At World Rowing Cup III in Lucerne, Katie O’Brien made her debut in the PR1 women’s single sculls, a class she had never raced in before. The Irish Paralympian, a former PR2 world champion and world-best-time holder in that category, finished third behind Claire Ghiringhelli of Switzerland and Sweden’s Ebba Einarsson. It was her first regatta after being reclassified from PR2 to PR1 following a failed spinal cord operation in 2025.
Photo Katie O’Brien and Steven McGowan at the 2023 World Rowing Championships in Belgrade, Serbia racing in the PR2 Mixed Double Sculls.
O’Brien is an elite sculler, who previously dominated the PR2 class, but she is on a new path; one that will entails overcoming challenges both on and off the water, including relearning the nuances of rowing propulsion again after losing significant function on one side of her body.
Going in Circles
O’Brien told World Rowing that rowing was not even on her mind for the first six months of recovery.
“The last 12 months have been extremely challenging for me personally, and rowing was really the last thing on my mind up until about six months ago. It was very much just get back to living my life some way normal,” she said.
When she did try to row again, the boat would not cooperate. The gap between her previous ability and her current function was clear straight away.
Photo Katie O’Brien at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris, France.
“Rowing has always been my passion, and I tried to get back rowing, but unfortunately I was just going in circles because I’m so weak on one side now. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t move the boat, and it was unbelievably frustrating to go from someone who was able to make a boat do whatever I wanted it to do to sit in a boat that wouldn’t move or wouldn’t go straight.”
Her club coach decided that she no longer best fitted the PR2 category. That judgment set the reclassification process in motion.
Proof of Change
Para-rowing classification sorts athletes into three categories based on impairment and function. PR1 athletes have no or minimal trunk function and generate force mainly through the arms and shoulders. PR2 athletes can use most of their spine but do not use the sliding seat. PR3 athletes can use the sliding seat.
O’Brien’s move from PR2 to PR1 put her in a class with much less of her body available to power each stroke. World Rowing says she is among a small group of para-rowers who have gone through reclassification, a process that calls for strict medical evidence and testing of function.
Rebecca Orr, chair of World Rowing’s Para-Rowing Commission, said the standard is strict.
“Sometimes, if an athlete, for instance, even if their function is getting worse or better, but there is no medical support for it, then we would not reclassify. There needs to be medical support for why that change is happening. If we ask them to present the medical documentation and there is no proof, then we would not give a reclassification,” Orr said.
Tiny Adjustments
Once reclassified, O’Brien faced the practical challenge of rowing PR1. In this class, athletes are fixed in position with no sliding seat and minimal trunk movement. Maximising physiological output through impeccable technique as well as rigging, body position and strap placement is crucial. O’Brien turned to experienced PR1 rowers for guidance.
“I’ve had to change how I row because of the change in function. I just can’t do what I used to do before. But I’ve picked up so many tips and tricks from the other lads: ‘do this, do that, change your leg strap, move this, move that’,” she said.
In fixed-seat rowing, small adjustments can make a significant difference.
“It makes such a difference, it’s crazy. I guess it’s just that with PR1 rowing they’re so stagnant in your one position so that all those tiny little changes can make such a difference.”
World Rowing’s feature noted that O’Brien trimmed almost a minute off her time from the preliminary race to the final in Lucerne, with conditions said to be very similar on both days. For an athlete only weeks into a new class, that was a sharp improvement.
Second Games?
O’Brien was born with spina bifida, which affects her legs and hips. She got into para-rowing after watching the London 2012 Paralympics with her father, reaching out to Paralympics Ireland and going to her first training camp in January 2013. Later that year, she made her World Cup debut. Over the decade that followed she put together a major international career: world championship medals, a world-best time in the PR2 W1x, and a Paralympic debut at Paris 2024. The Irish Examiner reported in 2023 that she had gone through more than 20 surgeries in her lifetime.
That experience now feeds into her transition to PR1. Simon Goodey, chief classifier at the 2026 World Rowing Cup III, said World Rowing’s coach education programme is working to help athletes identify what he called “desirable competitive impairments” meaning the ways athletes can compete most effectively within their category.
For O’Brien, that work is already underway. With the Los Angeles Paralympics just two years away O’Brien has a target and the pedigree to be a top contender.
