Road to Tokyo 2020 - Irish Olympic News

Oldira

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117696167#Comment_117696167

Rugby is as popular in New Zealand as the GAA is here and yet they win plenty Of Olympic medals. So that excuse is fiction.

Akrasia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117696834#Comment_117696834

There is always a perceived choice between funding elite sports and funding participation in sport and I think if we had to choose, it should be the latter

Funding participation, will lead to some emergence of elite athletes just from the overall boost in competition as there are more participants and clubs have more resources to put into training and facilities

I think every single family in Ireland who have children should be given a monthly grant to put towards sports/STEM/Artistic activities for their children.

There are so many kids out there who have real talent but can never pursue that talent because they are from a family who do not have the resources to pay for their sports/music/art etc

And there are clubs out there providing activities for kids through volunteers in community centres who don't have enough resources to provide the facilities that are needed to bring out the best in those kids.

martingriff

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117696674#Comment_117696674

Unless we put money at the sports from a younger age how are we to know what sports and who

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117696775#Comment_117696775

The hockey team were bigged up because of their recent exploits not because of gender politics.

The rest I agree with though

Joe_ Public

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117696944#Comment_117696944

Grassroots sport gets the main share of the funding as is only right. Capital grants are in the region of around €40-50m annually while high performance sport gets around €15m per year so the balance looks about right to me. I would argue both should be higher. And i think the grassroots got a one off €80m covid investment last year so that helps too. I guess there's an argument to be made that the sports need proper funding at the roots, but how much is a Katie Taylor or Derval O'Rourke worth in terms of generating interest and inspiration? Probably worth every penny they got and more i would say.

External Association

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117697085#Comment_117697085

That world silver was a total once off. Everything fell for them in 2018. I know it sounds like I'm demeaning it but they were 6 goals behind the Dutch in the final. It was like a good FA Cup run! I understand what your saying but the rowers, boxers would have a consistent line of performing. The hockey silver was a complete outlier. Not the team's true world ranking.

Speak Now

New Zealand do unreal at rowing,sailing and canoeing. I wonder are these sports more accessible to the working class than they are over here? Our golds are all through the phenomenon of Skibbereen.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117697117#Comment_117697117

I agree but they became a "national story" so they were always gonna be noticed at this Olympics same goes for O'Donovan even if he had won nothing between 2016 and now and our boxers are in a similar situation to the hockey team as being hyped just for being Irish boxers but many were very outside chances or not at all for medals

peek a boo

I read somewhere that there were 15 Irish bred horses competing in Tokyo. We also have fabulous riders/show jumpers. If we could hold onto a few of these valuable horses, our chances of a medal might improve.

These Olympics have been a big hit with the kids around here. The sportsmanship during and post events has been heartwarming. If nothing more comes of the games than more kids participating and enjoying sports, it will be better than any medal.

External Association

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117697164#Comment_117697164

True enough. Get lynched for this but they are photogenic too!

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117697165#Comment_117697165

The Olympics are always one of those things where kids get excited for a bit every 4 years but go back to the "easy" sports every year and I mean easy in the sense that your club is down the road rather than having to commute to a big city for an Olympic pool or proper running track.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117697178#Comment_117697178

Yes they are and it was also a feel good moment like how suddenly the country knew about Sam Bennett because he done one thing despite him being good before that one thing

Akrasia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117697094#Comment_117697094

You're right, the elite athletes do deserve the funding that they get, and If they're representing Ireland, we have an obligation to help pay their costs and develop their talents as best we can

I would hope that there isn't actually a 'choice' between elites vs grassroots. I would hope that my suggestion would form part of the grassroots funding while parents/community funding would help to supplement these clubs. That energy and time saved shaking buckets at crossroads could be used better and all the extra money going into clubs from the kids that are never going to be elite sportspeople will help supplemet those bright sparks at the local level who are potential elites

At every level participants reach their level and drop off but if every child got funded to pursue sports/music/art/stem then we're giving every kid a chance to try new things and that funding will support the clubs in their community and improve the infrastructure for competitive sports

What.Now

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117697232#Comment_117697232

Do you think that could be changed?

I mean I'm a GAA man through and through but I understand that there are many, many a child throughout this country where Gaelic games would not be their sport but it might be table tenis or badminton or even chess or singing etc.

Could the county set up some sort of system where in schools there is a session that chrildren can try different games and sports and if they enjoy those particular sports or games there is a 'natural transfer system' where they can continue their interest in that sport on the Saturday morning. A sort of school extension system!!

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117697117#Comment_117697117

The hockey team are decent enough. Finished 6th at the recent European Championships, only one place behind England.

The thing that let them down at this tournament was lack of goals and shots on target - only four goals scored in five games, that's pretty low for a hockey side.

Oldira

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117697123#Comment_117697123

No actually. New Zealand target those sports because they know they are easier to get medals. New Zealand’s Athetics team is only half the size of hours as they only send those with a good chance of making a final. New Zealand target medals not participation. In fairness being from Oceania it’s a lot easier for them to get qualifiers so they can afford to be choosy.

Oldira

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117696822#Comment_117696822

We should be targeting at least 10. There’s close to 7 million on the island plus a huge diaspora that we can feed off. We are one of the foremost horse breeding countries yet have one solitary bronze in equestrian in Olympic history.

Joe_ Public

You would imagine we'd do better in the equestrian events but it's not that easy either. They're probably the one Olympic discipline that are as much a business as a sport. As well as being the most expensive to participate in, as an Olympic standard horse can be worth anything up to seven figures. You need to be either incredibly lucky or find a willing patron with very deep pockets in order to come across one.

FrancieBrady

Andrew knows what he has to do in this 1500 heat.

Christy42

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117697610#Comment_117697610

Why not send them all? Why limit to those who will make a final? I mean it isn't limiting the rest of them. It might make the team ridiculous I guess given the amount of spots they likely get through having little competition in their continental competition.

I feel the bit of attention even a losing effort gets here is good. OK they didn't do great but maybe some youngster will find the sport they enjoy.

peek a boo

Leon Reid has qualified in the 200m and said afterwards “I’ll give it a good lash in the semis”. Well done Leon.

The_Kew_Tour

A good morning for Ireland. Go on Kellie!

peek a boo

Classy performance from Kellie. I’ve gotta feeling 🙂

orangerhyme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117696674#Comment_117696674

I think we do both, participation is really important. Particularly those years when people quit sports like late teens, cos when you quit it's very hard to get back into it. But if you stay in sports, it just becomes routine. Then when your older again you can coach the younger generation.

I think a comprehensive talent spotting program could bear fruit.

Physical and Mental.

There's so much data and metrics collected that this could be straightforward.

Lots of sports like cycling, rowing etc can be picked up late enough.

hahashake

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117697610#Comment_117697610

New Zealand sent 211 athletes to Ireland's 116, and has already won medals in boxing, tennis, gymnastics, athletics and triathlon. No need to downplay their success.

HeidiHeidi

Just watched Kellie Harrington's fight there..... when she was announced as the winner, straight over to her opponent to acknowledge her, then to the other corner to the trainers, before any celebration on her part. And what a lovely post- match interview. An absolute lady of a competitor.

Cosmo Kramer

New Zealand are a huge outlier for a country of their population in fairness. Obviously there are things we can learn from them, but they have natural advantages too. If we were based in Oceania instead of them we'd have a much bigger team also because we'd have qualified teams in men's hockey, women's rugby and others.

Having rugby as their national sport instead of GAA gives them a two medal head start as well.

Having said all that, the potentially large gains we could be making if we want to are in water sports - rowing (which we're already doing to some extent), sailing and particularly canoeing/kayaking. As an island nation we're probably underperforming in the latter two in particular, we can definitely learn from NZ in that regard.

Anyway, great to see Kellie make her semi and guarantee medal number 4, even if it was as close to a foregone conclusion as we have had at this Olympics. She will have her hands full as the standard of opposition steps up from here (although I see the highly fancied Brit Dubois was beaten in her division). Hopefully she can make a final at least - she is keeping the Irish interest going in the second week as so many of our competitors have now finished up.

Four medals from four different competitors I would say makes this our third most successful Olympics after 1956 and 2012. If Kellie wins gold it might be considered to be even higher up the rankings than that.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117698119#Comment_117698119

Please tell me she didn't jump up and down 😂

Oldira

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117698048#Comment_117698048

True but that’s not to say they don’t target certain sports, Five of their six golds come from Rowing and Canoeing. There are plenty of articles on it. In fairness there large team size is partly explained by qualifying two teams in hockey, football and Rugby. far from downplaying their success I am in awe of it.

Speak Now

Clear round for Darragh Kenny in the show jumping qualifying, comfortably into tomorrow's final.