Niamh McCarthy (born 4 January 1994) is an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

Paralympic The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaire ...

discus throw The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field event in which an athlete throws a heavy disk (mathematics), disc—called a discus—in an attempt to mark a farther distance than their competitors. It is an classical antiqui ...

er, competing in the F41 classification, a classification for persons of reduced stature. She is the 2018 European champion in the event at her classification and, as of August 2018, the European record holder at 31.76 metres.

Career

McCarthy started competing in discus events in 2013, winning world and European medals before taking a silver at the

2016 Summer Paralympics ) , nations = 159 , athletes = 4,342 , opening = 7 September , closing = 18 September , opened_by = President Michel Temer , cauldron = Clodoaldo Silva , events = 528 in 22 sports , stadium = Maracanã , sum ...

. McCarthy won the gold medal at the

European Para Athletics Championships The World Para Athletics European Championships (''European Para Athletics Championships''), known prior to 2018 as the IPC Athletics European Championships is an event organized by World Para Athletics, the international athletics federation estab ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, August 2018, setting a new European record of 31.76 m

Personal life

McCarthy has lived in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. is a former student of Biological and Chemical Sciences at

University College Cork University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh) is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, and located in Cork. The university was founded in 1845 as one of ...

. She also practises

sky-diving Parachuting, including also skydiving, is a method of transiting from a high point in the Atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere to the surface of Earth with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachut ...

. She has

lordosis Lordosis is historically defined as an ''abnormal'' inward curvature of the lumbar spine. However, the terms ''lordosis'' and ''lordotic'' are also used to refer to the normal inward curvature of the lumbar and cervical regions of the human spi ...

and competes in F41 classification events, which for women is for those under 140 cm (4 ft 7 in) in height. After discovering that none of the Irish press or TV channels had sent any journalists to the 2018 Para Athletics European Championships, Niamh decided to cover the Championships herself via her Instagram account.

References

External links

* 1994 births Living people Paralympic silver medalists for Ireland Sportspeople from County Cork Medalists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Irish female discus throwers Paralympic medalists in athletics (track and field) Paralympic athletes of Ireland Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Paralympics {{Ireland-Paralympic-medalist-stub