Young woman with Rossie connections pedals her way to history at the Olympics
Ireland’s Lara Gillespie, Mia Griffin, Alice Sharpe and Kelly Murphy celebrate after setting a new national record at the women's track cycling event at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome, Paris. Pic. ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy
A young woman whose grandmother hailed from County Roscommon made history at the Olympics in Paris this afternoon.
Kelly Murphy along with teammates Lara Gillespie, Mia Griffin, and Alice Sharpe made history for Irish cycling as the first quartet to compete for the country in an Olympic women’s team pursuit.
They missed out on a top-eight position by 0.242 seconds, but their time of 4:12.447 seconds at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome was a national record.
Kelly Murphy was born in London and currently lives in Birmingham, but her father Gerry has proud Rossie roots as his mother, Eileen Murphy (nee McKenna) was from the Mantua area of Elphin. Kelly was proudly displaying the Roscommon crest at the Olympics.
While their time was not enough to see them through to the first round – they finished two tenths of a second outside the top eight – making it to Paris was a significant moment for the only nation competing that does not have a velodrome on home soil.
They smashed their own previous record, a time of 4:15.698 set at the World Cup in Hong Kong in March.
