Irelands most likely Olympic 2012 Medals

• In terms of the sports in the London Olympic program, in most sports Ireland in the past has qualified an individual or team. Exceptions are table tennis, taekwondo, volleyball, beach volleyball, hockey, and handball. As things stand hockey is the only one of these sports that could make history and qualify its first ever representatives. Even better if we could manage both men’s and women’s hockey teams, but if either were to qualify it would make history.

• In terms of athletics, the pole vault is unique among the other track and field events in that it is the only event on the London 2012 athletics program in which Ireland has never before had a representative, male or female (women’s pole vault only introduced in Sydney 2000). This record may well be put well and truly to bed if Tori Pena can add 5cm to her Irish record over the next few months. As it stands she has the B-standard of 4.40m in the bag but needs to hit the A-standard of 4.50m to be certain of her place in London. She recently set a P.B. indoors of 4.45m so all the signs are pointing towards her achieving the A-standard by the end of the qualifying period (8th July 2012).

• Other events in which we have never sent an Irish athlete to the Olympic Games are the women’s high jump, women’s long jump, women’s triple jump, women’s shot put, women’s javelin and the women’s 4x100m relay. Out of these events, Deirdre Ryan has ensured that if she remains fit and healthy then we will have our first ever representative in the women’s high jump. She achieved the Olympic A-standard at the World Championships in Daegu last summer, where she cleared 1.95m to break her own Irish record enroute to finishing in 6th place, a magnificent result. Kelly Proper has an outside chance of becoming Ireland’s first ever female long jumper at the Olympic Games, but her form over the past 12 months has not been encouraging and she would need to jump 6.75m, 15cm further than she has ever jumped before to book her place in London. The other events are likely to remain as ducks on our Olympic stats, despite the women’s 4x100m relay squad initially looking reasonably well placed to make a push for qualification (top 16 international teams). Injuries and a bit of bad luck have dealt a blow to their chances of qualification.

• Staying with the sport of athletics, Ireland has a proud tradition in the men’s marathon, culminating in John Treacy’s incredible silver medal at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. It is also the event where we have been most successful in entering athletes for Olympic competition, and on no less than 6 occasions Ireland has sent a full quota of 3 athletes to take to the streets in the men’s Olympic marathon (1960, 1972, 1976, 1984, 1988 and 1992). Since then, our fortunes have dipped significantly with only one qualifier after 1992 (Martin Fagan qualified for Beijing but did not finish the Olympic marathon). However, recently our fortunes have improved with the qualification of Mark Kenneally and others knocking on the door of joining him in London.
• Other events where we have entered a full quota of 3 athletes for a single track and field event include the men’s 1500m (1984, 1996), men’s 5,000m (1980, 1988, 1992) and the sole women’s event to fall into this category is the women’s 5,000m when in both 1996 and in 2000 Ireland qualified the maximum quota of 3 athletes for the event.

• In 2012, there are a few events that could have 3 Irish competitors for the first time in history: the most likely candidate is the men's 50km walk which has seen two qualifed so far and at least another 2 or 3 capable of getting close to that Olympic A-standard to ensure that we will have 3 Irishmen take to the startline in London; the women’s marathon has already seen 2 Irish athletes qualify for London with the addition of a third a distinct possibility. The women’s 3,000m steeplechase may well see Ireland qualify 3 athletes with 2 qualifiers already and Beijing Olympic finalist Roisin McGettigan returning to the athletics scene this year could ensure a 3rd qualifier. However, Fionnuala Britton has suggested that she will opt instead to qualify for the women’s 5,000m and 10,000m in order to race in these events come London instead of competing in the steeplechase for which she has qualified. The men's 200m, although unlikely, could also see 3 Irish competitors in London (Hession, Colvert and Smyth all possible qualifiers).

• Ireland has never had more female track and field athletes than their male counterparts at a single Olympic Games. This may be another first in London as currently there are 7 women qualified as opposed to 6 men and with the women’s 4x400m relay squad looking likely to book their spot in London, there could well be a bigger number of women than men for the first time ever. In Beijing in 2008 Ireland sent an equal proportion of 8 men and 8 women for the athletics events, which was the first time there was parity amongst the sexes.

• Another event that will see surely see an Irish competitor in for the first time is in women’s boxing. As London will be the first Olympics in which women’s boxing is part of the itinerary it means that any qualifiers for women’s boxing will be sure to make Olympic history. However, one must caution that our star hope Katie Taylor has not qualified yet and she will have an opportunity to book her Olympic spot at the World Championships in China in May. It will be a daunting task as there are only a handful of quota places available in each of the women’s categories, but it is a task that Katie should be more than capable of dealing with.

• Two young women, Lisa Kearney and Natalya Coyle, will also be gunning to achieve firsts in their respective sports by qualifying for the Olympics in London in judo and modern pentathlon. Lisa Kearney competes in the lightest women’s category in judo (-48kg) and is on course for qualification, the first time that an Irish female judoka will have taken part in the Olympics. Natalya Coyle is improving all the time and this young pentathlete is in with a very good chance of qualifying for the Olympics and this would also be the first time that Ireland would be represented in the women’s event.

• Chris Bryan may also become Ireland's first competitor in the open-water swimming at the Olympics as he is performing strongly in the World Cup series and will have a chance to secure his place in London this summer at a final qualifying event in Portugal.

• Long jumper Kelly Proper jumps a season's best 6.34m at the National Indoors in Belfast.
• Joanne Cuddihy gets 2012 off to a flying start by posting an impressive time of 52.08secs outdoors at the Perth Track Classic down under. This is very encouraging for so early on in the year and it looks like she will have no bother in achieving the A standard of 51.50secs for Olympic selection. Even better, it looks as though she is returning to her best form which is also good for the women's 4x400m relay.
• Ben Reynolds sets a new Irish U23 record of 7.75secs in the 60m Hurdles at the National Indoors. This means that he is in tip-top shape and could challenge for an Olympic standard outdoors over the 110m Hurdles. His P.B. from last year is 13.75secs and needs to get down to 13.52secs for the A-standard. But this looks a distinct possibility given his good progression over the 60m Hurdles and this should translate also over the 110m Hurdles outdoors. Exciting talent he is.
• Amy Foster has run a series of P.B.s in the 60m this season and is within 0.02secs of reaching the World Indoor qualifying standard. This bodes well for the rest of the season. It will be still a tough ask for her to push on to an Olympic A-standard but she is putting herself in the frame to give it a real crack. Her best chance at getting the standard will probably be the 200m.

• In terms of the volume of Irish competitors, Atlanta 1996 remains the benchmark with a total of 78 Irish Olympians that year.
• Sydney 2000 saw the record number of Irish female Olympians with 24. However it appears as though that record will be under serious threat this year with 10 already qualified and with a possible women's relay team in both swimming and athletics as well as other qualifiers in dressage, eventing, badminton, judo and other athletics disciplines, this years total should exceed the previous record.
• The ratio of men/women in the Irish Olympic team was at its most equal in Sydney 2000 with 40 men/24 women (ratio of 3 women for every 5 men on the team). I think this years ratio will be somewhat similar, perhaps a little more even in terms of distribution.

Sparks wrote: »

Dan, those times are Irish local time, not Finnish time. So 0900 Irish time for Peter and 1245 Irish time for Aisling.

Dodge wrote: »

Irvine finished a fine 8th in London. Polish cyclist was 7th but I'd expect both to go to the Olympics

Dodge wrote: »

http://corkindependent.com/stories/item/7457/2012-7/O%25E2%2580%2599Leary-plots-course-for-gold

• Ireland has participated in 19 Summer Olympics (first time in Paris 1924) and London 2012 will be the country's 20th appearance at the Games.
• Ireland missed out on the 1936 Berlin Olympics when the O.C.I. chose to boycott the Games in response to a ban on the N.A.C.A.I. (National Athletic and Cycling Association of Ireland). Their ban was centred on the wrangling between the British and Irish delegations over the issue of Irish unity. When the I.A.A.F. ruled that the Irish team should confine themselves to political boundaries and green-lighted the ammalgamation of the English, Scottish, and Northern Ireland AAA's, the N.A.C.A.I. refused to accept this and protested the decision, leading to a ban. The O.C.I. then voted to exclude themselves from the Berlin Games on the back of this debacle.
• As of the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Ireland has been represented by 677 athletes (566 men/111 women).
• Ireland's youngest Olympian to date was Aisling O'Leary, who was just 15 years and 55 days old when she competed in the swimming competition at the Munich Olympics in 1972.
• Ireland's oldest participant to date was Joe McMenamin who was 59 years and 319 days old when he competed at the sailing competition also at the Munich Games in 1972 (excluding art competitions which are not officially counted in the I.O.C. tally).