Ellen Keane

Paralympic Medallist 2016 | European Para-Swimming Champion 2018 | Advocate for Persons with Disability

24-year-old native of Clontarf, Dublin is a three-time Paralympic Swimmer. She became Ireland’s youngest Paralympic athlete at 13, when she swam in the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games making the final in the 100m breaststroke. The Dublin woman’s greatest sporting moment was claiming bronze in the 100m breaststroke at the Rio Paralympic Games, 2016. In 2018 she became the European Para-Swimming Breaststroke Champion and secured bronze in the 200m Individual Medley in front of a home crowd in Ireland. The Dubliner is also a multiply World medallist winning three bronze medals in total. Sharing her story, to change people’s perspective on disability and empower those who have a disability is very important to Ellen. She wants to use her performance in the pool as a platform to normalise the stigma surrounding disabilities. She is also an advocate for positive body image, her remarkable journey from self-conscious ‘girl with one arm’ to Paralympic swimming medallist at the Rio 2016 Games, is a story about self-acceptance. By learning to embrace and celebrate what made her different changed her entire life for the positive.