“IT WAS DELUSIONAL,” Kerrie Leonard begins, “or faith, hope and pixie dust that I was going to be at the Games.”
The Meath archer is in Paris for her second Paralympics, but she won’t sugarcoat this cycle.
It has been particularly difficult; a hard slog while working full-time in advertising sales until recently. She left her role earlier this summer to focus solely on Paris 2024.
After Tokyo, where she finished ninth overall, Leonard was at a crossroads.
“I came away with a lot of decisions to make,” the 33-year-old says.
“I was trying to justify whether I could stay in the sport or not. In Tokyo, there was a shift from the Olympics and Paralympics are amateur, but those athletes are making it their full-time careers. It is in everything but name a professional sport.
“I really was concerned whether I, as an amateur athlete, would be able to stay with the pack. The standard has shot up immensely.”
Leonard acquired a spinal cord injury in a farm accident at the age of six.
She first got into archery after her uncle put her in touch with another wheelchair user, and she attended a beginner’s course. “I could see somebody else who was in a wheelchair participating in sport, and it gave me the confidence that I could too.”
After a few year’s hiatus, she was roped back in by a friend running the archery club in college. As it transpired, she dropped out of college, but kept going to training.
“Somebody saw I was a lot more involved and asked me if I’d like to go to a competition internationally, everything paid for,” Leonard, who later completed a degree in Equine Business and a Masters in Marketing, recalls.
“This was a month or two before the London Games. When I went to that competition, I saw what other people’s impairments were, the gap between me and everyone else. It gave me confidence that I could do the sport.
“I didn’t have any ambitions of going to a Games at all. It was only trial and error and me feeling quite embarrassed by some of my earlier results, continuing to go back and try and improve on them because I didn’t want that to be a mark on my CV, or life.”
She kept at it and knew she was getting closer as Rio 2016 entered the frame.
She narrowly missed out, but would qualify for Tokyo by training just at weekends as she juggled a full-time Masters and work. In the lead-up to the Covid-impacted Games, she worked from home full time and trained between calls.
Living on a farm, Leonard has no shortage of space to train.
“I have a tarmacked driveway and it has the particular length I need for competition conditions. I’m able to practice, and go up with ease to collect my arrows. The postman does look at me twice when I do shoot, as I shoot up the driveway, it’s a little jarring, but he will understand the routine now!”
She generally trains alone, leaning on psychology, while her training regime is mostly archery-specific but also involves strength training, physiotherapy and other injury-prevention methods.
“The majority of my training is archery. Archery isn’t something that suddenly you can go to the highest weight category of. You have to slowly build up. Over time you gain strength, and have the capacity to get into the bigger weighted bows. You need a higher poundage bow for wind, as the arrow needs to work quicker through the wind, so it needs to be heavier to do that.
“It’s all about consistency and routines. The more you do it, the more consistent you are.
“Archery is a monotonous sport, anything that changes up the routine and pattern to keep you on track is really important.
“What a lot of people don’t understand is that a cycle is four years. The initial two years, it’s really on you to be motivated and committed to the sport. The pressure and adrenaline side of things kicks in when you go to qualifying competitions, but that is in the latter half for the cycle. If you are not fit in the first two years of that cycle, in the best position you can be in, you are doing yourself a disservice.”
Leonard is among a 35-strong Team Ireland set to compete at the Paralympics.
She is one of the first athletes in action, shooting her shot across Thursday and Friday at the spectacular Esplanade des Invalides.
Performance aside, the Culmullen native is hoping for a transformational Games and upsurge in Para sport.
“What I think needs to now shift is public perception,” Leonard concludes.
“People are very comfortable calling me an Olympian. I’m okay – just about – with them referring to me as that. I wouldn’t say it’s ignorance, it’s not being educated. We need the public to understand what a Paralympian is doing is the exact same standard as an Olympian. That amateur aspect isn’t a reality across the board, across the sports.
“I thought there would be a much sharper increase after London. That did definitely happen, but I think it plateaued after London. Given it is 12 years since London, I’m surprised the public hasn’t caught on that it’s on the same par [as the Olympics].
“In Ireland I think it is getting better with Jason Smyth and Ellen Keane participating in things like Dancing with the Stars, but it’s a bit disappointing for me to know that the only reason the public know the names of those two athletes is because they competed on a mainstream show, rather than represented their country at the highest level and are extremely talented.
“That’s where I think to needs to go. The sport has shifted, the standard has shot up, so we need to recognise that.”
Quality player, very surprised he was dropped.
I’d be very surprised if he was dropped in the first place as he needed match time. He’s better than Jager in all facets that I’ve seen, scrum, maul and as we’ve all seen, in the lose. Jager, just not seeing it with him especially scrum. Am I missing something???
@Noel Lynn: Bealham is certainly well ahead of Jager and all other TH (Furlong apart) in Ireland, but I think Jager is doing a better job than you’re giving credit for. He’s been very good at scrum time for munster, especially when he came up against Porter, and was solid against Wales. His ruck defense was excellent both clearing and counter rucking and his goal line defense was superb. His lineout work wasn’t up to scratch IMO and he still needs to improve his S&C but he’s certainly got a high ceiling and a great addition to our TH stock.
@Noel Lynn: Short answer – yes
Easily the best TH after Furlong, who seems to have recovered some of his previous form. Great to have several options here between Furlong, Bealham, O’Toole and Jager. The order is not important as they are all playing well at the moment.
Literally no one else is suprised.
@Thesaltyurchin: I’m surprised, arguably pushing Furlong for a starting spot
Bealham is a quality player but I think it’s getting a bit clearer that farrell and his coaches are huge fans of jager. To go from the ‘training squad’ to the verge of the 1st choice 23 over a couple of weeks is pretty phenomenonal
@munsterman: jager has plenty to work on to over take Bealham. He may not have over taken TO’T yet, so 1 step at a time.
@Patrick O’Sullivan: well I’ve never seen farrell move so quickly to promote a player in a meaningful match. Even players like Joe Mccarthy and crowley had to put in their time in camp for a year or so. There’s every chance that bealham will be back-up th v England but you wouldn’t bet on it
@munsterman: There’s every chance that Bealham will start and Jager on the bench if Furlong injured.
@Con Cussed: yea that’d be the most likely scenario I’d imagine. It’s quite tough on otoole who’s been very good for Ireland too
@munsterman: Agreed. It just means the pressure is now on all four to keep the momentum up. It’s a tough position and injuries abound so can see them all getting a chance in the future.
This could mean Furlong has an injury concern… I hope not!
Has anyone authoritative said that Bealham was dropped? As far as I recall the mood music before the Welsh game was that Bealham had proved himself across a number of matches to be no great step down from Furlong; and that Farrell was taking advantage of a game we were almost certain to win to have a look at Jäger off the bench.
Depressing stuff
@Kevin Ryan: when have we ever seen farrell use a competitive game to just have a look at a player? The only time he ever changes up his side much is v the most tier2 of tier2 nations in Nov or else gets A games set up
@munsterman: Giving a guy a debut as a bench prop is not really changing the side much, though. And if he didn’t pick this game, he’d have to wait until the Autumn, assuming SA too strong. Anyways, we’ll see what Farrell does with the selection for the England game.
The story around Bealham is a bit of a head scratcher. Why was he dropped? Some say he needed time off as a new dad. Personally I believe the coaches think Jager is a better prop. When your coach uses faint praise to describe your last performance then you are in trouble. I think Farrell described Bealham’s last outing as “decent enough”. In all these scenarios the public never gets a true picture until someone writes a book.
@Tom Reilly: I seem to have missed him saying that about Bealham – was that in a press conference? I checked the post Italy match press conference again to refresh my memory, and Faz was effusive in his praise of the set piece, calling it excellent and top notch, so I’m surprised he would then be naming Finlay as not being a top performer. A lot of media said that Finlay was doing as much as he could possibly do to challenge Furlong for the starting berth on the back of his performance against Italy, so I don’t think I’m the only one who thought he performed excellent in that match.
@Tom Reilly: ah, I heard it now – it was from the pre-Wales match conference. To be honest, the way I hear it, it seemed more so saying that Oli deserved a chance in spite of Bealham having a decent performance. TBH, I think he couldn’t say “Wales’ scrum is poor so this is the best chance to give Oli a tryout in the six nations window”, so has to justify it on the basis of competition for places. If he said Finlay was excellent, then he would effectively be needing to say that Oli is even better, which would be a huge amount of pressure to put on a debutant. So, he kind of has to nearly qualify Bealham’s performance so as not to put down Wales.
@JoeVlogs: As I said earlier it is hard to know what exactly is going on. I think most people think Bealham did not deserve to be dropped from a playing point of view. Maybe something else is going on.
The euphemism that Alex Ferguson developed to replace “dropped” was “rotated.” The image that most of us have of a “dropped” player is of someone so bad in the last match that they had to be replaced. Sometimes it is about building squad depth, other times you were the Lions captain last week and this week not in the 23 – an utterly unexplainable event.
I suspect that Furlong has twinged his hamstring. If Furlong is out, Bealham absolutely starts ahead of Jager – and we all know that.
@PatN: I meant calf not hamstring
Bealham should be pushing Furlong for a starting position not getting dropped
When was the last v good game from Furlong?
@Derek Casserly: Last week!
There is much debate about the word “dropped” concerning Bealham. Was he or wasn’t he dropped. IMO if a player is available for selection, has been selected everytime he is available and then he is not selected, then he is indeed deemed “dropped”.
Let’s stop using the word “dropped”. To play at elite level you need a squad of 35 players and the ability to get game time into all of them. ( let’s not repeat RWC errors from the past). Rotatated is a much better word.