Kellie Harrington named sportswoman of the 12 months

Irish Olympic boxer Kellie Harrington has been named Irish Sportswoman of the Yr for 2024 by the Irish Instances/Sport. The 2-time Olympic gold medalist boxer has crushed rivals equivalent to Rachael Blackmore and Rhasidat Adeleke.

The Dubliner gained her second gold medal in Paris after beating China’s Wenlu Yang in August, throughout a historic night on the Roland Garros stadium in Paris. This made Harrington the primary Irish boxer to win two Olympic gold medals.

Harrington, who celebrated his thirty fifth birthday simply over every week in the past, additionally joins a choose group of Irish athletes who’ve efficiently defended an Olympic title.

Talking on the awards ceremony in Dublin on Friday afternoon, Harrington stated: “Generally it’s important to undergo the lows to get again to the highest. All through the final 12 months individuals assume you win the Olympics, you reside a wonderful life, that is not the case. that.

“It is actually onerous on the high. You have got the goal in your again, everybody needs to take your house. It is actually onerous if you climb that mountain to return again down and climb it once more. Individuals assume I am possibly loopy, however that is who I’m and that is what made me a double Olympic champion!

The Crew of the Yr award went to the Irish Paralympic Cyclists.

Katie-George Dunlevy, Eire’s most embellished Irishwoman Paralympic athlete, and her drivers Linda Kelly and Eve McCrystal gained the Crew of the Yr award for his or her excellent achievements at this 12 months’s Paralympic Video games and World Championships.

Irishwoman Katie-George Dunlevy and pilot Linda Kelly. Photograph: INPHO/Tom Maher

In a rare 12 months, Dunlevy amassed 5 Paralympic and World Championship medals. In Paris, she gained a gold medal and silver with new driver Kelly in addition to a silver medal with long-time accomplice McCrystal earlier than successful two gold medals on the World Championships in Zurich with Kelly.

This 12 months marks the twentieth anniversary of the awardsand that is the second time Harrington has gained the Sportswoman of the Yr title. THE the primary returned in 2018 after successful the light-weight title on the World Boxing Championships in New Delhi.

Irish Instances sports activities editor Noel O’Reilly paid tribute to all of the 2024 winners. “Twenty years in the past, when the Sportswoman of the Yr awards had been launched, we did not think about how excessive the bar could be. Every year, new requirements proceed to be set by Irish sportswomen, inspiring and difficult those that come after them. »