Galway native, Ronan Grimes, has emerged as one of the best Para-Cyclists in the World. Grimes found his way to Para-Cycling by an unorthodox root through the Irish Government’s Cycle to Work scheme.
Ronan progressed quickly through the Para Cycling ranks from his debut in 2017 to winning medals at both the World Road and Track Championships in 2019 before announcing his return to post-pandemic competition with a brilliant third placed finish at the Road World Championships in 2021, a result that was even more impressive considering he had crashed earlier in the event.
In 2022 he was crowned European time trial champion in the men’s C4 category in Austria back in May and followed that up with a bronze medal in the Paracycling Road World Championships C4 time trial in Canada in August.
In the same championships, Grimes won his first World Championships gold medal as he took victory in the C4 road race. He closed out his season in October and won a silver medal in the individual pursuit at the Paracycling Track World Championships in Paris.
On the back of that successful season, he was nominated for the Sportsperson of the Year award at the 2022 RTE Sports Awards.
Honours:
2023 Para Cycling Road World Championships MC4 road race – silver medal
2023 Para Cycling Road World Championships Men’s C4 scratch race – bronze medal
2020 Para Cycling Road World Championships C4 Road Race – bronze medal
2019 Para World Championships C4 Individual Pursuit Race – bronze medal
2019 UCI Para Cycling Track World Championships MC4 Scratch Race – silver medal
Tokyo 2021 Results:
Men’s Individual Pursuit C4 – 4th place
Men’s Time Trial C4 – 6th place
Men’s 1 km Time Trial C4-5 – 15th place
Men’s Road Race C4-5 – 11th place