Punching above our weight

IN ALL FAIRNESS

There is an interesting debate every time an Irish team or individual does well on the international stage over how much more success would we enjoy if we didn’t have the indigenous games of hurling/camogie and Gaelic football that take a large share of the talent.

The same can be said of Australia when it comes to Aussie Rules and the United States with American Football, also two sports without an international element. However, both those nations have such a population base they can still be to the fore in other sports whereas in Ireland we have to wait until a gem comes along.

Maybe that is what makes any Irish achievement so special as they don’t come along that often so we tend to cherish and celebrate it more, epitomised by Kate O’Connor’s silver medal in the heptathlon at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.

The Dundalk native has come on leaps and bounds over the last twelve months, and was rated as an outside chance of medalling beforehand. She went on to have the competition that all sportspeople dream of, peaking at the right time, recording personal best performances in five of the seven disciplines to comfortably secure a silver medal.

It is hard to believe that O’Connor is just the sixth Irish athlete to medal at a World Championships, the first since Rob Heffernan’s gold in the 50k Walk in 2013, joining the illustrious list, including Olive Loughnane (Gold - 20k Walk, 2007), Gillian Loughnane (Silver - 20k Walk, 2003), Sonia O’Sullivan (Gold - 5000m, 1995; Silver - 1500m, 1993), and Eamon Coghlan (Gold - 5000m, 1985).

It also continues the upturn in fortunes of Irish athletics in recent years, with Newport’s own Sharlene Mawdsley playing her part with medals in the relay and World and European level in 2024. Her world championships didn’t go as she would have hoped, admitting that her preparation wasn’t ideal following the sudden passing of her father over the summer. Unlike team-mate Rhasidat Adeleke who opted not to compete despite an injury-hit season, the competitor that is Mawdsley took her place in Tokyo as donning the Irish singlet is something that inspires her as we have seen in her relay performances.

The fact that the Ireland team finished on a high with O’Connor’s medal and Cian McPhillips agonising fourth placed finish in the 800m should give everyone a shot in the arm going into the winter, ahead of 2026 when the European Championships take centre stage, and with them being held in Birmingham, England, Irish athletes at their best have a great chance of winning a bounty of medals.

What makes the resurgence in athletics so remarkable is that is largely achieved with largely amateur coaches. The vast majority of our elite athletes are trained at home by people, such as Nenagh native Noelle Morrissey is with hurdler Sarah Lavin, who do it because they love it, not because it is their day job. They, like inter-county GAA, are one of the last bastions where being involved in a sport is down to the love of it, not down to what you get out of it in terms of payment.

However, it will be interesting to see if Athletics Ireland changes its approach and looks towards employing full-time coaches. To that end, increased central funding from government would be required but they will be joining a lengthy queue of sports looking for more central funding, such as the FAI are towards developing soccer academies, while the GAA will likely seek support to help with integration with camogie and ladies football, although some of the claims of €500million being laughable as most clubs operate a one-club model any way. It is towards the inter-county level and in terms of administration roles where the issues will be of getting it all pulled together.

With the next Olympics just under three years away, the time is right to strike when the iron is hot and any government, they all like positive PR, should make an extra investment in those sports that have the most potential of medalling in LA in 2028, such as athletics, rowing and boxing. They are sports that might struggle for media attention but when the focus is on them, the country is always enthralled as we were last week on events in Japan.

We are a small country, but we love it when our talented stars do well, largely because they live among us. No matter how successful they become, they rarely move too far away from their roots and they value all the people that have helped get them to where they are now. The next few years look set to be exciting indeed and the possibilities of what might be achieved.