BEYOND
BRAVE
Kieran Behan counts on courage – not
Irish luck – to overcome disabling injuries
By John Crumlish
WHEN Ireland’s Kieran Behan placed 17th on floor exercise at this pring’s European championships, he achieved a monumental feat for his
country and a moral victory for himself. Behan’s
14.825 was just 0.275 shy of a berth to the
event final, but his mere presence in Berlin was
a physiological miracle.
“Berlin was my first Europeans and it was an
awesome experience,” he says. “I hadn’t com-
peted on floor since 2008 due to injury, so I
can’t tell you how ecstatic I was just to get there
and compete injury-free. My aim was to go clean
and gain vital experience of competing on the
international stage, and getting noticed in the
gymnastics scene was an added bonus I didn’t
expect.”
The 22-year-old Behan has already exceeded
the expectations of medical experts who have
treated him in a relentless series of serious
injuries, the least of which seem to be torn right
and left ACLs, in 2008 and ’ 10, respectively.
At age 11, Behan discovered a lump in his left
thigh while doing a quad stretch. Doctors
removed what was identified as a benign tumor,
but he suffered nerve damage after the tourniquet protecting him was improperly checked during surgery. Behan brashly rejected doctors’ intimations that he might be wheelchair-bound for
life.
“I was always adamant I would walk again,”
says Behan (pronounced BE-un), who was born
in London to Irish parents. “As much as I
respected the doctors, I never believed their diag-
nosis. My parents and I stayed positive and never
listened to anything negative the doctors told us,
such as that I might not walk again. We took that
as a challenge. My goal was to walk again and do
gymnastics again to prove them wrong.”
Twelve months of rehab—and the emotional
perk fostered by constant contact with friends
and teammates at London’s Tolworth Gym-
nastics club—helped Behan progress from
wheelchair to crutches to walking unaided. “I
astonished the hospital, the doctors and the non-
believers, but I knew I had it in me,” he says. “I
took one step at a time, and every small step
was a big achievement and boosted me even fur-
ther.”
Behan’s restoration was short-lived, however,
when a frightening fall from high bar nearly crip-
pled him at age 12.
“The next thing I
remember was waking
up with my head
strapped to the bed in
a neck brace, and my
mum and dad watching over me….”
