Rio Paralympics 2016 blog: Mark Rohan on the rise of the Paralympians

Mark Rohan, from Ballynahown, near Athlone, is a former Westmeath U21 footballer who was left paralysed, from the chest down, after a road accident in 2001.

He went on to represent Ireland, initially at wheelchair basketball and tennis, before discovering hand-cycling in 2009 and becoming a three-time H1 world champion in 2010-2011 and a double-Paralympic champion in London 2012. The decision to reclassify him to H3 status in 2014 ended his hopes of being as competitive in Rio 2016 so he retired from competition in October 2015 and is now pursuing a career in the business of sport. Here is his second post.

Since graduating with an MBA in Sports Management from Madrid last month I’ve moved to the UCFB, a sports college based in Wembley Stadium, for a six-week internship. But, in between, I was briefly in Portugal as I recently bought an orange farm in Messines, an agricultural town about 20 minutes’ drive from Albuferia in the Algarve. It hasn’t been lived in for 20 years so it needs a lot of work – it’s definitely a long-term project!