Team Ireland - Paris 2024 Qualification Tracker Road to Paris 2024

[Oldira 76]

Defeat for Harrington in the European Boxing Championships yesterday. By a boxer that has also qualified for Paris. Should we be concerned?

[dodge 705]

She scraped by in the earlier round too but Serbia are doing remarkably well at their home event. That might be a factor 

 

 

[duineeile 0]

I'm starting to get worried regards our boxers to be honest, the performances at what is ultimately a poor quality European Championships by many of our already qualified boxers have been poor. Jack Marley beaten by a Belgian fighter (!), Michael Walsh beaten in first round, Dean Clancy unable to get among medals and Harrington beaten after struggling in quarter final. O'Rourke only one that seems to be performing and seems best medal prospect for Paris.

 

The last qualification tournament was pretty poor too with only one qualifier, and not confident we'll do much better at the next one, especially with it being on away ground in Asia. I think Jude Gallagher is a definite medal prospect but its a very tough division and a lot depends on draw and judging.

 

Not overly confident about the rowing situation either, seems a lot of disruption due to injury/illness. Women's Pair only boat that really seemed to perform well at first World Cup regatta, mens double sculls did OK but will need to push on to threaten medals. I feel the lightweight double will be tested a lot more this year than before, the Swiss were an emerging crew last year and will be better this year too.

 

I think talk of 7 medals is fanciful at best, difficult to see where the medals will come from in other sports, of course Daniel Wiffen will be in the mix, and Rhys McClenaghan, but like Tokyo it only takes a split second for it all to go wrong. Showjumping and golf are completely on the day sports, and generally Ireland are not blessed with luck in the Olympics. I think we need to temper expectations a bit to be honest. Obviously I'd love if we went out and won 10 medals but I've been following Ireland in Olympics for too long to allow expectations build too much. If we win 4-5 medals I think its a successful Games for us.

[dodge 705]

I never thought the likes of Marley or Clancy were medal contenders to be fair. Now once you’re in the Olympics, you can get an Aidan Walsh type draw and medal, but I’ve always said that most needed a good draw to have any chance. 

 

Harrington remains the only one of the current squad who has won a world championship medal at an Olympic weight, and that tells a story. There aren’t many who’ve got out of the prelims

Aoife O’Rourke has been unlucky with draws in her two previous global events, but she’ll be a strong medal contender. Two from boxing would be a great return

 

As would 4/5 overall considering we’ve only earned more than 3 four times in our history.
 

O’Donovan & McCarthy remain the only Irish entrants where I’d be shocked if they didn’t win a medal. Everyone else is either a contender we hope improves (Wiffen, Adeleke, the rowing pairs/doubles) or in a sport where one second can change everything (boxers, McClenaghan) 

 

The great part is that unlike most years we do have about 12-15 (you can add sailing, Lara Gillespie, Ben Healy, rugby team, the equestrian teams etc) who are contenders, even if outside shots. The more of those you have, the more medals you’ll win over time

 

[duineeile 0]

Yeah thats true, we definitely have a lot more in with a shout of medals than before which on a curve over time should increase medals won. Even last Olympics we were unlucky in a number of events (Natalya Coyle getting a donkey, Rhys slipping in the pommel final, Rory losing on play-off, first show-jumpers horse losing a shoe in team event and Cian O'Connor with a single time penalty if I remember, Sanita becoming ill) and still came out with 4 medals which in previous games would have been a great haul for Ireland. I think we have a lot of exciting prospects, just don't want to get too carried away with expectations as I've suffered too much heartbreak watching Olympics over the years. Thankfully we are long past the days when we were basically depending on Sonia. Would be class if we could get an early medal for a change to really kick-start some momentum as it definitely feeds through teams  

[Oldira 76]

 Not much to disagree with by the the last two posters. I too have started to get a tad concerned. Not just with the games but actual qualification. I think we will do well to get one more qualifier and I’d be really happy with two. I am still not so sure about the women’s 4 in rowing and it’s unlikely any other boat is a contender. Rachel Darragh is now outside a qualification spot in Badminton. Only last October she seemed a certainty and the men’s doubles were in a quota spot too. There will be no qualifiers in Pentathlon, Tristhlon or Judo. Still an outside chance of a shooter qualifying. We really a few swimmers to at least hit the B standard at least or we may have to decline a relay quota. I just think that this Spring has been a bit underwhelming as regards qualifiers. 

[OlympicIRL 4,770]

I was doing some calculating a few months back and it became obvious the men's double badminton pair never really had a shot at qualifying even though they were showing in a qualifying spot. The reason being that many pairs from other nations had not yet competed in enough events to gather points and it was clear that over the course of the next few months they would move clearly ahead.

I am a bit worried too about our rowing and boxing teams, neither seem to be hitting the Olympic year in ideal form. For rowing, I am sure just like last year they will improve greatly in the coming months, but I was secretly hoping we could see some major breakthroughs and push for another gold from another crew outside of the lightweight men's double. It can all still come together of course, I think as fans we are just looking for those signs that this summer will be a good one.
The boxing team, since Rio 2016 I go into each Olympics expecting absolutely nothing and anything is a bonus. But still the start to this year has not been good at all. Anything can still happen in Paris though, good or bad but it's unlikely we will get a haul of boxing medals.

Edited 12 hours ago by OlympicIRL