He won two gold medals at the London Paralympics and now Irish paracyclist Mark Rohan is coming to a TV screen near you! (Photo: Inpho)
Having won two Paralympic golds in London, Mark Rohan was very much the darling of the Irish team four years ago.
And while he won’t be in Rio trying to win more accolades, having since retired from competing, the Westmeath man has landed a very tidy TV gig on RTE.
Rohan will be a regular on our TV screens over the next fortnight in the RTE studio with full-time sports presenter Joanne Cantwell, bringing sports fans all the news about how the Irish are doing in Rio.
News Rohan has landed the job, which will involve presenting in all sports rather than cycling alone, will be welcomed across the cycling community within which he is hugely popular.
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The Paralympics get underway tonight with the opening ceremony, with Rohan set to immediately begin his role in RTE’s TV coverage.
He confirmed last year that a reworking of the UCI Paracycling categories led to his decision to bow out of his effort to go back to the Rio Games in search of more glory.
Rohan was the golden boy of the Irish team last time around, and now he makes his TV anchor debut on RTE.
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He decided to pursue studying full time and has taken on an MBA course at the Real Madrid University in Spain.
Four years ago he won gold in both the H1 category road time trial and road race in London.
However, after the UCI made changes to the paracycling categories he was placed into a group of riders whose power output he could never hope to match.
And having always planned to compete in Rio and then do his MBA in sports management, he simply brought forward his study plans by 12 months.
“I was reclassified last year at the 2014 World Championships after they re-jigged the categories in 2013 to allow another category enter,” he said at the time.
“I contested the decision as I was always borderline with my injury and unfortunately I just fell the wrong side of the classification cut off this time.
“The decision of the UCI was to keep me in the new H3 division, and this effectively ended my hopes of competing in Rio as in my educated experience of racing, and the power outputs required to compete, it’s physically impossible for me to compete with the best H3 cyclists.”
A former footballer, he came to cycling after a motorbike accident in 2001 put an end to his playing career when it left him in a wheelchair.
He had represented Westmeath footballers at U21 level but went on to become Ireland’s best ever paracyclist, despite only starting paracycling in 2007 and embarking on his international career in 2009.
He first tried wheelchair archery, table tennis and basketball.
He is a former captain of the Irish wheelchair basketball team and aside from his double gold in London 2012 has also been world champion and dominated the UCI World Paracycling Cup.
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