Niamh McCarthy: Gold Medallist 2018

It’s not every day that you get to meet a gold medallist but perhaps even rarer to meetsomeone with the persona of Niamh McCarthy. Wearing silver sandals with purpletoenails and fingernails to match, the most obvious feature of Niamh instead becomes the least. With a beaming smile etched across her face and a gold medal tucked away“somewhere” in her clutch bag, Niamh was ready to chat about her most successfulachievement to date.Niamh 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 wasshorter than others, as she describes to me, but never before had it ever dawned on herthat there was actually a reason for her small stature. It was only when someone who herfamily knew had suggested that maybe Niamh should try and take up a Paralympic stylesport that she actually became aware of her dwarfism.Ever since then, Niamh’s life has been consumed by one sport in particular, discus.Competing in the F41 classification, McCarthy has been winning continually medals over thepast three years, with her first being a bronze at the World Championships in Doha, 2015.Since then Niamh has gone from strength to strength and her medal haul includes a silver atthe 2016 Rio Paralympics. While she also secured a silver medal last year in London, Niamhwas not very pleased with her personal performance. There were a lot of distractions for theyoung woman in 2017 but all of that seems to have been put behind her.A new training structure amongst other things has propelled Niamh to make the most of herpowers and in late August this year, she won her first major championship by securing goldat the World Para Athletic European Championships. In doing so, McCarthy also broke theEuropean record for her classification, with a throw of 31.76 metres. As a result, she haswritten herself into the history books. “I felt quite nervous on the day of my event”, Niamhtells me. “I’m not usually that nervous and I don’t know why I was, I think maybe it was mejust putting pressure on myself to do well more than anything”. Niamh had been in prettygood form heading into the championships and she informs me that she had actuallythrown a score of 32.67 in June of this year at an event in France, but for some reason thiswas never made official.Niamh has been playing catch-up with her main rival, a Tunisian named Raoua Tlili, who isthe current Paralympic champion. In 2016 the Irish athlete was nearly seven metres off Tlilibut this gap has now been cut to about two metres. While she still remains behind, Niamh ispleased to see the progress that she has made. “Yeah I suppose it’s great that I’ve managedto close the gap with her but at the same time open the gap behind me. I feel like I canconcentrate on competing for that gold medal now more seriously, where as I waspreviously fighting for silver and 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 theMardyke on Monday nights with her strength and conditioning coach, alongside some otherfamiliar names like boxer Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan and former Cork City captain, JohnnyDunleavy. Having grown up with very little interest in sport, Niamh suddenly finds herselfengrossed with it. She also believes that it’s really important for others to try and take upsome sort of activity or exercise, particularly students. “I think everybody gets somethingdifferent out of sport but for me I suppose I love knowing what exactly I’m doing for the week so it gets you out. I know people who get up, go to work, come home, watch TV andjust go to bed, it’s all work orientated. I think people in college should really try and joinclubs and societies. If I was still involved with UCC, I would definitely be pushing people totake up a sport just so that they can keep relatively fit mentally and physically becausestudents can lose the run of themselves a bit from time to time. I really don’t think there’san age limit to these things because I was 18 or 19 before I even started throwing and lookat me now.”As an international athlete who has performed at the highest level, getting an insight intothe routine of a gold medallist is a special thing. When asked about the motions that shegoes through on the day of an event and whether she has any superstitions, Niamh replies,“well to answer the last question first, yes I do have superstitions,” she laughs. “I wear thesame pair of socks for every competition. I started wearing them in Rio and ever since thenI’ve kept the same pair, washed of course every time I use them. In terms of planning I thinkyou have to know in the days leading up to your event exactly where you need to be andwhen. In terms of food for me it depends on the person and how they’re feeling, I don’thave anything specific that I would eat. However, I would say that rest is important so myevent was in the afternoon in Berlin so I got up as late as I could, so sleep is the biggestthing. I like being around happy and cheery people on the day, I don’t like being in awkwardcompany because I want to keep as relaxed as possible,” Niamh explains. One thing thatNiamh does do is talk to herself in the third person, in her head of course, she’s quick topoint out. “Yeah so I came across this technique of talking about yourself in a positive way.Like saying, ‘Niamh is a good thrower, Niamh is going to throw well today,’ there’s definitelya 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.