Ailbhe swims with the National Aquatic Centre (NAC) Swim Club along with fellow senior Paralympic squad members, Ellen Keane and James Scully.
"I've been excited about it since I watched the Games in London," she told RTÉ Sport. "The fact that it's actually happening now hardly feels real to me."
She made her debut on the international competition stage in 2014, when she competed at the IPC European Swimming Championships in Eindhoven where she swam an impressive three lifetime bests in the S8 100m backstroke (twice), and the 400m freestyle to finish fifth overall in each.
Ailbhe Kelly will compete in three events at the Rio Paralympic Games #rterio2016 pic.twitter.com/kILK3oo5lf
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) September 7, 2016
Ailbhe went on to compete in three events at the IPC World Championships in Glasgow in 2015 and set a new lifetime best when she finished eighth in the final of the S8 Women’s 100m backstroke, and indeed set new lifetime bests in each of her three events while also hitting a Rio 2016 qualifying standard in the 400m Freestyle.
At the 2016 IPC Swimming European Open Championships, Ailbhe reached four finals and set five PBs.
Ailbhe has arthrogryposis, which means the muscles in her legs don't develop properly.
