There is no easy road to the Paralympics. But for Paul Keogan, as he stood in the heart of Rio’s Olympic Stadium, there wasn’t an escape route quick enough, writes Anthony Pyne.
“I was distraught. I was in tears,” he tells RTÉ Sport, recalling the moments after his Rio dream was shattered by a false start in his T37 400m heat.
“I had sunglasses on so no one could see that. Loads of kids seen the gear and they all came up to get pictures with me. I spent 15 or 20 minutes taking selfies with Brazilian kids. It was torture. I was trying to be nice because they didn’t know the position I was in, but I just needed to get out of there.
“I went before the gun. Technically that would be considered cheating. It’s quite sickening, but I don’t think unfair would be the right word to use.”
Adversity is nothing new for the 24-year-old Meath man.
I was trying to be nice because they didn’t know the position I was in, but I just needed to get out of there
A talented GAA footballer and soccer player, he was playing in a junior football match as a 16-year-old for Skryne when he caught an elbow to the temple. Sluggish and dizzy for a few minutes afterwards, he eventually collapsed on the field.
Keogan had no pulse, and the actions – or inactions – of a quick-thinking physio most likely saved him from the unthinkable when she resisted the temptation to perform CPR for fear he had suffered a haemorrhage.
The increased blood flow could have caused serious brain damage.
Keogan lay on the turf for 25 minutes before an ambulance came. They found a pulse, revived him, and drove him to Beaumont Hospital where, after less than two weeks, he was released, seemingly fully recovered.
But a scan revealed an aneurysm, and surgery was required. There was a 2.5% chance the procedure would lead to a stroke. Given Keogan’s age the consensus was that he had little to be concerned about. Luck deserted him. When Keogan woke, he did so to a new reality.
“I woke up with my left side completely numb, my face, my leg. I was in a wheelchair for a while. That’s just the way it goes.”
Although the stroke affected Keogan’s concentration – he needed two naps to get through the day in the early stages of his recovery – he completed his Leaving Cert and headed to college to study pharmacy.
Four years later, he had set up a year’s placement which would see him achieve a Masters and embark on a career.
And then, on a Thursday night stroll through Ringsend, an epiphany.
“I didn’t love the job,” he says. “I did a bit of work experience for a few months. It was grand, but it was only grand. And I couldn’t imagine myself doing something I didn’t love. I foresaw a midlife crisis. So I was like, ‘I’m going to nip this in the bud and do something else. I’m going to start athletics’.
“I was walking from Ringsend back to college. It was really dark, I was listening to music and I made this decision: ‘that’s it!’”
Right then, Keogan began a journey that would lead him to Brazil. Next door lived Sean Cahill, an Irish 110m hurdles Olympian who listened to the 22-year-old’s wild ambition.
“I told him I wanted to go to the Paralympics and he looked at me like, ‘what are you on about?’ He thought I was a gobshite! But he contacted one of his friends, James Nolan, the head of Paralympic athletics. He told me what I had to do.”
Progress was swift and impressive. Having begun as a complete novice in September 2014, Keogan travelled to the Cerebal Palsey World Games 12 months later and conquered all before him, winning the 100m, 200m and 400m events in his category.
“I was very obsessive about it,” he says. “Everything had to be perfect.”
Having set the A-Standard and booked his ticket to Rio, Keogan was suddenly dreaming of the podium.
There were bumps on the road. In June he was forced to withdraw from the Europeans in Italy due to illness – “that was sickening” – and he was unable to train for a month and a half.
His preparation had been poor, but the Meathman headed for the Paralympics on a wave of optimism and excitement.
He was enraptured by life in the Paralympic Village – a bustling mini-world where cultures and experiences collided.
“Everyone has this crazy story of how they lost an arm or a leg, or whatever happened to them.
“The food hall is just bizarre. You see so much that you’ve never seen before. I felt like I was in a summer camp. There was everything you could think of. There’s thousands of people there, so you just chat away and mingle.”
And so, on 16 September, his moment came. Paul Keogan strolled in the Maracana sunshine for his T37 400m heat, which would go off at 11.45am.
There were no nerves; only a quiet focus.
“It was amazing. I’m quite inexperienced, it all happened very fast.
“Every single day in training I do my warm-up and then I go to the track. That’s what it felt like. I was on autopilot.”
But as he lined up on the blocks, and a blanket of silence fell over the stadium, his worst nightmare played out in just a few hundredths of a second.
Flagged for a false start, he was out.
“I’ve tried to replay it in my head and I can’t. I don’t know what happened. The only thing I can think of is I got a twitch in my leg and it was just something that I genuinely couldn’t control.
“Everyone has this crazy story of how they lost an arm or a leg, or whatever happened to them
“There was a guy from Argentina. He came up to me and gave me a big hug. I’d never spoken to him before. Obviously he felt sorry for me. I really respected that. But it’s just a blur.”
Trying to process the devastating setback, he escaped to the sanctuary of his room.
“I packed a bag, a few different clothes and then just got out of the village. I went to the Copacabana and spent a few days with my friends and family and then came back for the closing ceremony. I needed to escape that environment. It’s all-consuming.”
Keogan returned to Ireland, gathered his thoughts, and realised he had one precious commodity: time.
He spoke to Jason Smyth and Michael McKillop, experienced champions who told him to keep going, to treat it as just another obstacle to take in his stride.
Tokyo 2020 would be the focus. A gradual return to training followed and his determination was reinforced.
“I’m 24 now. If that had happened to me in Rio and I was 30 that would be heartbreaking. At least I’ve got another chance. At least I can do it again in four years.
“I’m still very new, I have to realise where I went wrong last year.
“It’s important not to panic.”
Read, watch and listen to the sporting highlights of the last 12 months in '2016 A Year in Sport'
