Bolivian altitude has lifted Ashling Thompson to new heights

Cork's Ashling Thompson and Ailish O'Reilly of Galway. Pic: Bryan Keane/Inpho

ANYONE who has endured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) surgery will tell you the recovery is no walk in the park.

Ashling Thompson is now three years post-op. The Milford supremo returned to full fitness within a year of picking up the dreaded injury and just in time for the latter end of the 2023 championship. 

She added another two All-Ireland senior medals to an already burgeoning collection courtesy of victories over Waterford and Galway respectively.

She is not just back though. Back with a bang. Demonstrated by the awarding of the Player of the Match gong in last season’s Croke Park showdown against the Tribeswomen, which is a repeat of Sunday’s highly-anticipated decider.

When you check if the overall medal total is currently at six, her reply ‘I’m going for my seventh’ tells a lot about the 35-year-old’s drive and determination.

That’s quite the feat.

Throw in three All-Ireland club titles. And four All-Stars, the first of which arrived 10 years ago as the victorious Rebel captain and the most recent in 2024 — incidentally, in both finals Galway provided the opposition.

She recently took up a new job as a recruit prison officer in the midlands, and while trying to navigate the M8 motorway a couple of times a week for training brings fresh challenges, it was the RTÉ series ‘Uncharted with Ray Goggins’ earlier this year that provided the most serious of tests. 

The week of endurance was spent travelling through the dense forests of Bolivia in the company of Paralympic Gold medalist Ellen Keane.

The journey started on Death Road.

“The only thing I knew was that I was going to Bolivia. I knew nothing about what we were going to be doing,” she says.

“Bolivia is one of the poorest countries in South America and I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. We were going to be faced with a lot of challenges and we would be pushed and would be tested.

Ashling Thompson (left) and Ellen Keane with a local buy during their trip in Bolivia in Uncharted With Ray Goggins

“I was happy to do that, I was intrigued. When I found out Ellen Keane was coming — I’ve only met her in passing — I suppose I was anxious about spending that length of time in the wild with someone I’d never known.”

On reflection, it wasn’t an issue as the two sportswomen negotiated numerous perilous situations.

“Her disability didn’t make one bit of a difference. She actually made a show of me at times, to be honest. Ellen says herself she was born with the disability, it is not something that happened along the way so she doesn’t know any different. She’s had to figure things out all her life differently to everybody else but it doesn’t stop her from doing it.

“We were in the wild — no phones, no electricity, no running water, no accommodation (it was tents), no toilets. It was pretty much yourself and the clothes that were on your back. That is a long, long time. People thought we were looked after behind the scenes, but it was actually worse than what people think.”

While Ashling might have been apprehensive about a venture into the unknown, and despite the risk, fear didn’t come into it.

“You’d think you’d be in danger but it was quite the opposite. I was never afraid. Having Ellen, Ray and the crew, and then the Bolivians are the salt of the earth. They really looked after us. Even though they’ve nothing, they’re incredible people.

“The experience left me sad more than anything. By the end of it, you didn’t want to come home because you bonded. You just had each other.”

Climbing the high peaks of the Andean mountains — let it be by accident or design — enhanced the quality of her performance when she got back to the playing field.

“It was pretty much altitude training, I suppose that is why I was lifting in the league!,” she smiles, referring to her Player of the Match accolade in the Division 1A league final defeat of Galway (0-21 to 0-10) in April.

“It probably did stand to me fitness wise and as a mental strength too. It was unbelievable, I would go back in the morning if I could.”

Well, not literally, as there is an All-Ireland final fast approaching.

Even though she’s been named as the most outstanding player in the two most recent contests between the counties, she holds great respect for Galway.

“We love playing Galway and having that challenge, it is a massive challenge. They’re a top team and that is what you want. It is going to go down to the wire. You don’t know who is going to come out on top and isn’t that the beauty of the sport?”

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