Adrian O'Dwyer

Early life O'Dwyer was born in Kilkenny to his sporting parents Paddy O'Dwyer, a judoka who competed for Ireland at the 1975 World Judo Championships in Vienna, Austria, and Gudrun Marx, an East German-born eventing rider. O'Dwyer attended both primary and secondary school at CBS Kilkenny, where he began his athletics career and lettered in the sprint races and long jump. At the age of 13, O'Dwyer grew exceptionally taller and turned his attention to high jump. Since then, O'Dwyer excelled the sport, and had an initial jump of 1.86 m, until he extended it tremendously to 2.01 to establish a high school and junior record in 1999.

In the 2004 indoor season, O'Dwyer recorded a new career best and a national record of 2.27 m to finish eighth in the final at the World Championships in Budapest, making him the first Irish athlete to reach the top of the world indoor rankings in any field event. Shortly after the Worlds, O'Dwyer broke the Irish under-23 record with a leap of 2.26 m at the high jump meet in Eppingen, Germany, edging closer to the 2.30-metre mark.

At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, O'Dwyer qualified for the Irish squad, as a lone athlete, in the men's high jump. He crashed out prematurely of the qualifying round after failing to clear an opening height of 2.10 metres in all three attempts that left him bitterly disappointed by his poor performance.

Arm wrestling career On 24 March 2024, O’Dwyer competed in his first professional arm wrestling match against the Canadian Brenden Lemmon ‘’The Lemonator’’ Mulvihill in the 105 kg category, where he won 4-2.

Personal life O'Dwyer currently owns and runs a gym, Leviathan Training in Kilkenny City. He is now full time professional arm wrestler.

Notable matches