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MEET THE YOUNG ATHLETE OF THE YEAR NOMINEES
Anika Thompsonโs 2025 season traced the route of an athlete moving with purpose through every level of competition she touched. Her European U23 Championships in Bergen set the tone: a controlled, beautifully judged 10,000m run that delivered gold in 32:31.47 โ a personal best by twenty seconds and a new Irish U23 record. It placed her in exclusive company as only the second Irish athlete to win European U23 gold in any discipline. Two days later she returned for bronze in the 5000m, becoming the first Irish athlete to collect multiple medals at a single edition of the championships.
She matched that standard at home, taking silver in the 5000m at the National Senior Championships with a front-running 15:40.56. Her University of Oregon campaign added further strength to her year: a 9:05.75 indoor PB over 3000m, top-four finishes in both the 3000m and 5000m at the Big Ten Indoor Championships, and scoring performances that helped Oregon to the womenโs team title.
In cross-country she was equally dependable โ part of Oregonโs Big Ten-winning side, a top-finisher at NCAA West Regionals and an All-American contributor to a squad that placed fifth nationally. Across four disciplines and two continents, Thompsonโs 2025 was the work of an athlete rising quickly through the international long-distance ranks.
Aoife Waferโs 2025 carried a momentum rarely seen in Irish rugby, a year where her impact on both sides of the ball placed her at the centre of almost every major Ireland performance. Her Six Nations campaign was the defining stretch: voted Player of the Championship โ the first Irish woman to receive the honour โ and selected in the Team of the Championship after delivering a statistical profile that dominated the tournament. No player carried more ball (70), no forward beat more defenders (17 bar two), and few matched her four-try return across Rounds 1 to 4.
Her performances against France in Belfast and Wales in Cardiff โ each featuring a brace of tries โ shaped Irelandโs third-place finish and earned her Player of the Round awards. A knee injury interrupted her season just weeks later, delaying her Rugby World Cup involvement, but she returned with enough authority to start Irelandโs quarter-final against France, a match remembered for its intensity and the heavy attention directed her way at the breakdown.
Off the field Wafer earned a move to Harlequins ahead of 2025โ26 and was named Aprilโs Sport Ireland/Sportswoman of the Month. In a season defined by force, maturity and a relentless work-rate, she established herself as one of Irelandโs cornerstone players for the years ahead.
Ellie McCartney shaped 2025 into a season of deliberate ascent, climbing through age-grade and senior levels with performances that repeatedly redrew her personal bests. Her European U23 Championships in Samorin produced a complete medal set: gold in the 200m Individual Medley in 2:12.50 โ one of the biggest time drops of her career โ silver in the 200m breaststroke and bronze in the 100m breaststroke. Few Irish swimmers have ever left a U23 championships with that breadth of success.
Her transition onto the senior world stage came swiftly. At the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore she reached her first global long-course final, qualifying sixth in the 200m breaststroke with a lifetime best of 2:23.79 before finishing seventh in the world. The progression was unmistakable: as the season began she had only hoped to qualify for the meet.
Nationally she secured the 200m breaststroke title at the Irish Open, setting a Championship Record of 2:24.35 in the semi-final to reach qualification standards for Worlds, U23 Europeans and the World University Games. A three-gold sweep at the Flanders Swim Cup and a World Cup final in Toronto added further weight to a year that marked her evolution into one of Irelandโs most rounded senior prospects.
Eve McMahonโs 2025 season unfolded as a statement of intent, a year in which she consistently reached the sharp end of the ILCA 6 fleet and delivered results that placed her among the worldโs best before turning 21. The landmark moment came in Qingdao, where she claimed bronze at the ILCA 6 World Championships โ the first senior world medal ever won by an Irish woman in Olympic-class sailing. Across a demanding, wind-affected series she held her nerve, finishing inside the top six in all six races.
That performance pushed her to World No. 1 in June. She secured major regatta titles in both California โ winning the LA Grand Slam on the waters earmarked for the Los Angeles 2028 Games, she also won Silver at the Sailing Grand Slam Final in the Netherlands. Her age-grade credentials remained strong, taking U23 European bronze in Sweden.
Earlier in the season she had controlled the Princess Sofia Trophy in Palma, where she finished 17th overall and won one race in the qualifying series – winning from a fleet of 89 sailors.
National titles, regular gold-fleet finishes at Hyรจres and Kiel Week, and ongoing support through the World Sailing Emerging Talent Programme rounded out a year that positioned McMahon as a realistic Olympic medal challenger in the next cycle.
Freya Marshโs 2025 campaign had the unmistakable feel of a meteoric rise. At 12 years old she moved through international combat sports with the precision and poise of an athlete far beyond her age, winning world and European titles across MMA and Jiu-Jitsu while adding a national boxing crown to complete a unique three-sport rรฉsumรฉ.
Her IMMAF Youth World Championship victory in Abu Dhabi set the tone: competing in the 12โ13 age group, she submitted every opponent and sealed the final with another clinical finish. Waterford recognised the achievement with a mayoral reception โ a rare honour for a youth athlete. Months earlier she had already broken ground in Belgrade, taking European gold at 11 to become the youngest Irish female champion in IMMAF Youth European history.
In Rome she added the European Jiu-Jitsu title, reinforcing her elite technical base, and climbed to No. 1 in the IBJJF yellow-belt world rankings for her weight division โ No. 3 overall across all yellow-belt categories. Her national boxing title with Tramore Boxing Club underlined her striking development, while the documentary Freya: Beyond the Mat captured a season where ability, ambition and maturity aligned in rare fashion.
Kelly Bradyโs year with Athlone Town unfolded with a sense of inevitability: whenever the decisive moments arrived, she was the one finishing them. Her goals shaped a historic leagueโand-cup double, and her consistency over the season made her the standout forward in the SSE Airtricity Womenโs Premier Division.
Her October surge will live long in Athlone memory. First came the title-clinching hat-trick in the 4โ0 win over Cork City. Nineteen days later she repeated the feat in the FAI Cup Final, scoring all three goals in a 3โ2 win over Bohemians that secured a famous double. Those performances propelled her to the Golden Boot with 20 league goals โ 26 in all competitions โ and top scorer honours in the FAI Cup.
Player of the Year, two Player-of-the-Month awards, and her place in the Team of the Year reflected her influence on both the league and her own dressing room. Her form earned her a first senior international call-up in November, joining the Republic of Ireland squad for their Marbella camp. The season marked Brady as a forward with instinct, timing and the ability to define a campaign.
Niamh Buckley pieced together a breakthrough 2025 that announced her as one of Irelandโs most exciting young strength athletes. At the World Para Powerlifting Championships in Cairo she delivered a defining junior performance, lifting 77 kg in the womenโs up to 61 kg Next Gen division โ a European junior record and a podium finish recognised by Sport Ireland and Paralympics Ireland as a world title in her age category. It was the best lift of her career and a marker of her growing presence on the international stage.
Her week in Egypt grew more impressive when she returned for the senior competition. There she produced a new senior lifetime best of 78 kg on her second attempt, earning three white lights and finishing fourth in her group at elite world level. The meet marked the start of the LA 2028 qualifying pathway, and Buckleyโs progression placed her directly into the long-term Paralympic frame.
In domestic competition she continued to outperform her age, highlighted by strong lifts at the Irish Para Powerlifting Invitational in July and recognition as Best Female Junior Lifter at the National Championships. Her season combined record-setting junior performances with competitive senior benchmarks โ the profile of an athlete advancing rapidly towards major championship contention.
Nicola Tuthillโs 2025 season developed with the assurance of an athlete expanding her limits competition by competition. She opened the year in Nicosia with a historic breakthrough, winning U23 gold at the European Throwing Cup with 69.74 metres โ Irelandโs first gold in the eventโs history โ and delivering six throws beyond 67 metres to underscore her stability under pressure.
Summer brought a run of podium finishes that confirmed her status among Europeโs leading young hammer throwers. Her 70.90-metre throw in Bergen secured silver at the European U23 Championships โ Irelandโs first field-event medal at the competition โ before she added World University Games silver in Bochum with 69.98 metres, joining a small group of Irish athletes to medal at that level since 2007.
Her progression was anchored by record-breaking numbers. She threw an Irish U23 record of 71.71 metres at the Motonet Grand Prix in Lahti, becoming only the second Irish woman to surpass 70 metres. She extended that best to 71.75 metres at the National Championships, where she also claimed her fourth senior outdoor title.
In September she reached her first senior global final at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, finishing 11th. Awards from Cork City Sports and University College Dublin reflected a season where consistency, competitiveness and historical significance all aligned.
Orla Prendergastโs 2025 season read like the breakout year of a fully-formed international all-rounder. She influenced matches across formats, climbed sharply through the ICC rankings, and collected honours at both global and domestic level โ all while balancing a heavy Ireland calendar with professional cricket in England.
Her most striking spell arrived in August. Across the home T20I series against Pakistan and the European Qualifier, she compiled 244 runs at high tempo, took seven wickets, and drove Ireland through an unbeaten run that secured their place in the Global Qualifier. The Pakistan series showcased her all-round range at its fullest: 144 runs in three innings at a strike rate of 135.84, two half-centuries, and four wickets, earning her the Player of the Series award.
That run triggered one of the biggest ranking surges of her career. In the following ICC update she jumped to sixth in the T20I all-rounder rankings โ a career high โ and moved eight places into 19th on the T20I batting list. Days later she became only the fifth Irish woman to be named ICC Womenโs Player of the Month.
Her influence stretched across the summer. She was Player of the ODI Series against Zimbabwe after scoring 199 runs across formats, including an unbeaten 67 in Belfast that steered Ireland through a tight chase and carried her past 1,000 WODI runs. She also featured at the 2025 T20 World Cup in Bangladesh and led Irelandโs new-ball spells during the 50-over World Cup Qualifier in Pakistan.
Domestically Prendergast delivered one of the great all-round campaigns in the Evoke Super Series. She struck 116 in the Super 50 Cup and produced a remarkable 5โ4 spell in the title-deciding match as Dragons lifted the trophy. In the Super 20 Trophy she scored 234 runs at an average of 78, with a strike rate of 147, three half-centuries and consistent wickets โ leading Dragons through an unbeaten season. Those performances secured her the Super Series Player of the Year prize at the Irish Cricket Awards.
She swept the major awards on the same night: Womenโs International Player of the Year, Super Series Player of the Year, and the overall Player of the Year as voted by her peers.
Alongside her Ireland duties she played as an overseas all-rounder for The Blaze in the Womenโs Metro Bank One-Day Cup, adding 195 runs โ including a 67 โ and multiple wicket-taking spells as part of her first full season in the competition.
Rรณisรญn Nรญ Rรญain spent 2025 widening the gap between potential and fulfilment, delivering one of the greatest World Championship performances ever produced by an Irish Para swimmer. In Singapore she contested five events and medalled in all of them: silver in the SB13 100m breaststroke, S13 100m backstroke and S13 400m freestyle โ the latter two in new personal-best times โ and bronze in the S13 100m butterfly and SM13 200m individual medley.
Across strokes, distances and race demands, she showed control and versatility, with the butterfly bronze signalling a clear advance from her fourth-place finish at the Paris Paralympics. Her five-medal tally established her as the most decorated Irish athlete at a single Para Swimming World Championships and pushed her to World No. 2 in the S13 rankings.
Recognition at home followed. In November she was named Swim Ireland Para Swimmer of the Year for the third consecutive time, while earlier in 2025 she served as Grand Marshal for the Limerick St Patrickโs Day parade โ a civic moment that mirrored her rising national profile. Her season reinforced her position as one of the worldโs most adaptable and reliable multi-event swimmers.
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