Orla Comerford and Colin Judge will carry the flag for Team Ireland at the Opening Ceremony at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, Paralympics Ireland announced on Friday, August 16.

Orla Comerford was 18 when she made her Paralympics debut in Rio where she qualified for the T13 100m final, finishing eighth.

In 2017, she was sixth in the final of the World Championships in London and, a year later won two bronze medals (100/200m) at the European Championships in Berlin.

Orla qualified for an automatic slot for Paris 2024 with a 4th place finish at the 2023 Para Athletics World Championships in a final that went to a photo finish to crown first and second place and clocked Comerford’s fourth place only 0.06 of a second away from the podium.

This June, she ran her first legal sub-12-second race, a PB of 11.90 in the 100m final at the National Senior Track and Field Championships in Morton Stadium.

Orla has Stargardt’s disease, a degenerative condition that affects her central vision.

She has a degree in Fine Art Media from the National College of Art & Design (NCAD) and she currently works part-time in the Irish Museum of Modern Art.

Orla is due to run in the Women's 100m heats and final on September 3.

Paris will be table tennis player Colin’s second Paralympic Games.

He came agonizingly close to qualifying for the 2016 Paralympics in Rio and was ranked fourth in the world in Class 2 in 2017. He won the Class 2 European title in 2017 but was reclassified to Class TT3 in May 2018 which significantly increased the numbers and standard of his competitors.

A recipient of an Ad Astra scholarship while he studied at UCD, he took a career break from his job as an actuary with KPMG in 2019 to train full-time for Tokyo. In 2020, he won double gold (singles and team) at the Polish Open and double bronze (singles and team) at the Spanish Open.

He qualified for Tokyo by winning a bronze medal at the World Qualifying Tournament in Slovenia in June 2021.

Judge won bronze medals at the European Championships and the French Open in 2023. His form continued into 2024 winning silver at the Czech Open.

Colin was born with the absence of both legs and part of the right arm. He plays with his right arm.

Eight-time Paralympian Michael Cunningham is among his training partners in Ireland. He trains in Irishtown Stadium and at the Sport Ireland Institute and competes for the UCD Table Tennis Club.

Colin is due to play in the table tennis Class 3 Round of 32 on September 1.

Speaking about the announcement of the Team Ireland flag bearers, Chef de Mission, Neasa Russell said: “I am delighted to announce that Orla and Colin will be the flag bearers for Team Ireland when we compete in Paris in less than two weeks.

"These two athletes epitomise the hard work and dedication it takes to be a high performance athlete. They have both achieved great things on the international stage and there is much more to come from both of them.

"Moreover they are great people and great leaders who perfectly demonstrate the qualities and values of Team Ireland and I know they will both be very positive role models for the team and for those watching at home.”

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The opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games will be held at the Place de la Concorde on August 29th marking the first time that the Opening Ceremony will take place outside of the main stadium.

There are 35 athletes set to compete for Ireland at the Games across nine sports, with the first of the athletes competing on August 29.

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