Katie-George Dunlevy will defend her World Championship title in 2025

Katie-George Dunlevy continues to break new records when, along with her tandem partner Linda Kelly, she won the RTE Sport Team of the Year award at their annual awards night on Sunday night last.

She shares the record with Paul O’Donovan, who has also won the Team of the Year award twice and like Katie-George, with different partners.

Always so proud of her Donegal and Mountcharles roots, Katie-George won the Team Award in 2021 with Eve McChrystal, after their exploits at the Tokyo Olympics.

As Katie-George said speaking to the Donegal Democrat this week, “We (Katie-George and Eve) had to wait a long time for the first award and now Linda has won the award in just our second year.”

And the paracyclist has also created another unique record along with rower, Paul O’Donovan. They are now the only athletes who have won medals at three successive Games. 

And you never know what the future holds!

Paul O’Donovan was also named as the RTE Sportsperson of the Year on Sunday night and Katie-George was delighted that he won that award.

Dunlevy, a former rower who competed for Great Britain at the London Games in 2012, changed sport to cycling and to wearing the Irish jersey and what a transition that has been. Even though born in Crawley her love of Ireland is clear and that is best seen when surrounded by her family including proud dad and Mountcharles native, John.

On accepting the RTE Sport award, Dunlevy said: “For a para-athlete to win an accolade like this is huge. I represent so much, I’m representing adults at home to believe in themselves and you can achieve.”

The duo, who excel in paracycling, were honoured with the Team of the Year award following their extraordinary achievements at both the Paralympic Games and the World Championships.

Dunlevy and Kelly shone brightly at the Paris Paralympics, clinching gold in the time trial and silver in the road race. Shortly after, they carried their winning momentum to the World Championships in Zurich, where they once again dominated, earning gold in both the time trial and road race events.

The competition for the Team of the Year award was fierce, with other nominees including the All-Ireland champions Armagh men’s footballers, Clare hurlers, Cork camogie team, and Kerry women’s footballers. The shortlist also featured Shelbourne FC, the Irish men’s rugby team, rowers Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy, as well as Ireland’s 4x400m mixed relay squad.

Speaking this week after returning home, Katie-George is still on cloud nine after a year of highs and lows.

A broken collar bone after a heavy fall threatened to derail all the preparation for the Paralympics in Paris, but the determination shown by her and also by her tandem partner Linda Kelly (who suffered concussion from a fall) was such that they overcame the obstacles on their way to glory.

“It has been very busy in the last few months but it’s been good. When you get an award like that (RTE) you have to be glad.

“I think everyone knows about the RTE Sport award and it’s a big accolade to win. We were very proud of it after an incredible year, a year of highs and lows.

“Winning those medals after the challenges that we have had just left it more special,” said Katie-George.

Even though there have been so many guest appearances which included a visit to Áras an Uachtaráin for a presentation from President Higgins, Dunlevy has still been active keeping up her training.

There are no races planned until the World Cup events start in May but that date is firmly set into the schedule for 2025 along with the World Championships in August.

“I am just tipping away and putting in decent hours, maybe not the hours I would normally be putting in at this time of year. I have time to get ready for my first event in May. The World Championships in August is the big one next year.”

Katie-George was put on the spot during the RTE Awards night regarding her participation in the LA Olympics and at the moment she has not decided. “I haven’t decided and I’m not going to for a year really. Four years is a long time and a lot can happen in that time.

“I’ll give myself this year and see how it goes,” said Katie-George, who said it will be easier to make a decision at the end of next year.

The good news for Katie-George is that Linda Kelly is also training away and will be her tandem partner for 2025. “She is training away and she is aiming to be in the squad for LA.”

Christmas will be spent at home but Katie-George says that “Christmas Day and New Year’s Day will be my days off. I will be training on the other days, a long bike session or a bike and gym session.”

SPECIAL YEAR

It has been a special year for Katie-George Dunlevy - almost the perfect year apart from the silver in the road race in Paris. “Yeah, we were favourites to win that, but that’s sport I suppose.”

Going from the Paralympics to winning two gold at the World Championships weeks later. “I was so determined to bounce back and it was really a team effort with Linda.

“Linda, in her second year, has won a lot of accolades with me which is testament to the work she has put in. I couldn’t have done it without her and she couldn’t have done it without me.

“There are a lot of records being broken but we are happy to see tandem racing up there getting treated as an elite sport.”

Katie-George agrees that the coverage of the sport, especially at the World Championships this year, was special. For many watching the road race in particular, the moment when the Irish pair of Katie-George and Linda practically flew past the lead men was spectacular.

“My mum and dad replay that over and over and they love it.  It just shows the speed that we were going and also how much smaller we are compared to the rest.

“We average over 30 km in training but then racing we could speeds of over 80km an hour. The coverage of the Worlds was great this year and you never know who is watching. It’s great for paracycling but even more for women’s sport. 

“It’s great for us to show off the sport, you never know there might be youngsters there looking at TV and they might be into sport but don’t know about it. It is just to show that we are elite athletes and putting in so much hard work getting medals for Ireland. And hopefully there’s more to come there,” says Katie-George.