MARY FITZGERALD DOESN’T have far to travel for the majority of her training.
The Paralympic shot putter has her own set-up in her backyard. She and her family built the sheltered shot put circle and toe-board during the pandemic.
She’s coached online by York-based Paul Wilson, so in order to train, all she needs is her iPad, her phone, and the WiFi to hold up.
“I can’t really say, ‘I’m late for training’ when it’s right outside in my backyard,” the Kilkenny star laughs as the countdown to her second Games continues.
Fitzgerald started working with Wilson in November, having met him at a training weekend. He coaches American former Olympic champion Chase Jackson and long-time British champion Scott Lincoln, among other athletes across the world.
“I was very fortunate and honoured to join his squad,” she says. “We sort of clicked from day one. It’s a relatively new relationship but we’re very alike in our personalities and very aligned in what we want me to achieve in Paris. We’re both very driven.
“I’m one of his first Para athletes, if not the first. Despite that being new territory for him, he’s been incredibly open. It’s like ‘Yeah, you’re different but we’re still going to achieve big things and I’m really going to harness your strengths.’
“I won’t put words in his mouth but I think he knew I was very invested and committed from day one and I think that was the biggest thing for him, like, ‘I’m going to take you on but you have to give 100% all of the time.’”
“We haven’t spoken about it,” Fitzgerald, who is of small stature, adds, “but I don’t think he saw me and said ‘Oh she’s short’. I think he thought, ‘She’s a shot putter that needs to fix her left arm,’ just purely technical.
“There is no sympathy piece at all, not like, ‘Oh she’s different, we need to wrap her in bubble wrap.’ Our training programme shows that.”
The partnership is clearly working well. Fitzgerald added over half a metre to her personal best in May, throwing 8.87m in Loughborough. It was “a nice confidence booster”, and has set her up well for Paris. Her competition is on the final day, 7 September, at Stade de France.
It will be a stark contrast to Fitzgerald’s backyard in the Kilkenny countryside, but a lot of factors are coming together nicely between Wilson’s impact, some technical improvements, nutrition, recovery and the likes.
Fitzgerald does travel over to the UK for a mini training camp every two or three months, but day-to-day, her body of work is done online. They log on together for an hour-and-a-half session three times per week, while Wilson also draws up her individual training.
“I have my iPad on a tripod and he coaches me through that,” the 24-year-old explains. “I wasn’t willing to move over to UK because I’m a bit of a home bird so he mentioned that he’d done this before.
“It’s literally live feedback so he’s able to say ‘You know that thing you did with your foot, change that!’ It’s not always perfect, we do have internet issues sometimes but it has opened up a lot of opportunities for me.
“Once I have my phone and my iPad he can coach me. He knows and trusts I can do my work when I’m not with him, there’s that trust and respect there.”
Fitzgerald is currently operating as a full-time athlete having recently worked as an occupational therapist with Enable Ireland. She studied in UCC, where she was a Quercus scholarship recipient and lived with Olympic rowing champion Paul O’Donovan.
She can’t speak highly enough of her family’s unwavering support through the years and puts wanting to stay at home down to them.
They’re excited for Paris, where Fitzgerald has a clear goal amidst ever-rising standards.
“I’d love to improve on my Tokyo result. I finished sixth there. I cannot believe it’s been three years. It nearly feels like it’s my first because the build-up has been so different.
“This time around family and friends are more involved, not just that they’ll be there but sharing the whole experience.”
