A company behind a controversial show airing on RTE has rejected a claim from Ireland's champion bog-snorkeller that her good name has been tarnished in a mud-wrestling comedy sketch.

Julia Galvin (38), from Listowel, Co Kerry, has complained she was left “disgusted, appalled and shocked” by a feature on Katherine Lynch's Wonderwomen comedy show.

Ms Galvin, a substitute schoolteacher, who competes in unusual novelty sports including bog-snorkelling and wife-carrying, said she had turned down an invitation to appear as a mud wrestler on the television show.

“I decided it wouldn't be for me,” she said.

However, she said the comedy show had then went on to use a look-alike and introduced her as Ireland's bog-snorkelling champion, under a different name.

The sketch then featured two women kissing after wrestling in the mud.

“I find it baffling why they had to use someone who looked the image of me,” she said, adding she had contacted solicitors to deal with the matter.

I refused to do mud wrestling ... and the next thing there are women kissing

Ms Galvin said she was left shocked by it. “I refused to do mud wrestling ... and the next thing there are women kissing,” she said.

Solicitors acting for the television production company, Waka Productions, have rejected Ms Galvin's claims.

The sportswoman, who has represented Ireland in international bog snorkelling contests, has sought an apology from the station. She said people had contacted her believing she had featured on the programme.

A spokeswoman for RTE said it “has a complaint procedure and the complaint will be dealt with by the appropriate channels”.

The extreme sportswoman said she found it “deeply offensive” and was embarrassed that people in staffrooms where she would be teaching would believe it really was her.

“It's embarrassing, it has made me a source of ridicule,” she added. “I'm a bubbly happy kind of person and it has left me subdued.”

She added: “I've always been up for fun but of a clean nature.”

In March, the sportswoman is due to travel to a bog-snorkelling competition in Julia Creek, Queensland, Australia, where she will represent Ireland.

The Kerry woman first decided to take up the novelty sports after an accident which left her worried that she would never walk again.