Deirdre Ryan was born 1 June 1982. She tried several sports as a child, including basketball, hockey, swimming, soccer, and gymnastics. At the age of eight, she joined Dundrum South Dublin Athletics Club. She first tried the high jump when she was around 13 years old. She also performed the long jump and ran the hurdles. Her first international competition was the 1999 World Youth Championships in Poland. Ryan competed in the high jump and finished in ninth place. Ryan had a stress fracture in 2003. She finished thirteenth at the
2006 European Championships. She also competed at the
1999 World Youth Championships, the
2002 European Indoor Championships, the
2007 European Indoor Championships, the
2009 European Indoor Championships, the
2009 World Championships and the
2010 World Indoor Championships. In January 2009, she achieved a personal best jump of 1.93 metres indoors in
Leverkusen. She missed three weeks of training when she sprained her ankle in January 2012. She no longer competitively high jumps. ==References==