TIMOTHY Richael

Classification
C3 (UCI, 15 Mar 2020)

Origin of Impairment
Acquired (the42.ie, 18 Feb 2018)

Impairment Details
In December 2015 she had her first seizure as the result of side effects from getting radio surgery for a rare condition known as hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia [HHT]. The operation caused swelling on her brain, and left her with an acquired brain injury. She then had further seizures and was diagnosed with epilepsy. In 2016 she began feeling a weakness on her right hand side. "HHT is rare and people are trying to find out more about it because a lot of people have it. They checked my brain and found a malformation, but it was so small that they couldn't perform normal surgery on it. That's why they did the non-invasive radio surgery. When I tell people I'm doing Para cycling, they're like 'How? You're against a girl who might be an amputee.' The way I qualify is if you see me walk, I can't lift my leg properly to walk. I have 100% power output from one leg and say 30% from my right leg." (the42.ie, 18 Feb 2018)

General
PREVIOUS SPORT
She played Gaelic football for the Athlone Institute of Technology and St. Croans junior team in Ireland. She quit the sport in 2016 after her impairment began to affect her performances. "We were doing running out and around the cones and whatever way I was running out, I was coming last whereas I would normally be in the middle, but I couldn't get my two feet to move around the cone. That was the last day I trained and I was thinking that there was something wrong that I needed to get sorted. But then I kept playing a bit and the last match I played was on a Sunday. I was taking a free and it was no more than about 20 metres out [from goal], not far at all. I kicked it and it didn't even reach the goal." (the42.ie, 18 Feb 2018)

FURTHER EDUCATION
She has studied for a master's degree in coaching performance at Setanta College in Ireland. (Athlete, 20 Aug 2021)