Cosmo Kramer

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.

My position remains unchanged...

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

Could be a case to be made for just giving the team award to the entire Olympic team at this point but that might be a bit of a cop out!

Outstanding from Harrington, boxing her way to gold with a smile on her face. Delighted for Zaur as well.
 
Four gold medals, in four different sports, in one Olympics. Ireland's greatest ever sporting achievement.
 
We are TWELFTH in the medal table tonight.

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.

Yeah O’Donovan is going to the worlds so he will still need to weigh in there. But Fintan said he wants to be there or try to be in 2028 so no initial plans on packing up just yet.

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.

What a day. What an absolutely fantastic day.

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 🥇.

Yes, getting close. Personally I'd consider London to be out best up to now - 6 medals including a gold - as the medals were won by six different people across three sports. So seven medals including the gold we have already won, or six medals with two golds would surpass it. We've already covered three sports in our medal wins this time as well.
 
It's hard to see us not doing that from here - gold for the lightweights looks more likely than not at this point and Wiffen will likely medal at least once more in these games. So that alone would get us to six including at least 2 golds, with multiple chances to add further to that as well, and hopefully win in a record fourth different sport.
 
The dream scenario would be to better both the total medals from London and the total golds from Atlanta. That remains very possible, but not near as certain as the other target.

Amazing, been watching Daniel coming through for years and it's all come together tonight, and arguably not even in his strongest event. This is what it's all about.🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪

Amazing, been watching Daniel coming through for years and it's all come together tonight, and arguably not even in his strongest event. This is what it's all about.🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪

Definitely not diminished - as I said, it's looking like a massive overachievement at this point. As ever there are some concerns about some of the scoring in Paris but for the most part our defeats have been deserved, we've just been outboxed.
 
Would hope we can get two more into QFs - hopefully O'Rourke + one more, and then hopefully push through for two medals from there. 

Great bit of front foot boxing from Marley. The boxing team needed that. I watched his next opponent in the fight after and he'll have it tough to win a medal, but you never know.
 
McSharry outstanding again tonight. Before the Olympics started I made a list of what I thought were our 30 or chances of a medal from near certs to ones that would have a chance if everything went their way. I didn't have Mona on it and she could end up winning our first medal.

Big win over Japan, first Top 8 finish of the games in the bag already.
 
I know the reasons why it's happened this time, but having two of the three men's sevens days taking place before the opening ceremony feels a bit harsh on the players, with 8 of the 12 sides going to be out of medal contention by tomorrow night.
 
Hopefully in future there is no more than one day of sevens before the official start of the games. I don't mind having early rounds of events taking place at this stage, but effectively knocking out almost 100 of the games competitors before the games themselves officially start doesn't sit right with me.

Big win over Japan, first Top 8 finish of the games in the bag already.
 
I know the reasons why it's happened this time, but having two of the three men's sevens days taking place before the opening ceremony feels a bit harsh on the players, with 8 of the 12 sides going to be out of medal contention by tomorrow night.
 
Hopefully in future there is no more than one day of sevens before the official start of the games. I don't mind having early rounds of events taking place at this stage, but effectively knocking out almost 100 of the games competitors before the games themselves officially start doesn't sit right with me.

Team Ireland is ready to kick-off action at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and we would like to welcome all members of the Team Ireland Club to gather here to discuss, react and hopefully celebrate together as all the live action unfolds.
 
This thread will serve as the main thread for the Team Ireland Club throughout the Paris 2024 Olympics.
 
Let the Games begin.... come on Ireland!!   

Since our first day of Irish in action gets underway tomorrow, I’m going to open our Paris 2024 Daily Diary thread in the Ireland Club later today.
That thread will serve as our main place to discuss all the daily Olympic news, results, reaction to events as they happen.

Great work Ogreman, 133 was spot on more than two months out, and the individual sport predictions weren't far off either. The out of the blue one was the fourth canoe slalom qualifier, but it brought the total number nicely into line with the prediction.
 
Looking forward to your next spreadsheet telling us how many medals we're going to win!

Was last week. They were in the country and the others weren’t 

Not sure if you saw it but I opened a thread with the Irish-specific schedule here:
 
 

Great run from Adeleke, obviously none of the other genuine medal contenders for Paris were in the race, but shill she's running exactly the kind of times you'd want her to be running at this point.
 
Regarding Mageean, I'm genuinely delighted she went out and got her European gold medal a few weeks ago. She's way off it right now and I can't see her contending in Paris. But looking at the times others are running, obviously Kipyegon and now Jessica Hull too, along with a number of others, even if Mageean was at her best I wouldn't see her winning an Olympic medal. On current form she may well not make the final - there's likely an issue there we haven't been told about.

Most likely yes, I wouldn't read too much into the amount of runners named, they were always going to fill up any vacant spots they had. It doesn't mean they'll all run in heats, but the ones that do run always talk about the assistance they get from the wider team so good to have them there and competing for any opening that might come their way.
 
I think Adeleke will definitely run the women's relay final if we're in it and she's fit. No reason not to at that point as the individual has been an gone by then. The big question is whether she'd run the mixed final if we get through. I think Mawdsley will run everything as the relays are her only medal shots and probably her only shots at a final too. We'll need her badly in the two relay heats as Adeleke definitely won't be running those.

Olympic quota for  Mark English in the men’s 800m!!
 
@mpjmcevoy @Cosmo Kramer@Oldira@dodge @OlympicIRL