putting pressure on myself todo well more than anything,” she continues. Niamh had been in pretty good form heading intothe championships and she informs me that she had actually thrown a score of 32.67 in June ofthis year at an event in France, but for some reason this was never made official.Niamh has been playing catch-up with her main rival, a Tunisian named Raoua Tlili, who is thecurrent Paralympic champion. In 2016 the Irish athlete was nearly seven metres off Tlili but thisgap has now been cut to about two metres. While she still remains behind, Niamh is pleased tosee the progress that she has made. “Yeah I suppose it’s great that I’ve managed to close thegap with her but at the same time open the gap behind me. I feel like I can concentrate oncompeting for that gold medal now more seriously, where as I was previously fighting for silverand bronze,” Niamh explains.The Paralympian has settled into a more practical training routine which now sees her onlyhaving to travel to Dublin for every second training session. Niamh also trains in the Mardyke onMonday nights with her strength and conditioning coach, alongside some other familiar nameslike boxer Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan and former Cork City captain, Johnny Dunleavy. Havinggrown up with very little interest in sport, Niamh suddenly finds herself engrossed with it. Shealso believes that it’s really important for others to try and take up some sort of activity orexercise, particularly students. “I think everybody gets something different out of sport but forme I suppose I love knowing what exactly I’m doing for the week so it gets you out. I knowpeople who get up, go to work, come home, watch TV and just go to bed, it’s all work orientated.I think people in college should really try and join clubs and societies. If I was still involved withUCC I would definitely be pushing people to take up a sport just so that they can keep relativelyfit mentally and physically because students can lose the run of themselves a bit from time totime. I really don’t think there’s an age limit to these things because I was 18 or 19 before I evenstarted throwing and look at me now.”As an international athlete who has performed at the highest level, getting an insight into theroutine of a gold medallist is a special thing. When asked about the motions that she goesthrough on the day of an event and whether she has any superstitions Niamh replies, “well toanswer the last question first, yes I do have superstitions,” she laughs. “I wear the same pair ofsocks for every competition. I started wearing them in Rio and ever since then I’ve kept thesame pair, washed of course every time I use them. In terms of planning I think you have toknow in the days leading up to your event exactly where you need to be and when. In terms of food for me it depends on the person and how they’re feeling, I don’t have anything specific thatI would eat. However, I would say that rest is important so my event was in the afternoon inBerlin so I got up as late as I could, so sleep is the biggest thing. I like being around happy andcheery people on the day, I don’t like being in awkward company because I want to keep asrelaxed as possible,” Niamh explains. One thing that Niamh does do is talk to herself in the thirdperson, in her head of course, she’s quick to point that out. “Yeah so I came across thistechnique of talking about yourself in a positive way. Like saying, ‘Niamh is a good thrower,Niamh is going to throw well today,’ there’s definitely a method behind the madness for sure,”she laughs.For now Niamh is taking a couple of months break before she begins training for the WorldChampionships in November 2019. She has not ruled out returning to UCC but all of herattention is currently focused on her role with ‘Dell EMC’ in Ovens and her athletic career.From everybody at the University Express and UCC we wish Niamh the best of luck!