Irish Paralympic champion Ellen Keane officially retired at the end of the 2024 Paralympic Games. Keane, a five-time Paralympian, announced her intentions before arriving in Paris, making the Games not only an opportunity to defend her Paralympic gold in the 100 breaststroke SB8 but a chance to have a “farewell meet” and take her time saying goodbye to her competitive career.
After her last race, Keane told RTE “I’m really glad that I’ve been so vocal about retirement because not a lot of athletes know when they’re going to retire and they don’t know when their last swim is and so I wanted to end on my terms and knowing I could say goodbye when I wanted to was really special.”
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At 13, Keane was Ireland’s youngest athlete to compete at the 2008 Paralympics. Four years later, she made three finals at the 2012 Paralympic Games before reaching her first major international podium at the 2013 IPC World Championships, where she earned bronze in the 100 breast SB8 and 100 fly S8.
Keane earned her first Paralympic medal at the 2016 Games with a bronze in the 100 breaststroke SB8. Four years later, she stood on top of the podium, winning gold in the same event with a personal best of 1:19.33 to make it two straight trips to the Paralympic podium in the 100 breast SB8.
Keane carried that momentum forward into the most recent Paralympic quad, winning silver in the 100 breast SB8 at the 2022 and 2023 World Championships and the 2024 European Championships.
Reflecting on her career with The Irish Times, Keane said “I was probably ready to retire after Europeans, and even the last few months, in the build-up to Paris, were quite difficult…I’m just really, really glad I held on because it’s such a privilege to represent your country at such a high level. And the feeling I had in Paris wasn’t the competitive performance feeling that I’ve always had at every Games. In Paris, I just felt so content, so happy, just living in the moment.”
In Paris, she finished fourth in the 100 breast SB8, touching in 1:24.69 to finish .19 seconds behind Viktoriia Ishchiulova. After swimming in her main event, Keane took on the 100 backstroke heats; she told RTE after that final swim she was “really glad I finished on an event that wasn’t my main one because I just didn’t feel the pressure. I just wanted to go out there and enjoy what racing feels like.”
To close out the Paris Games and her decorated para swimming career, Keane was selected as one of Ireland’s flagbearers for the Paralympic closing ceremony.
