Team Ireland Daily Diary at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games

[mattiekav119 14]

They might need to make a bumper double length edition of reeling in the years

[Cosmo Kramer 24]

2 hours ago, mattiekav119 said:

They might need to make a bumper double length edition of reeling in the years

Well throw in two European athletics gold medals and winning the Six Nations and 2024 must surely be the most successful year in the history of Irish sport.

[OlympicIRL 6,299]

16 minutes ago, Cosmo Kramer said:

Well throw in two European athletics gold medals and winning the Six Nations and 2024 must surely be the most successful year in the history of Irish sport.

Not to mention Wiffen’s double gold from worlds earlier this year but doubt that’ll even make the cut  

[Cosmo Kramer 24]

What a day. What an absolutely fantastic day.

[Oldira 88]

19 minutes ago, Cosmo Kramer said:

What a day. What an absolutely fantastic day.

People forgetting that Rory put himself in medal contention today with a great round. Definitely in with a serious shout of a minor medal.

[Cosmo Kramer 24]

There was hardly a downer all day. McIlroy put himself in the mix, Lowry was good too, both swimming relays overachieved, Wiffen looked both incredibly strong while not going full pace, the cyclists had the best go at the road race that I've ever seen from us, Doyle ran superbly in his repechage, the three canoeists all got into the next round, Harrington upgraded her medal to minimum 🥈 and Rhys won the 🥇.

[Oldira 88]

I thought this forum would be hectic all week but a lot of Irish contributors have disappeared. Wonder are they actually at the games? I miss Ogreman and his boxing and rowing analysis.

[Cosmo Kramer 24]

Tuthill looks a prospect. Youngest competitor in the Hammer, threw within about a foot of her PB on her final throw. Finished 16th with 12 going through, would have needed a huge PB to make it so she can be proud of that effort off the back of making the final at the Europeans.

[Cosmo Kramer 24]

Interesting to start to hear about the next steps for our medal winners after Paris. Paul O'Donovan obviously having to change boat but McClenaghan talking about expanding into more gymnastics disciplines. McSharry sadly sounding like she's going to pack it in. Possibly Fintan McCarthy also? Wiffen's just getting started I'd imagine.

[Cosmo Kramer 24]

On 7/29/2024 at 9:45 PM, Cosmo Kramer said:

This could just be the start of an incredible week.

 

 

Wiffen Tuesday 

Harrington Wednesday 

Double Sculls on Thursday 

Lightweight Doubles on Friday 

McClenaghan on Saturday 

And Wiffen again on Sunday

 

And many others throughout the week as well (including McSharry in the 200). If it goes well this has the potential to be one of the all time great weeks in Irish sport.

Have to say when I posted the above after McSharry's race on Monday night, I was fairly sure at least one of those would blow up on us. To win a medal every day this week is absolutely unbelievable, and would have been unthinkable only a few years ago. A lot of credit to a lot of people for making something like this possible - our most successful Olympics with seven medals, even if next week does turn out to be a bust.

 

Having said that, I'm happy enough that that was a 1500m race and not a 1600m race because Wiffen looked fairly blown towards the end there, don't think he'd have held off the Hungarian if it went on any longer. Doesn't bode too favourably for the open water, hopefully he still gives it a go but I'd say expectations need to be managed on that one.

 

Incidentally Wiffen's swim was our 25th top 10 finish of the games and our next top 8 finish will be our 20th. Incredible consistency across a wide range of sports and another real sign of significant progress.