Cerebral Palsy Sport Ireland

The Paralympic Games are elite Olympic style sports events for elite athletes with physical disabilities, or visual impairment, emphasising athletic achievement rather than disability. Approximately 4000 athletes, from over 153 countries across twenty sports will compete at the Beijing Games. Athletes compete in various classes of competition and are classified according to their disability.

The Irish team for the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing was officially announced by Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism Mr. Martin Cullen T.D. with forty five elite athletes across nine sports representing Ireland at the Beijing Games which get underway on September 6th, and run for twelve days.

Of the 45 athletes that will be representing Ireland at the 2008 Paralympics Games, 20 of the athletes are representatives of Cerebral Palsy Sport Ireland.

             ATHLETICS

Michael Mc Killop                   Lisa Callaghan             Eoin Cleare

 BOCCIA

 Tom Leahy                          Padraic Moran               Gabriel Shelly            Roberta Connolly

CYCLING

Enda Smyth

SOCCER

Aiden Brennan                      Paul Dollard                     Darren Kavangh                 Alan O Hara

Derek Malone                      Joseph Markey                 Brian Mc Gillivary               Kieren Delvin

Gary Messett                          Finbarr O Riordan               Luke Evans                      Mark Jones

On behalf of Cerebral Palsy Sport Ireland’s Committee and staff, we want to wish all our athletes the very best of Luck in the forthcoming Paralympics.  We know that they will do us proud.

Best of Luck