Ellen Keane already aiming for Paralympics number five

After getting through three lockdowns and one enormously testing event that was the Paralympics last summer Ellen Keane has picked up Covid-19. No big deal for a fit and healthy athlete such as herself, only not ideal timing ahead of the 2022 Para Swimming World Championships, set for Madeira, from June 12th-18th.

Keane’s gold medal heroics in Tokyo, winning the 100m breaststroke, five years after winning bronze in Rio, has convinced of one thing: at 27 she may be considered a veteran in her sport, competing in Beijing in 2008 aged only 13, still she has every intention of swimming for gold again in Paris 2024, now just over two years away.

The championships in Madeira will provide some indication of where she is one year on from Tokyo, Keane still hopeful she’ll be suitably recovered in time for the event.

“I tested positive last Tuesday, and I’m still testing positive,” Keane explains. “So hoping for some negatives now in the next few days. Day one was really achy and fluey, and the next day I’d no taste, a bit of a cough, but that’s starting to go away and I can breathe again through my nose, just a bit fatigue too.

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“I did a good job escaping for so long, so I can’t be too angry. My team are going on a training camp tomorrow but I have to wait for two negative tests before I can fly. I’ve no idea how I picked it up. Even the people that I’ve been in contact with, I let them know that I tested positive but none of them have it and I have no idea where I got it.

“Things were looking really well, my level of fitness is really good and I thought off the back of Dancing with the Stars I might struggle a little bit, but I was still in the pool while dancing and it was just that I didn’t have any speed work. We were just starting to work on our speed, and that’s when it kind of hit me.”

Whether or not Keane is at her best again in time for Madeira, the big focus for the coming two years is Paris. Like sprinter Jason Smyth, she’ll be aiming for her five Paralympics, and she won’t yet be 30 by the time it comes round.

“Yeah 100 per cent, I think I’ve been called a veteran since I was like 17, but I can finally call myself a veteran of the sport now.

“I guess as an older athlete I can fully appreciate what it takes, and the privileged position I am in, as an athlete. And knowing my body is still in good shape and still able to keep going, I think that’s what pushes me on as well. Some athletes maybe their body gives up on them, or they can’t keep going through no fault of their own.

“So I want to do it for them, and I also want to do it for myself, to have no regrets when I do step away from the sport. I remember in the lead up to Tokyo I was questioning whether I’d retire, or whether I’d stay, and then as soon as finished my final race in Paris I said nah, I need to go to Paris, I need to do this one more time.

“I always say I go into each games a different person, and now I’m going into these games as a gold medallist. And I know what it takes, and when you know you’ve done it before, there’s kind of a peace of mind there, as long as you look after yourself, do everything you’re supposed to do, anything is possible.”

Keane was speaking along with Kellie Harrington as a Dublin City Council Sports Ambassador, to promote the benefits of sport and physical activity in Dublin.

“To anyone who is feeling a bit insecure, just stay in the sport because that’s where my safe haven was. I lost myself in it and I began to love my body. The confidence sport can give you. I’d encourage anyone having those thoughts to stay in sport and use it as a tool to get through those insecurities.

“It’s a great honour for me. As a Paralympian, it has been very rare in the past for Olympians and Paralympians to be seen as equals. For me and Kellie to be on this partnership together shows the strides we have taken. Being a Dub, I’m really proud of that.”