Deirdre Ryan

Deirdre Ryan was born in Dundrum, County Dublin, on 1 June 1982, and joined Dundrum South Dublin Athletics Club at age eight. She first tried the high jump around thirteen, then kept returning to it through injuries, travel and patience until she cleared 1.95 metres in Daegu in 2011. That jump became the Irish record and carried her into the London Olympic Games, where the bar still resisted at 1.90 metres. Dundrum gave her a name in air; the rest of the world learned it through her height.