The 2024 Paralympics came to an end on Sunday night.
Ellen Keane acted as Ireland’s flagbearer for her final Games where Ireland picked up six medals.
While Ellen didn’t manage to secure any medals in Paris, she has done Ireland proud since she began her Paralympic campaign at the age of 13.
She had previously confirmed that 2024 would be her final year competing.
She shared an emotional retirement post after the Paralympics came to an end.
“‘How lucky am I to have something, that makes saying goodbye so hard’,” she began.
“A night of smiling, a night of love & friendship, a night of being incredibly proud to be Irish.
“Thank you Michael for sharing this experience with me. Thank you to my teammates for cheering SO loud that it was so easy to find you in the crowd. Thank you to the Paralympic community for being my home for so long.
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“Merci Beaucoup Paris. What a way to go out. Love Ellen x.”
She previously told VIP Magazine that her retirement was going to be a “bittersweet moment”. Appearing in the February issue of VIP, she told us that taking the plunge is “scary”.
“It is a bittersweet moment and a little bit scary but life is long and there’s so many things to be doing. It’s so interesting to think about the capacity that we have,” she said.
“I’m excited to be a beginner and start again. There could be something else out there that I’m really good at so I’m excited to take the time out and discover that. As well as that, when I retire I’ll have six months of my twenties left for myself.
“I’ve never had a lot of freedom. I want to have the experiences that I never got to have so I’ve started a retirement bucket list. I want to go skiing because when you’re an athlete you can’t go on high-risk holidays incase you get injured.”
She revealed that she has plenty of plans after she finishes up her career.
“I want to go surfing and I want to go on a girls trip! I’ve never travelled to very obvious places. I was watching Ratatouille with my boyfriend the other night and realised I’ve never seen Paris. I’ve never done so many things that a lot of people my age have ticked off and moved on from, so I want to start.”
So why did she decide now was the time to retire?
She admitted that she thought that she was planning to retire at 25 after Tokyo.
“I knew my body could still do it, I just had to figure out how to want to do it again. My team is so young and there’s so much potential. I’ve seen so many athletes get injured, have to retire and walk away from their sport. I didn’t have to do that so I feel like I’m in a privileged position. But five games and representing the country for five cycles is enough.”
