Mary first encountered throwing through an induction day with the Irish Wheelchair Association when she was 11 and immediately fell in love with it. She is a person of small stature and competed in the World Dwarf Games in Michigan in 2013. She was selected to join Paralympic Ireland’s High Performance squad in 2019 and first represented them at a grand prix in Grossetto before competing in the 2019 World Championships in Dubai and since then has added on two metres to her personal best.
She comes into Tokyo in the best form of her life. She won bronze at the European Championships in Bydgoszcz (Poland) in June with a throw of 7.35. She went on to record throws of 7.44m and 7.85m this summer and, on August 8, at the Munster IWA Championships in Templemore (Co Tipperary) finally broke the world-class 8-metre barometer in her event. Her new PB of 8:12m puts her fourth in the world rankings.
Cork-based John McCarthy, who has also coached Niamh McCarthy, is her coach. After making her Paralympics debut Mary will start the final year of her Occupational Therapy studies in University College Cork where she receives a Quercus Scholarship for her academic/sport achievements.
