Citius – Altius – Fortius
So, what are you up to on Thursday 1st August at 11.30 am? Not sure? All going well, you will be sitting, or standing, or screaming in front of a screen. Watching the men’s double scull rowing final at the Paris Olympics. Clonmel rower, Daire Lynch will be taking to the water alongside his partner, Philip Doyle of Belfast, providing of course that they navigate the repechages on Sunday 28th and, hopefully, the semi-final on Tuesday 30th . Lynch and Doyle won bronze at the European Championships in Poznan last year and followed up with another bronze at the World Championships in Belgrade.
This season, they were forced to miss the World Cup event in Lucerne after Doyle suffered a fractured rib, but returned to the water last month at the World Cup regatta in Poznan, this time winning gold. The French Olympic Champions left without a medal. That said, a lot can change in a few weeks at the elite level of sport.
Lots of things can go wrong between now and 1st August, just ask former World Champion, Sanita Puspure, but on current form, we can have reasonable expectation that a Clonmel athlete will compete in an Olympic Final in a matter of just two weeks’ time.
Now, take a pause and read that last sentence again, because I cannot tell you the enormity of it. A Clonmel athlete, a man from our parish, who went to school here and took his first strokes on our stretch of the River Suir, will wear a green singlet and represent his country in an Olympic Games. That, in and of itself, is an amazing statistic, but to go to a Games with a chance of a medal is a once in a generational achievement. Clonmel has sent Frank Rothwell to the Olympics, Thomas Chamney and John Watson. Clonmel natives who have represented Ireland at the Olympic Games. But medals eluded them. Cork native and Clonmel resident Pat O’Callaghan won two gold medals in 1928 and 1932, so you could argue that Clonmel punches above its size when it comes to Olympic representation.
Make no mistake, the Olympic Games is the pinnacle of sport. It has morphed into something of a monster, bigger, fattier and uglier rather than faster, higher, stronger but it is still the ultimate accolade for an athlete.
Ireland sent only 8 athletes to the Los Angeles Games in 1932, won two gold medals and were ranked the 16th best nation on the medal table. In Atlanta in 1996, we sent 78 athletes, won three golds and one bronze and were ranked the 28th best nation on the medal table. In terms of medal haul, London 2012 was our biggest collection with six, one gold, one silver and four bronze. At London we sent 66 athletes and were ranked the 41st best nation on the table.
Can Ireland top the London medal haul at Paris? I really think so, and here is why.
Boxing is our most successful Olympic Sport accounting for almost half of the total medals that Ireland has won across 29 Olympic Games. John McNally in Helsinki 1952 was the first, Kellie Harrington in Tokyo 2021 was the last. That will be expected to continue in Paris. We are sending a team of ten boxers to Paris. Martin Fennessy of Clonmel Boxing Club sagely told me once that it is harder to qualify for an Olympic Games than it is to medal at one. So, for our ten strong team, the hard part has been achieved. Now it is down to performance and favourable judging. We have boxers qualified in all six of the women’s weight divisions and four of the seven male weight divisions. Three medals from the 10 boxers is not an unreasonable hope. The medal bouts start on Saturday 3rd August and run through to Saturday 10th .
The recent European Athletics Championships were a delight. Gold for the mixed relay and in the woman’s 1500mfor Ciara Mageean had us enthralled. But European success is not indicator of Olympic medal expectation. If you look at the women’s 1500 meters for example, Mageean triumphed in Rome in a final that Scottish runner Laura Muir chose to miss as she prepared for Paris. Muir has run 3.53.79 for 1500m this season, Mageean’s seasons best (and Irish record) is 3.55.87.
And then there is Faith Kipyegon of Kenya. Quite possibly the greatest female runner of all time. She holds the world record in the 1500m and the mile and is a former world record holder in 5000m. Her 1500m world record was set this year and stands at 3.49.04, more than 6 seconds faster than Mageean’s best. So, it is time to temper medal expectations for Mageean. An Olympic Final for the former camogie player? Certainly. But to medal will require a remarkable slice of luck. Stranger things have happened, but I cannot see it. The women’s 1500m final is on Saturday 10th .
Tipperary’s Sharlene Mawdsley won a gold medal in Rome as part of the mixed 4 x 400m relay team; she ran the anchor leg and blitzed the opposition around the final bend. The Irish team will be confident going to Paris, not least because of their gold in the European’s but also their bronze medal at the World Relays in the Bahamas in May, where they finished behind the USA and the Netherlands. Rome showed that they can beat the Dutch, if they get their tactics correct again and they set national records almost every time they run. Their gold medal run in Rome lowered the Irish record to 3.09.92 and the world record stands at 3.08.80, held by the USA. The final of the mixed relay is on Saturday 3rd. Cancel all other appointments that evening is my advice.
The timetable for the women’s 4 x 400m is a little complicated as it seems to coincide with the heats of the individual 400m for women. Rhasidat Adeleke has reasonable medal expectations in the individual 400m and may feel compelled to concentrate on that before she turns her attention to the women’s relay team. Adeleke and Maudsley will have had their mixed final on a Saturday, their individual heats for the 400m on the following Tuesday, semi-final on Wednesday, final on Friday. But the heats for the 400m woman’s relay also starts on the same day, Friday 9th. There would be a distinct possibility that the opening rounds of the woman’s relay will see an Irish team without Adeleke and Mawdsley.
Elsewhere, the final of the men’s pommel horse is on Saturday 3rd. Rhys McClenaghan is the current world champion and gold medal favourite. He had a disastrous performance on the pommel horse in the Tokyo final three years ago and must surely have learned from that. If he can stay on the horse this time he will surely medal, the colour; yet to be determined.
In the pool, we have double world champion and world record holder (short course) in Daniel Wiffin. He will probably compete in both the 800m freestyle as well as the 1500m. The longer distance is his preferred event. The men’s 800m heats are on Monday 29th, the final the following day Tuesday 30th , the 1500m heats on Saturday 3rd and the 1500m final the following day. That’s a lot of meters for him to swim and one wonders if the double is doable. The greatest distance swimmer of all time is probably Australian Grant Hackett and he doubled up winning gold in both the 800m and 1500m at World Championships in 2003 and 2005 but never at the Olympic Games.
Danielle Hill is a current European champion in the 100m backstroke but she is also very proficient at the 50m freestyle. Mona McSharry made the 100m breast stroke final in Toyko and was very close to medalling at the world championships in Fukuoka and Doha. Making an Olympic final is an extraordinary achievement for any athlete but, when you hear McSharry speak you know that making a final is the absolute minimum that she expects.
Finally, back where we began, Vaires-sur-Marne. The Olympic Nautical Stadium is around 25km east of Paris. Lynch and Doyle will be joined by other medal contenders, O’Donovan and McCarthy, the Skibbereen duo competing in the lightweight double scull. Paul O’Donovan looking for his third Olympic medal and his second successive gold. His final takes place on Friday 2nd August. The women’s four will hopefully also make the final, after which, who knows. Their final, should they make it, is also on Thursday 1st August. Have you ever heard of the golden hour at the 1932 Games in Los Angeles?
It all makes for a fascinating 17 days, and one we should really enjoy as they will take place in our time zone, pretty much. The next two Olympics take place in Los Angeles and Brisbane so unless you suffer from insomnia then those games won’t be the same. Every four years we take the opportunity to watch sports that we rarely see on mainstream television. Some of which I am not so sure are sports at all. But whenever I try and define a sport, I am always confronted by ‘what about-ery’.
I used to think that if a sport was a recognised Olympic Sport, then it must be a sport. But this Olympics will see the introduction of ‘Breaking’ as an Olympic Sport. Now, if a ‘sport’ requires a DJ and a MC in order for it to take place then I am sceptical if it is a sport at all. But, I will probably watch a bit of Breaking in coming weeks and declare myself an expert on the sport when it is over. It is the Olympic Games after all!
Citius – Altius – Fortius