Aoife O’Rourke of Castlerea BC has today been shortlisted for the RTE Sportsperson of the Year award.
Aoife’s outstanding achievements in 2025 are unprecedented and may well be unrepeatable: She won World silver in March at the IBA Women’s World Championships, and 6 months later almost to the day, World gold at the World Boxing Championships. Boxing’s changing standing global governance landscape means this feat may not be replicable by any other Irish boxer, ever. On her journey in to the annals of Irish boxing lore in Liverpool, Aoife defeated Norway’s Sunniva Hofstad, the only boxer in the world this year to have won gold at every World Boxing Cup.
Outside boxing, she and her sister she, and her sister Lisa, became women’s doubles Hyrox World Champions in April of 2025, and were first ranked by age in the Hyrox Hamburg elite event in October.
Aoife is shortlisted alongside World cycling champion, Ben Healy, Masters & Grand Slam champion golfer Rory McIlroy; World silver medalist Kate O’Connor; World rowing champion Fiona Murtagh, Champions League winner Katie McCabe, Kerry GAA’s David Clifford, mutiple World medalist, swimming’s Roisin Ni Riain; World & European cycling champion, Lara Gillespie, European 3,000m indoor champion, Sarah Healy, double World gold medalist Orla Comerford and Ireland soccer international, Troy Parrott.
The winner will be crowned at the RTÉ Sport Awards on Saturday, 20 December on RTE One at 8.05pm