{"id":176056,"date":"2025-12-05T06:15:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T06:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/176056\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T06:15:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T06:15:16","slug":"irelands-paralympic-legend-on-life-after-racing-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/176056\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s Paralympic legend on life after racing \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The race continues. Jason Smyth<\/a> retired from competitive sprinting over two years ago now but the crusade to improve access to sport for people with disabilities is an ongoing marathon. <\/p>\n

For a certain cohort of society, Smyth is the guy who won Dancing with the Stars<\/a>. You burst your arse across two decades to win 21 gold medals only for some folk to identify you more as the guy in the sparkly trousers who went all Patrick Swayze on their TV screens last year. <\/p>\n

He smiles at it all now. Perceptions. He could tell you a thing or two about perceptions.<\/p>\n

Jason Smyth, the athlete, was a pioneer, using his blistering speed to smash barriers and reshape the conversation around para-athletics. <\/p>\n

At the age of eight he was diagnosed with Stargardt disease, a degenerative eye condition. The Derry native went on to become Ireland\u2019s most decorated Paralympian, winning six gold medals across four Games (Beijing, London, Rio, Tokyo). He hoovered up para-gold medals at European and world level too.<\/p>\n

But he also transcended para-sports, running in able-bodied competitions, where he won the Irish National 100m title on three occasions. He was also the first para-athlete to complete at mainstream World and European Championships.<\/p>\n

He got within a chin-hair of qualifying for the 2012 Olympics. The qualification time required was 10.18. Smyth posted 10.22. <\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, four hundredths of a second,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI was in the shape of my life then. But the more I tried to force it, the more I wanted to make it happen, the more I would make mistakes throughout races.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, that was the difference between running 10.18 and not. Sometimes, unfortunately, you have to learn through the negatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow often do we see a Paralympian competing at the Olympic Games or getting close to it? You don\u2019t really. That was the one that just about kind of got away from me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JasonJason Smyth wins the Men’s 100m Final at Morton Stadium, Santry, Dublin 26\/6\/2016. Photograph: INPHO\/Morgan Treacy <\/p>\n

Not many did. On the track, he tended to be the athlete speeding away from others. He retired in March 2023 undefeated, having never lost a competitive para-athletics race. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Paralympian champion Jason Smyth, the man they couldn\u2019t catch, retiresOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He is the fourth fastest Irish sprinter in history with a 100m personal best of 10.22. Until recently Smyth was second behind Paul Hession (10.18), before Israel Olatunde (10.08) and Bori Akinola (10.20) started burning up the track.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was competing, it was a personal thing around continually trying to improve,\u201d says Smyth.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there\u2019s this element of when you consider somebody who can\u2019t see, you think about what things they can\u2019t do rather than what they can do. For me it was always about trying to challenge perspectives of what people felt I could or couldn\u2019t do.\u201d<\/p>\n

After retiring, Smyth took on a full-time position with Paralympics Ireland as a strategy manager, planning the organisation\u2019s direction for the next decade. <\/p>\n

He stepped back from that role in October but continues to be involved in related projects. On Monday he helped launch Sport Ireland\u2019s<\/a> first ever National Disability in Sport Week.<\/p>\n

On a daily basis he negotiates the challenges faced by people with a disability. <\/p>\n

Smyth, who resides in Lisburn with his wife Elise and two daughters Evie (10) and Lottie (7), can\u2019t drive, so in choosing where to live the public transport infrastructure was a key factor. <\/p>\n

\u201cEverything in your life revolves around being somewhere you can access places,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t go to a gym because a journey which might only take a few minutes in a car might take 30-40 minutes each way by the time you have to get a bus or train or walk somewhere.<\/p>\n

\"JasonJason Smyth with his wife Elise, daughters Lottie and Evie. Photograph: INPHO\/Presseye\/Kelvin Boyes <\/p>\n

\u201cI keep talking about buying gym equipment for my garage and I do some running beside a river not far away.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a kid, his parents brought him wherever he needed to be in terms of developing his athletic talent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a very stable family background support, some people don\u2019t have that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have to get a taxi everywhere, just consider the cost. Also, across society people with disabilities are generally less employed or are on significantly lower incomes. <\/p>\n

\u201cPlus, if you are always relying on a taxi or it takes an hour to get there, that completely changes your desire to consider a sport. Very quickly you encounter barriers.\u201d <\/p>\n

Smyth continues to adjust to his post-racing life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found it difficult [after retiring] even though I would say I feel I\u2019ve transitioned well, if that makes sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe role at Paralympics Ireland allowed me to step away on my terms, which isn\u2019t always the case in sport. So, I have no regrets on the timing. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I found hard, I was wrapped up in something for so long and during that time I was very clear in what I wanted to achieve and how I was getting there, I felt quite purposeful in that. <\/p>\n

\u201cSince I\u2019ve stepped away, I\u2019ve felt kind of unclear on those answers. Being somewhat unclear in the destination can make it harder to know what are the next steps forward. <\/p>\n

\"Ireland'sIreland’s Jason Smyth celebrates winning gold in 2012. Photograph: INPHO\/Joseph Johnson <\/p>\n

\u201cWithin that, there\u2019s probably a bit of time switching your identity and figuring out what it is you want to do going forward. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think another reality is you never replace what you had in sport. You must face that, but at the same time not lose what made you very good at what you did.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the summer, his home village of Eglinton in Derry erected a new welcome sign: \u201cWelcome to Eglinton, Birthplace of Jason Smyth, six-time Paralympic champion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel very fortunate for the career I had, it was an incredible time in my life,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the environments I found myself in alongside the best athletes in the world, I felt at that point I really was pushing the boundaries of para-sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a number of us pushing those boundaries, challenging perspectives, bringing more awareness.\u201d<\/p>\n

But more is needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople create structures, people develop policies, it\u2019s always people making some level of decision that then influences the system and the environment. Do we see somebody with a disability at the decision table? Often, we don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not that people have bad intentions, it\u2019s just you don\u2019t know what you don\u2019t know. You can\u2019t tell me how having limited vision impacts me and the things that influence my life or not. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know the benefits of sport so it\u2019s important to make it accessible for everybody. Things have improved but I would caveat that by saying I don\u2019t think it\u2019s moved fast enough. We still have a long way to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

The race continues.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Jason Smyth: \u2018I hope my actions show my daughters, if dad is able to do it . . . then I can\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The race continues. Jason Smyth retired from competitive sprinting over two years ago now but the crusade to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,96345,43,38049,96346],"class_list":{"0":"post-176056","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-jason-smyth","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-paralympic-games","13":"tag-sport-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}