Team Ireland Daily Diary at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games

[Cosmo Kramer 24]

On 8/7/2024 at 7:56 PM, Cosmo Kramer said:

If she finishes fourth you wouldn't rule out her getting upgraded at some point, put it that way...

My position remains unchanged...

[Cosmo Kramer 24]

We definitely haven't gotten any breaks in the athletics this week. All sorts of records being run in front of us to deny us medals. I felt after the second leg of the relay we just weren't far enough ahead of the Brits to hold on. The difference is the emergence of Amber Anning as an athlete capable of challenging for individual medals. She neutralises the advantage Adeleke previously gave us and their depth across the rest of their team was just enough to keep them ahead of us.

[mpjmcevoy 362]

2 hours ago, Cosmo Kramer said:

We definitely haven't gotten any breaks in the athletics this week. All sorts of records being run in front of us to deny us medals. I felt after the second leg of the relay we just weren't far enough ahead of the Brits to hold on. The difference is the emergence of Amber Anning as an athlete capable of challenging for individual medals. She neutralises the advantage Adeleke previously gave us and their depth across the rest of their team was just enough to keep them ahead of us.

If you ignore the Americans, that race for silver and bronze between the three European teams was one for the ages. So well matches, so many brilliant young athletes in each team. heartbreaking, but it'll come, I'm sure of it.

 

PS I think you are right about Amber, a suddenly very, very serious contender at Euro and global level going forward - I imagine Rhasidat, Amber and Femke will come to see a lot of each other over the next years!

Edited August 10 by mpjmcevoy

[Cosmo Kramer 24]

Well, I think there are few enough events left that we can confirm our final position on the medal table - 19th. A few wrestling finals involving Iran and Georgia fell our way this morning to keep us in the top 20. The four gold medals keeping us ahead of some countries we would normally be well behind, including Brazil as well as European countries such as Belgium, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark and Switzerland (also spare a thought for Finland who have just suffered their first ever blank at the Olympics in terms of medals).

 

The final medal total of seven was broadly in line with what a few of us thought coming in to the games, but I know, for me anyway, the four golds was a massive overshoot. To beat our previous best in terms of both total medals and total golds in the same games is a great achievement by the team. We also had consistently strong results throughout the team outside the medal positions, with 21 Top 8 finishes and 30 Top 10 finishes. And yet, at least in terms of total medals, there's a new target there that we should absolutely be aiming to surpass again next time.

 

On that score there seems to be rumblings of some significant funding announcements coming up. Hopefully they come to pass and we see an even better funded and prepared team in 2028. While we've made huge progress on that side of things, there's clearly so much more that needs to be done in terms of facilities, coaching and ensuring that all of our best competitors are sufficiently funded to allow them to be full time professional athletes for the next olympic cycle.

 

🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪

[mpjmcevoy 362]

8 hours ago, Cosmo Kramer said:

Well, I think there are few enough events left that we can confirm our final position on the medal table - 19th. A few wrestling finals involving Iran and Georgia fell our way this morning to keep us in the top 20. The four gold medals keeping us ahead of some countries we would normally be well behind, including Brazil as well as European countries such as Belgium, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark and Switzerland (also spare a thought for Finland who have just suffered their first ever blank at the Olympics in terms of medals).

 

The final medal total of seven was broadly in line with what a few of us thought coming in to the games, but I know, for me anyway, the four golds was a massive overshoot. To beat our previous best in terms of both total medals and total golds in the same games is a great achievement by the team. We also had consistently strong results throughout the team outside the medal positions, with 21 Top 8 finishes and 30 Top 10 finishes. And yet, at least in terms of total medals, there's a new target there that we should absolutely be aiming to surpass again next time.

 

On that score there seems to be rumblings of some significant funding announcements coming up. Hopefully they come to pass and we see an even better funded and prepared team in 2028. While we've made huge progress on that side of things, there's clearly so much more that needs to be done in terms of facilities, coaching and ensuring that all of our best competitors are sufficiently funded to allow them to be full time professional athletes for the next olympic cycle.

 

🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪

I get the impression the Government have twigged somewhat that the benefits of funding elite Olympic sport go beyond simple performance. In GB, it is no exaggeration to say it was the only good news story for several weeks, and at least on some level had a unifying effect to help counter the mob. Ireland is having a 'moment' at the moment - the visuals often spoke of a better Ireland than the one we can feel we're in. Sport has the capacity to be a rather unifying experience, especially when we have plenty of impressive Irish athletes. It's no panacea, and there are, arguably, more urgent uses for major public funds, but elite olympic sports funding is never going to be more than a drop in the overall ocean even if it's generous, and we get unifying national moments from it money can barely buy.