Peter Ryan ready to shine a light on unheralded Paralympics

"We can do anything. It just takes longer."

Peter Ryan has a succinct synopsis of what it means to be visually impaired.

The Tipperary man lives with Leber's Hereditary Optic Neuropathy, a rare genetic condition that struck without warning when he was 19.

His vision was reduced by almost 90%, most that remained peripheral, and his journey took a whole new path.

What immediately followed was destruction, intervention, acceptance and determination.

Slowly he rebuilt his life with different blocks, returning to sport, representing his country as a para cyclist at the Paralympic Games and undertaking mammoth challenges to both help others with sight loss or impairment, but also to prove to himself there is no ceiling.

"There was a time when I was a bitter young man. The list of things I couldn’t do was big, but now I’d be of the mindset that I can do anything bar drive," he tells RTÉ Sport.

Ryan will be part of RTÉ’s upcoming Paralympic coverage, and is acutely aware of the highs and lows for athletes during the four-year cycle between Games.

His own journey began during the post-Olympic glow of London 2012, but rather than events at the English capital, it was 28 days in the Aiséirí Centre in Cahir – an addiction treatment centre - that shaped his journey to Rio four years later.

In 2012, Ryan was struggling to come to terms with his diagnosis.

A talented underage hurler with Upperchurch-Drombane, his life was being pulled and dragged in ways he could never have imagined.

"That was such a difficult time in my life, trying to figure out who I now was, and what my future held"

Rock bottom came when his family implored him to get help and part of that was to address his spiralling alcohol abuse. Looking back now, he can appreciate the