Transplant athletes return home

Airport arrival halls can be emotional places at the best of times.

But you would be hard pushed to witness more moving scenes than those at Dublin airport today when Ireland's transplant athletes returned home from the World Transplant Games in Sweden.

Some had triumphed against unimaginable adversity just to attend the event, and it showed, not only on their faces but in the tears and hugs that greeted them as they spilled out into the arrivals hall shortly after midday.

The Irish team of 33 athletes, ranging in age from nine to 70, took home an impressive 36 medals and a new world record in the long jump.

The athletes were among 1,100 competitors from 54 countries who participated in the biennial event which was held this year in Gothenburg.

Perhaps the star of the show was nine-year-old Oisin O’Gorman from Waterford, who bagged three gold medals and a silver on his way to becoming the youngest ever Irish transplant athlete to win a gold medal at the games.

“It just feels great to come back with a load of medals,” he said.

His father Kieran, who donated a kidney to him two year ago after he had suffered kidney lacerations in a bicycle accident, said: “It’s not really about medals, it’s more about friendship and creating awareness around transplantation.”

John Moran (52), a kidney transplant recipient of 26 years from Glasnevin, achieved the team's biggest medal haul, winning two gold and three silver medals from five cycling and track events. “It’s great to go and meet other some many people in the same boat, so to speak, and to see how fit they can be,” he said.

Robbie Lyons, a 17-year-old kidney transplant recipient from Co Laois, won a gold and two silvers on his way to smashing the world long jump for his age category, with 5.30m leap. Clearly taking only silver in the 100 metres was still needling him. “I just got beaten by 0.06 of a second. I wish I could do it again," he said.

This year’s team also included 28-year-old Liza Nikkinen from Stockholm, who now lives in Naas. Ms Nikkinen received an emergency liver transplant at St Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin two years ago after contracting primary sclerosing cholangitis, a chronic liver disease.

To show her appreciation for the life-saving operation, Ms Nikkinen, who took gold in the three-kilometre walking event, switched her allegiance to Ireland. “The home fans were giving me strange looks, walking around in an Irish jersey and talking Swedish but I can safely say that I’ve had the best time in my life at these games.”