Behind the Scenes as Deputy Chef de Mission for Team Ireland at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games – Dr. toni Rossiter.

Preparation and Strategy

For the two years leading up to the Games, I worked closely with Paralympics Ireland to create a high-performance culture, driving interventions to support both athletes and the Team-behind-the-Team to perform at their best in Paris. With the support of the Sport Ireland Institute, my key responsibility to provide strategic direction and leadership to ensure Irish Paralympic athletes had access to world-class sport science and medical support throughout the Paris Cycle.

Team Ireland’s Sport Science and Medical Team

Our support team in Paris consisted of 12 practitioners across a range of disciplines, including medical and physiotherapy support, psychology, nutrition, physiology, and performance analysis. My role was to identify the support needs of the athletes with their team leads and to coordinate the development and delivery of this support. As we entered the Paralympic village, the support teams were firmly established, and the athletes were focusing on final preparations before they competed. At this point, my role involved observing and listening to ensure support to the athletes and communication between the practitioners, coaches and athletes were running smoothly and effectively.

Optimising Performance and Recovery

A key role for the Team Ireland sport science and medical team was to develop tools and resources to optimise physical and mental preparation for the Paralympic Games. The foundation of our strategies involved doing the simple things right; ensuring a positive mindset, good sleep hygiene, and sound nutritional practices. The Paralympic Village can be overwhelming, so we created an environment in the Village accommodation that allowed athletes to switch off when they were not training and competing. We provided snacks and drinks that the athletes were familiar with and that would promote fuelling and recovery. The warmer conditions in Paris compared to Ireland could potentially hinder athletes’ physical performance, so we worked with athletes to ensure that they had heat management strategies and tools in place to prepare them to perform optimally in the heat. As well as ensuring that the athletes had all resources required to enable them to compete to the best of their ability, a key part of my role was to check in with the support staff to ensure that their stress and energy levels were also in good shape. A major championship such as the Paralympic Games can be incredibly stressful and full-on for the coaches and support team, so it was crucial for them to have recovery strategies in place to ensure that they were also in a physical and mental state to perform optimally to support the athletes when it mattered most.

Conclusion

Working as Deputy Chef de Mission for Team Ireland at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games was an incredibly rewarding experience. The dedication, resilience, and spirit of the Paralympic athletes were truly inspiring, and being part of their journey was a privilege I will always cherish.

Paris 2024 was a memorable Games. Over the course of 10 days and 67 events, there were some phenomenal Irish performances.  Team Ireland won six medals across Athletics, Swimming, and Cycling – 1 Gold, 3 Silver, 2 Bronze along with six 4th places and many personal best performances.  I believe the proximity to home, the performances of Team Ireland and the positive experience of those who competed for and supported Team Ireland has all helped towards making Paris a real milestone Games for the Paralympic Movement and for Team Ireland.