Ellen Keane: After I won my first Paralympic medal in Rio, I had to work on my mental strength

After a career spanning five Paralympic Games, Ellen Keane is learning what life looks like beyond elite sport. She speaks with Sarah Finnan about retirement, mental health, disability, and her role as a keynote speaker at WellFest

Fri, 30 Jan, 2026 - 02:00

Sarah Finnan

Ireland's youngest-ever Paralympian, swimmer Ellen Keane, began her career aged 13 at the 2008 Beijing Games.

Later competing in London, Rio, Tokyo, and Paris, the Dubliner retired at the end of 2024. Competing was a “very intense” time in her life and an “incredible experience”, but not without its challenges.

“I was a kid in an adult world,” Keane says. “You learn very early on that there are consequences to all of your actions. It’s not just about the training you’re doing, it’s about how much sleep you’re getting, how much you’re eating, and what you’re doing with your spare time. Then, you have school on top of that.”

Keane is proud of what she achieved, but is generous about the support that made it possible. “That’s the most important part,” she says of her parents. “They drive you everywhere, feed you like sports nutritionists, while juggling all their other kids and time-managing everything. I’m 30 now, and I wonder how they had enough time in the day to do all that.”

It’s a rainy Monday morning when we speak, but Keane is upbeat and warm, a welcome lift on an otherwise dreary January day.

A vocal advocate for mental health, she emphasises mindset and positive thinking — a conviction shaped by having navigated a particularly demanding period in her own life.

“Rio was my third Paralympic Games, and I really felt the pressure in the lead-up to that,” Keane says. “I was having all of these really heavy, harsh, critical thoughts about myself.

“I won my first Paralympic medal there, but afterwards I fell apart a little bit, and it was then that I realised that I really needed to work on my mental strength more than anything.”

Between Rio and Tokyo, Keane made a concerted effort to work on her “brain muscles”, as she calls them, as much as her physical ones. “You don’t necessarily have to believe the thoughts you have. You can choose what to believe.”

She is now entering her second year of retirement and significant changes include a milestone birthday, a break-up, and a new role as the youngest coach on Ireland’s Fittest Family.

When I retired, I literally felt like I was allergic to swimming

“I wanted to get as far away as possible from it.

“When I got the coaching role on Ireland’s Fittest Family, it was the first time anyone called me ‘Coach Keane’. It made me realise how silly I was: I grew up in this amazing world, and I have all of these skills and all of this knowledge, and I thought that I’d be able to walk away from it,” she says. “Being back in that world, but in a different context, has made me fall in love with sport again.”

Motivated to continue working in sport, Keane says she’s becoming a qualified swim teacher and hopes to offer adult lessons very soon. “I just feel like I’m doing a disservice by not being there for people when they have cheered me on for so long,” she says of the decision. “It’s almost like I’ve come back full circle. I go swimming now, and I just enjoy it. It’s really nice to be back in that environment, without having to be competitive.”

Granted, it’s only a few weeks into 2026, but the ‘new year noise’ still sounds all around us. What does ‘wellness’ mean to her now, in this phase of life, I ask.

“It’s doing the basic things right,” Keane says, describing an early night as “a privilege”. It’s also about recognising unhealthy habits and putting boundaries in place to help you combat them.

“Being a swimmer, I was able to distance myself from my phone, because you can’t have your phone when you’re swimming… I think it’s [important] to have healthy boundaries around things like that. I know, for me, having ADHD, I could just end up doom-scrolling for hours on end.”

I’m trying to break my phone addiction, so this one resonates. Her advice? Invest in a Brick, a small cube-like tool that temporarily removes distracting apps and notifications from your phone. “It’s the most game-changing device,” Keane says, convincing me that I might, in fact, need one, too.

Keane remains unconvinced that conversations around disability have evolved or progressed.

To her, it seems like the standard is either Paralympian, “an unrealistic expectation for most people”, or nothing.

“It’s like telling an able-bodied person, ‘The only role model to get involved in physical activity is an Olympian. That is your standard’.”

For her, the issue really comes down to visibility. The promotional imagery for most gyms, she points out, doesn’t feature people with disabilities, which creates a barrier to disabled people feeling safe in those environments.

While many coaches and personal trainers have the skills to adapt sessions, this inclusivity is rarely communicated, leaving disabled people unsure whether these spaces are designed with them in mind.

I think we could do better at creating safer spaces for people with disabilities

Representation is, of course, so important, which is precisely why Keane is so thrilled to be one of the keynote speakers at WellFest Belfast this year.

Joining the festival as it branches out beyond Dublin for the first time, she is eager to ensure it’s an inclusive environment for everyone. “It’s quite special for me to be speaking in Belfast. I began my swimming career in Northern Ireland.

“A lot of people on Team Ireland at the time were from Northern Ireland, so that accent makes me feel at home,” she says.

Set to share the stage with Olympian Rhys McClenaghan, Keane is confident that it will be a “really special” event, teasing that it’s “Electric Picnic” for yoga and fitness fans.

“WellFest for me has always been a lovely holistic festival… to be on the main stage is going to be amazing.”