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Special Olympian, Brendan O’Connell with his grandmother, Bridie and well wishers at his homecoming in the Meadowlands Hotel. Photo by Gavin O’Connor.
A TRALEE gold medal winner got a hero’s welcome home last night.
There were joyous scenes when Oakview man, Brendan O’Connell, returned home with the gold medal and 4th place ribbon he won at the Special Olympics in Los Angeles.
The Kerry Stars Special Olympics Club member, landed gold in the 800m freestyle swimming event last Saturday and was unlucky not to finish on the podium when he swam 1,500 metre open water event last week.
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It’s been an incredible few weeks for Brendan and his family, but the man himself is still glad to be back on home soil.
“As I said to the guy who put the medal around my neck ‘yeah, I get to go home now!’,” said Brendan.
The over 100 strong welcome party at the Medowlands hotel was organised by The Kerry Stars Special Olympics Club. In total, Ireland brought home 82 medals from L.A.
“I’m a little bit shocked because I wasn’t expecting this at all, although I probably should have known this was going to happen,” he said.
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Speacial Olympian, Brendan O’Connell, who won a gold medal and a 4th place ribbon at the Special Olympics in Los Angelos. Photo by Gavin O’Connor.
Mother, Elizabeth O’Connell, was overjoyed by the reception at the Meadowlands Hotel.
“It was such a shock when we came around the corner, oh my gosh this is unbelievable!” said Elizabeth..
“Brendan really and truly put his heart and soul into it. For us as parents, watching the swim seemed to go on forever, but he kept a lovely pace, he was amazing, we are so proud of him.”
“He trained, really, really, hard so it was lovely to see it pay off for him,” she added.
To win gold in the 800m, Brendan shattered his previous best time 27 seconds, swimming 32 lengths of the pool in 11 minutes. Although with no one around him coming into the home stretch, he was unsure how well he was doing.
“When I was in the last two lengths, I remember breathing to the right and thinking, ‘uh-oh, there’s no one around me I’m either really far ahead or really far behind!'” he said.
“When I got to the wall and touched it, I thought someone had got their before me and I had come second, It’s only when someone told me I’d won, I knew,” he added.
So with an Olympic gold medal in the back pocket what’s next for the L.A King of Oakpark?
“I’m going to chill out for the next few days and that’s it,” Brendan said.
See a short video of his homecoming at the Meadowlands and more photos below…
Special Olympian, Brendan O’Connell and family, with the gold medal and 4th place ribbon he won at the Special Olympics in Los Angeles, from left: Bridie, Claire, Michael Jr, Michael, Brendan, Elizabeth, James and Jia O’Connell. Front row, Aisling and Aoife O’Connell. Photo by Gavin O’Connor.
Some of the crowd that waited Brendan O’Connell arrival outside the Meadowlands Hotel. Photo by Gavin O’Connor.
Brendan O’Connell with his mother Elizabeth and sister Claire. Photo by Gavin O’Connor.
