Team Ireland - Paris 2024 Qualification Tracker

[dodge 1,040]

“Scraped five medals” is a pretty wild phrase considering our sporting history 😂

[Cosmo Kramer 24]

In a historical context you're correct as I mentioned, but in terms of current day funding and - in many sports - access to facilities domestically, it's important not to compare today to the 1970s, 80s or even 90s to 2000s.

 

We have high quality programmes in multiple sports designed and funded to deliver success, the goalposts have been moved as a result.

[dodge 1,040]

We are underfunded compared to most countries. Ridiculously so. In general our facilities are atrocious. 
 

Our biggest stars are being developed outside our systems (bar boxing and rowing where the worldwide pools are shallow enough)

Edited May 5, 2024 by dodge

[Cosmo Kramer 24]

Really not wanting to go too far down a rabbit hole here because this is not at all what this thread is about, but we are definitely not "underfunded compared to most countries". That is manifestly untrue. 

 

 

[mpjmcevoy 377]

49 minutes ago, Cosmo Kramer said:

Really not wanting to go too far down a rabbit hole here because this is not at all what this thread is about, but we are definitely not "underfunded compared to most countries". That is manifestly untrue. 

 

 

Irish sport, historically, has been skewed heavily towards non-Olympic sport - notable GAA, horse racing, golf, rugby, snooker and in the North motorcycles. In olympic terms we were good boxers, and we occasionally pulled a good runner. Facilities and talent pools for anything else was pretty limited. And with a small population, we weren't getting any benefits from numbers.

 

Recently, we've started to produce decent rowers, particularly at lightweight, plus talented one offs in non traditional sport, the stand out of which is of course Rhys McCleneghan. Rhasidat is lightly different as there has been a flurry of good female sprinters, one of which you'd have hoped would have turned up trumps - we saw Gina Akpe-Moses, Molly Scott, ciara Neville and Patience Jumbo Gula come through, plus we now have Sarah Healy and Sonia O'Sullivan's daughter at middle distance.

 

But we still don't have a single Indoor velodrome, hardly any world class pools, and a limited gymnastics infrastructure, and we share the Home Nations tendency to spread ourselves thin, having a crack at everything.

[dodge 1,040]

2 hours ago, Cosmo Kramer said:

Really not wanting to go too far down a rabbit hole here because this is not at all what this thread is about, but we are definitely not "underfunded compared to most countries". That is manifestly untrue. 

 

 

Compare what New Zealand, Netherlands, Belgium or any other comparably sized developed country spend 

 

The only sports where we could host a senior European championship, never mind a world championships, are those that compete in open fields. 

We have the British and American collegiate systems to thank for the vast majority of our talented individuals

 

[dodge 1,040]

Double post 

Edited May 6, 2024 by dodge

[dodge 1,040]

Meanwhile…

 

Rhasidat 

[mpjmcevoy 377]

8 hours ago, dodge said:

Meanwhile…

 

Rhasidat 

I mean Mawdsley going toe to toe with Bol was amazing enough, but Adeleke is ENTIRELY different gravy

[Cosmo Kramer 24]

12 hours ago, dodge said:

Compare what New Zealand, Netherlands, Belgium or any other comparably sized developed country spend 

 

The only sports where we could host a senior European championship, never mind a world championships, are those that compete in open fields. 

We have the British and American collegiate systems to thank for the vast majority of our talented individuals

 

Sigh...I really don't want to spend any more time on this, it's not what this thread is about and particularly as my original point was how we are funded versus ourselves in the past and not compared to other countries. But, unless you can point to over 100 NOCs that invest more per competitor or per head of capita than we do we are very obviously not "underfunded compared to most countries". 

 

 

Anyway, the relays. Amazing. Bronze in the mixed team and would most likely have been silver in the women's but for the impossible scheduling. There really needs to be some significant thought now put into how we could maximise what we have available to us for Paris.

 

Looking at the schedule we surely have to go full steam for the mixed team in Paris now. The gap from the final to the start of the individual isn't great, but let's face it as long as Rhasidat is fully fit she could nearly jog the first round of the individual by her standards and get through. Not ideal for Sharlene if she's in the individual event, but you just know she'll want to throw everything at the relay where there might be a shot at an Olympic medal if it all falls right.

 

Realistically we're not going to have Rhasidat for the women's relay heats - unless things have gone surprisingly badly in the individual event for her. But Healy/Becker/Mawdsley plus one of the others could be good enough to sneak into the final. And if they're successful maybe Rhasidat would come back in once more (might depend on how she's feeling at that point to be fair).

 

Is that too optimistic a schedule in terms of what's possible for Rhasidat? It might be, let's see how her outdoor season goes first. It's exciting though.