Silver lining for Galway woman at the World Transplant Games

Talking Sport with Stephen Glennon

ALTHOUGH she claimed a silver medal in the 400m track event at the 19th World Transplant Games in South Africa recently, Renmore native Sinead McGowan stresses the greater celebration should be reserved for what the Games in their own right stand for.

It has been a journey in itself to get McGowan on the end of a phone line from her base in Shanghai, with a communication breakdown and dropped calls to the Chinese city initially conspiring against us.

In the end though, a portal is opened and McGowan, who works for an Australian fashion company, revels in the opportunity to chat about her exploits at the recent World Transplant Games in Durban, the importance of becoming an organ donor, and, firstly, life in Shanghai.

“It’s extremely hot and you can’t even walk outside at the moment,” she notes of China’s richest city, which has a population of no less than 23 million people. “You constantly have the air conditioning on. That said, Shanghai is a crazy place – in it is a good, fun place. It is an interesting place.

“I work for an Australia company and it took a little while for them (Chinese) to adapt to my accent but they are getting there I think,” laughs McGowan, who is taking it easy after her exertions at the World Transplant Games.

While she was aiming to bring home a medal, she did not expect it would be a silver medal in the 400m. “I was also down to run the 800m and 1,500m events and the 1,500m is my favourite event. However, I had an inflamed Achilles tendon injury and I had to pull out of those. So, instead, I decided to focus on the short race, the 400metre.

“It was a little frustrating but, to be honest, the Games really are all about taking part and that is the vibe right throughout the competition. You just look around and you see all these people who have had organ transplants and it is incredible.”

In addition to the track events, McGowan also participated in the 50m swim. “I only learned to swim properly about half a year before but I made the final. I always try to do a couple of new things – outside the track events. I like to give them a shot at the Games and mix it up.”

In all, 24 Irish athletes took part in the showpiece, bringing home an impressive haul of 34 medals – 12 gold, 10 silver and 12 bronze – which was quite an achievement given almost 1,000 organ transplant recipients from 50 countries competed.

“Some of those countries would only send one or two while others would send a lot more. Ireland, for example, sent 24 athletes while England and Northern Ireland had over 100 there between all.”

While the silver medal is a superb accomplishment in itself, the greater one has to be McGowan’s journey to this point in time. Born and bred in Galway, she left Ireland in the mid 1990s. By this time, she had already been diagnosed with the autoimmune disease Lupus, which had attacked the kidneys and was leading to their deterioration.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.