Team Ireland Daily Diary at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games

[OlympicIRL 5,532]

11 minutes ago, Oldira said:

I think we just bottle it. We just dont get enough clear rounds in the big competitions. Some of the other competitors seemed to soar over tbe fences with a foot to spare.

We do bottle it and do it across many sports but that ties into the point I’m making about having that monkey on your back and also the ingrained culture if having this happen over and over and lacking belief. Equestrian is a lottery so more talking about other sports here. Mindset and culture is much harder to change than the easy fixes like improving funding and opportunities. I was at the rowing in Paris on a day when we only qualified one boat and the others all under-performed and most Irish fans I met were saying isn’t it great how good we did today. That culture is deeply ingrained in our culture of thinking everything is great once we have a flag there  

 

However it’s the athletes themselves who are changing this culture ever so slowly. You can see our young talents like McClenaghan, Adeleke, Wiffen are not afraid to talk up themselves and explicitly say they want to be the best in the world. You can see they don’t lack anything in terms of belief. A failure for any of them will not be bottling anything, they will have left everything out there and no stone unturned. 

Edited August 2 by OlympicIRL

[Cosmo Kramer 24]

We can probably start the boxing inquest now, as I think the outcome from here for KH will relate more to Harrington herself (as well as any judges/referees) than the team performance.

 

Nine out of ten gone, eight without winning a fight, only two made a quarter and just the one medal. Moorhouse can be put down entirely to a home town decision, so no issue there, Marley gave his all and also leaves with credit in the bank. Gallagher boxed well too. The rest though weren't great. O'Rourke I think should have got the decision, but underperformed all the same. The Walshes just seemed happy to be there, Clancy and Lehane weren't up to much either. 

 

Maybe the inquest will be unnecessary if boxing itself isn't coming back. But definitely issues to be looked at that go beyond just the judging I think, if it is to continue.

[OlympicIRL 5,532]

I think we were a victim of our own success in terms of qualifying 10 boxers and many at the final tournament. Realistically we didn’t have many medal favourites here and was always going to be a tall ask for a few of them to win a fight depending on the draws.

Having said that, only 2 boxers winning a fight is an under performance as a few would have been expected to win against their opposition at least on paper. 
O’Rourke really didn’t deserve to win I think. The Pole for sure made it messy last round but O’Rourke showed almost no quality in the entire fight. 
Contrast that with the class and composure of Harrington who exudes quality. 
Overall, 1 medal is not a complete disaster. Certainly disappointing as with so many boxers and history there was hope there. If Kellie wins a gold which is still a big ask, it would be allow us to gain something positive and on the bigger picture of trying to climb the medal table and beat Atlanta, I would take that now.

I do hope boxing stays in the Olympics but only if they change the scoring system. If not I’m happy to see it go.

Edited August 2 by OlympicIRL

[Cosmo Kramer 24]

Some very poor Irish performances in athletics on day 1. Obviously need to realistic about where most of our athletes stand at this level of competition, but too many a long, long way off their own best on the big day.

[dodge 1,026]

No distance runners are going to be at their best in a heat

 

I’m not sure what you’re expecting but none of the 1,500m lads were expected to get out of the heats. Doyle and McCann didn’t even get the qualifying time 

 

Jodie McCann literally had the slowest PB in her heat 

 

The only one who can be disappointed with their day today can be Waddilove and Dickson and Cian O’Connor. Everyone else was at/above expectations 

[Cosmo Kramer 24]

No, no expectations for them to get out of their heats. But Favors barely clearing 19m, Jodie McCann that far off her best, Coscoran being run out the back of his heat, let's not pretend those were good performances.

[Oldira 88]

5 hours ago, OlympicIRL said:

I think we were a victim of our own success in terms of qualifying 10 boxers and many at the final tournament. Realistically we didn’t have many medal favourites here and was always going to be a tall ask for a few of them to win a fight depending on the draws.

Having said that, only 2 boxers winning a fight is an under performance as a few would have been expected to win against their opposition at least on paper. 
O’Rourke really didn’t deserve to win I think. The Pole for sure made it messy last round but O’Rourke showed almost no quality in the entire fight. 
Contrast that with the class and composure of Harrington who exudes quality. 
Overall, 1 medal is not a complete disaster. Certainly disappointing as with so many boxers and history there was hope there. If Kellie wins a gold which is still a big ask, it would be allow us to gain something positive and on the bigger picture of trying to climb the medal table and beat Atlanta, I would take that now.

I do hope boxing stays in the Olympics but only if they change the scoring system. If not I’m happy to see it go.

Our performance in boxing is not hard to explain. All boxers except Moorehouse were simply beaten by a better fighter on the day. I’d have expected Gráinne Walsh to have beaten the Hungarian before the fight but she fought poorly. Aoife O’Rourke wasn’t robbed as she fought terribly on the day and in no way looked an medalist. The rest can have no arguments about their losses. Qualifying 10 was a great achievement but most people I know expected at most 2 and maybe on a good day 3 medals. The class is just not there. I’d be telling the three Walsh’s, O’Rourke, Lehane and Clancy that LA is not in their plans. 

[Oldira 88]

Even though I didn’t expect our 49er Sailors to medal at the outset todays debacle has me seriously deflated. All they needed was to finish 7th of 9 to medal and they lost it. They literally threw away a medal. I k ow they must be distraught but ffs! . We need both Wiffen and Rhys to medal now or we will not even win a record 7 medals. I can’t see any medals after Sunday barring Adeleke being the superstar I think she just might be. 

[OlympicIRL 5,532]

16 minutes ago, Oldira said:

Even though I didn’t expect our 49er Sailors to medal at the outset today’s debacle has me seriously deflated. All they needed was to finish 7th of 9 to medal and they lost it. They literally threw away a medal. I k ow they must be distraught but ffs! . We need both Wiffen and Rhys to medal now or we will not even win a record 7 medals. I can’t see any medals after Sunday barring Adeleke being the superstar I think she just might be. 

I totally understand your feeling. A gold from Wiffen or McClenaghan will have us dancing again, here’s hoping  

 

[Cosmo Kramer 24]

https://www.medalspercapita.com/#medals-per-capita:2024

 

One medal table we're performing particularly well on. After a day of both glory and frustration, easy to forget that we're doing really well for a country of our size this year.

 

Fingers crossed for Rhys tomorrow.