Ellevyn Irwin, a chartered physiotherapist from Buncrana, is gearing up for a unique challenge at the HYROX World Championships in Nice this week.
Ellevyn is part of Ireland’s first-ever relay team to compete in the gruelling endurance event.
A decorated athlete herself, Ellevyn has 48 International Caps representing Ireland in Basketball and has won Ulster and All-Ireland medals with Donegal Ladies GAA.
HYROX is a rapidly growing functional fitness competition that combines functional movements and cardio challenges. The race consists of eight different challenges interspersed with 1km runs.
Ellevyn’s Hyrox achievements to date have been brief but prolific. She entered her first ever Hyrox Open in Dublin October 2023 where she came second in her age category and secured a qualification for the World Championships in her first ever race. Since this, she has competed in two Women’s Pro competitions with a PB of 1hr 12mins.
Ellevyn Irwin at HYROX Glasgow
From here, Dena Hogan, the Captain of Irish Relay team placed an open invite to all Irish athletes to submit a time for a workout that she posted on social media. After this initial process, she narrowed her selection down to 8 males and 8 females. One of the questions Dena asked Ellevyn was: was she willing to give up her own individual qualification to compete with the relay team? Ellevyn had been training since October 2023 to compete at the World Championships individually so this was not an easy decision for her but eventually she decided to go with the relay team and this was definitely the right decision.
As well as a love for team sports, Ellevyn has competed individually in Skiing being awarded Irish Inter-Varsity Freestyle Champion six times and second in the British Isles from over 2000 competitors. She was also enrolled into an honours list celebrating a generation of UCD Physiotherapy Sport Stars.
Ellevyn Irwin, Tom Hogan, Team captain Dena Hogan and Barry Watkins
Ellevyn’s own personal sporting background accelerated her professional career having worked as a Team Physiotherapist with elite athletes from Leinster Rugby, Donegal Senior Men’s GAA, Irish Senior Men’s International Basketball and Derry City F.C. She was also invited to present her thesis at the International Olympic Committee World Conference in Monaco in 2021 and has research published, in conjunction with Leinster Rugby, in the Journal of Science and Sport. She has previously lectured in UCD and ATU.
Ellevyn trains at O’Flahertys Fitness in Buncrana and runs her own physiotherapy business Ellevyn Irwin Chartered Physiotherapy based in Buncrana and Letterkenny.
She will depart for France on Thursday, with the mixed relay competition, featuring 20 countries, taking place on Sunday.
Follow her journey on Instagram: @ellevynphysio and @ellevynirwin
