One of Ireland’s most successful and decorated athletes ever, para-cyclist Katie-George Dunlevy took home Ire- land’s first gold of the 2024 Paris Paralympics with pilot Linda Kelly. The spectacular victory in the women’s Pa- ra-Cycling Road Race B Time Trial saw her win the race for the third consecutive Paralympics – first Rio, then Tokyo, now Paris – with the duo covering an incredible 28.3 kilometres in a time of 38.16, just one minute ahead of the British team. It confirmed Dunlevy as the most decorated Irish Paralympic athlete of all time, as she
is now the keeper of eight Paralympic medals and 15 World Championship medals. At the Para-cycling Road World Championships in Zurich in September, Dunlevy and Kelly won gold again, successfully defending their first-place title in last year’s Road World Championships in Glasgow. Born in England and based in West Sussex, Dunlevy competes for Ireland in para-cycling as her father is from Mountcharles in County Donegal. She
has been a key figure for Team Ireland since she started para-cycling in 2014 – taking home medals for track and road every year of the decade since. When she was 11, Dunlevy was diagnosed with a rare sight-limiting eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa. She has been a dedi– cated advocate for the visually impaired, regularly speak- ing to the significance of representation and visibility. And though she has weathered countless serious injuries along the way, Dunlevy is eager to carry on with Kelly, her skilled tandem pilot, and continue to inspire visually impaired children and the LGBT community.
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