Why Sport Is Important - Caragh McMurtry OLY - WE ROAR Magazine Issue 01 - Magazine - Page 10
Why Sport Is Important - Caragh McMurtry OLY
In Caragh's own words...
She is an ex-Olympic rower with a
diagnosis of Autism. As a child and young
teenager, she was drawn to sports to
manage her emotions and feelings of
'difference'. Caragh was introduced to
rowing through an outreach programme
aimed
at
increasing
state
school
participation in the sport, and it soon
became her obsession. After medalling at
the Junior and U23 World Championships,
she was invited to train full-time as a Great
Britain Senior Team member.
Meeting certain standards of behaviour and
performance proved a challenge. Not long
after Caragh joined the national team, she
was misdiagnosed and medicated for
bipolar disorder. Caragh spent five years on
this extreme performance and well-being
suppression medication before being reassessed and re-diagnosed with Autism.
Her re-diagnosis allowed her to titrate the
unnecessary medication, develop an
understanding of herself, and create a
communication plan to share with those
around her.
As a result, she worked her way up from
the position of team spare to being selected
for the Olympic Games twice (thank you,
Covid). However, finding the formula for
her success only exposed 'the glass ceiling'
of stigma and discrimination. In response to
this realisation, Caragh retired from sports
and created a CIC called Neurodiverse
Sport, whose mission is to raise awareness
of neurodivergence in sports (combatting
stigma) and whose vision is for
neuroinclusive practice to be the norm in all
sports. Caragh believes that no athlete
should feel misunderstood, isolated, or
unable to reach their full potential because
they do not conform to neurotypical
standards of behaviour and communication.
Please visit www.neurodiversesport.com
for more details.
info@neurodiversesport.com
https://www.instagram.com/neurodiversesport/
https://twitter.com/neurodsport
https://www.youtube.com/@neurodiversesport
https://www.linkedin.com/in/caragh-mcmurtry-oly-366180239/
10
