Ellen Keane: 'I'm retiring from sport, not from high performance'

As a sportsperson Ellen Keane had done it all but as the curtain came down on her fifth and final Paralympics at the weekend, there was still one dream the Dubliner wanted to sign off with.

She had started her Games journey as a 13-year-old at Beijing 2008, and medals had not eluded her on the grandest of stages, not least the gold from Tokyo 2020 as well as the bronze from Rio 2016.

But the 29-year-old finally got to tick one last box as she fulfilled her wish to be an Irish flagbearer at Sunday's Closing Ceremony alongside para equestrian rider Michael Murphy.

"It was a real emotional way to end my career," says Keane of the emotional scenes at Paris' Stade de France.

"When I got to Paris itself, I kept joking with all my other team-mates about how I wanted the flag. I was going to be like, 'Give me the flag!' to the Chef de Mission who is the person who ultimately decides who the flagbearers are.

"So I found out just a few days before the Closing Ceremony and Neasa (Russell) pulled me into her office and I was like, 'Oh god, am I in trouble?'"

Quite the contrary as Russell informed her that she would jointly have the honour of bringing the tricolour into one of the world's most iconic venues to end her sporting career in style.

"I burst into tears when she asked me because it is a really special moment," Keane adds.

"I've been to five Games and I've never been asked and I've watched my friends, my team-mates getting to carry the flag and to be finally able to do it was really, really special.

"And what made it even better was how great Team Ireland were. When me and Michael were coming out onto the stage, neither of us had any idea where Team Ireland were.

"It had been raining, we didn't know what the mood was like and we got