Disasters in Irish sport

lt_cmdr_worf

Seeing as Ireland are coming back from another Olympics empty-handed, it brings up this question for me: what is the biggest disaster in Irish sport, be it soccer, rugby, swimming etc, you can remember?

Mine is Sonia O'Sullivan pulling out of the 5000m final in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dgxEct0B6Y

mike65

You are being rather previous, no?

Mike.

damnyanks

Irelands performance in the last rugby world cup.

Zaph

Three of our five boxers are in the quarter finals (same as Russia incidentally, who had boxers in all 11 weight divisions) and I wouldn't bet against at least one of them making the semis and picking up a medal.

Jello

damnyanks wrote: »

Irelands performance in the last rugby world cup.

Would have to go with this.

estebancambias

The Ireland vs Cyprus match was pretty horrible....

Actually for a 'sports mad' country what the hell are we doing?

I think I read somewhere we have the sports faclities of a third world country.

newballsplease

michelle smith being stripped of her medals.
steve stauntons reign as manager.
ireland v cyprus.
ireland v macedonia(that year they leveled the match in the last min, think it was euro qualification?)
roy keanes argument with mick mc carthy
again irelands rugby world cup

robinph

newballsplease wrote: »

michelle smith being stripped of her medals.

She wasn't.

But maybe that's your point?

moe_sizlak

estebancambias wrote: »

The Ireland vs Cyprus match was pretty horrible....

Actually for a 'sports mad' country what the hell are we doing?

I think I read somewhere we have the sports faclities of a third world country.

no , thats just the excuse we like the best for winning nothing

Pride Fighter

lt_cmdr_worf wrote: »

Seeing as Ireland are coming back from another Olympics empty-handed, it brings up this question for me: what is the biggest disaster in Irish sport, be it soccer, rugby, swimming etc, you can remember?

Mine is Sonia O'Sullivan pulling out of the 5000m final in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dgxEct0B6Y

I dont know what olympics you are watching, it looks like we are going to get at least 2 medals in the boxing and possibly one in the equestrian.

Nolanger

We will get a medal in the boxing.
As for Ireland being crap - agreed - always makes me laugh that we're supposed to be a sporting country.
But look at India - 1 billion residents and they managed 1 medal so far!

eunified61

lt_cmdr_worf wrote: »

Seeing as Ireland are coming back from another Olympics empty-handed, it brings up this question for me: what is the biggest disaster in Irish sport, be it soccer, rugby, swimming etc, you can remember?

Mine is Sonia O'Sullivan pulling out of the 5000m final in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dgxEct0B6Y

The biggest disaster in Irish sport has to be our failure to promote hurling to the same level as a lot of lesser sports around the world. Hurling could have been worth more to this country than a few oil wells. Imagine how many people could have been making fortunes if hurling had been promoted abroad like soccer was

Nolanger

It's because of that culchie-bogger sport that we haven't yet won an Olympic medal in China when over 70 countries have done so.

gordon_gekko

eunified61 wrote: »

The biggest disaster in Irish sport has to be our failure to promote hurling to the same level as a lot of lesser sports around the world. Hurling could have been worth more to this country than a few oil wells. Imagine how many people could have been making fortunes if hurling had been promoted abroad like soccer was

i dont like hurling and it irritates me some what how hurling folk always assume that everyone loves hurling , never met a hurling fan who didnt trot out the jaded its the fastest and best game in the world

gixerfixer

gordon_gekko wrote: »

i dont like hurling and it irritates me some what how hurling folk always assume that everyone loves hurling , never met a hurling fan who didnt trot out the jaded its the fastest and best game in the world

Couldnt agree more.Spent time living in the states and went to a baseball game.It was more exciting than hurling<<<<<says just how boring a sport it is.

eagle eye

Well you are on the right track although I think hurling is a great sport. The GAA is one of the reasons we don't have that much success in Athletics and other sports.

I think the best thing that could happen here is something similar to Australia where you try out sports every year as a kid. You move on if its clear that you don't like and are not successful at whatever sport you are currently involved in. If someone shows talent in a particular sport they are sent to a national coaching centre where if they succeed and like it they are trained correctly for that sport.

moe_sizlak

the reason we do so poorly at olympic events is not down to out population or our facilities , its because of the GAA , the gaa is all consuming in this country and the majority of people who have sporting talent get hoovered up by it at a young age , those who dont are mainly in dublin and other citys and they usually end up in soccer followed by rugby , this leaves very few for the likes of track and field
the gaa is like no ther sporting org in the world , its a bigger force in this country than the catholic church in 2008

ps . i think the gaa is great

ZiggyStardust

Nolanger wrote: »

always makes me laugh that we're supposed to be a sporting country.

I meant to ask this before, but where did this myth come from that Ireland is a sporting nation? I don't get it.
We have never dominated any sport in the world EVER. We have had a few great results in sport (Kelly, Roche, O'Sullivan, Coghlan, Mcguigan, Harrington etc), but I'd never say we were the dominant force in any sport/event. Maybe with the exception of O'sullivan.

I think what you mean is that we love supporting our hero's on the World stage. Using the Italia 90/USA 94 example, but as far as competing we were never a power in sport.

Now the olympics is on you expect us to win a bag full of medals?

This topic has been talked about in another thread which was closed. There is no point in talking about it again.

Pherekydes

Worst disaster in Irish sport?

The Irish government.

thirdmantackle

baseball game? you're kidding. packaged to sell beer and hotdogs

sports funding in ireland is a joke

more money spent on prizes for horse racing than on all the other sports

eagle eye

ZiggyStardust wrote: »

I meant to ask this before, but where did this myth come from that Ireland is a sporting nation? I don't get it.
We have never dominated any sport in the world EVER. We have had a few great results in sport (Kelly, Roche, O'Sullivan, Coghlan, Mcguigan, Harrington etc), but I'd never say we were the dominant force in any sport/event. Maybe with the exception of O'sullivan.

I think what you mean is that we love supporting our hero's on the World stage. Using the Italia 90/USA 94 example, but as far as competing we were never a power in sport.

Now the olympics is on you expect us to win a bag full of medals?

This topic has been talked about in another thread which was closed. There is no point in talking about it again.

How come nobody ever mentions John Treacy among the athletes? Two World Cross County titles and an Olympic silver in the Marathon.
Also we owned the mile at Indoor Athletics for a long time. Coughlan was the King of the boards and then Marcus O'Sullivan took over from him.

KJ_2008

ZiggyStardust wrote: »

I meant to ask this before, but where did this myth come from that Ireland is a sporting nation? I don't get it.
We have never dominated any sport in the world EVER.

Do you have to dominate sports to be regarded as a fairly useful sporting nation? News to me.

PS When we're talking about Irish sporting greats can we not insult the genuine articles by including Michelle Smith and Stephen Roche?

donegal11

thirdmantackle wrote: »

sports funding in ireland is a joke

more money spent on prizes for horse racing than on all the other sports

The reason is there is no appetite for track and field events in this country use the television coverage/ratings for athletics as an example in comparison to the gaa and horse racing.After such a dissappointing olympics there will be even less support from the general public how can you justify spending tax payers money on a bunch of no hopers.

The argument that the gaa is taking people away from other sports is a bit of a red herring.if we didnt have the gaa would we have a bunch of world class Athletes taken from our recent results from international rules i dont think so.(the only benchmark we have of international standard).The gaa then could put up the same argument that sports such as rugby and soccer were taking there best athletes

thirtyfoot

donegal11 wrote: »

justify spending tax payers money

donegal11 wrote: »

red herring

Using words like no-hopers and wasting tax payers money gets peoples back up and possibly shows a poor understanding of elite sports' requirements in the country. Grants are small and not going to break the economy, 13-15k a year on average per athlete.

If you want to be tabloid you could take 56 single mothers who are not working or who have never worked* and they will have "wasted" more of the tax-payers money than the wasters out in Beijing. Are you au fait with the funding structures in sport in Ireland.

*Not saying single mother shouldn't get money and olympic athletes should, just using as an example.

moe_sizlak

donegal11 wrote: »

The reason is there is no appetite for track and field events in this country use the television coverage/ratings for athletics as an example in comparison to the gaa and horse racing.After such a dissappointing olympics there will be even less support from the general public how can you justify spending tax payers money on a bunch of no hopers.

The argument that the gaa is taking people away from other sports is a bit of a red herring.if we didnt have the gaa would we have a bunch of world class Athletes taken from our recent results from international rules i dont think so.(the only benchmark we have of international standard).The gaa then could put up the same argument that sports such as rugby and soccer were taking there best athletes

i praised the gaa but its a stone cold fact that the gaa is a behomoth in terms of sporting dominance in this country
it drains the resources of every sport , soccer is extremly popular in terms of viewing figures on tv in this country but outside dublin , a young boy aged 11 is far far more likely to be playing gaelic football in cavan or hurling in tipperary than soccer

Pherekydes

donegal11 wrote: »

The argument that the gaa is taking people away from other sports is a bit of a red herring.

It's very obviously not. Great athletes choose the sport they like best, and for many this means choosing a team sport over an individual sport. There are many examples, too.

Gary Halpin holds the national junior record in the Hammer, but his main sport was rugby.

Victor Costello broke the Irish record in the Shot and represented us in the '92 Olympics at a fairly young age, but he then concentrated entirely on Rugby.

Brendan Mullin held the record in the 110m Hurdles, but spent most of his adult sporting career scoring tries for Ireland.

Michael Kiernan won the national 200m crown, but he broke scoring records for Ireland.

There must be hundreds of young boys and girls who decided to choose their team sport over Athletics at a much younger age, before they get to national level.

So team sports DO take athletes from individual sports and Athletics suffers most in this regard because of the transferability of skills.

eagle eye

donegal11 wrote: »

The reason is there is no appetite for track and field events in this country use the television coverage/ratings for athletics as an example in comparison to the gaa and horse racing.After such a dissappointing olympics there will be even less support from the general public how can you justify spending tax payers money on a bunch of no hopers.

The argument that the gaa is taking people away from other sports is a bit of a red herring.if we didnt have the gaa would we have a bunch of world class Athletes taken from our recent results from international rules i dont think so.(the only benchmark we have of international standard).The gaa then could put up the same argument that sports such as rugby and soccer were taking there best athletes

Well I can tell you for certain that two young athletes who were very promising eventually gave in to pressure from their families to play gaa and both ended with long term injuries, the third best athlete of this group of athletes ended up representing Ireland on the International stage including the World Championship.
Theres been a lot of top class athletic talent that ended up crocked from gaa. As for that compromise rules game, you have to remember that its professionals against amateurs.
Irish athletes competing at the Olympics are trained to a much higher standard than Gaa players. So just because the Gaa lose to a bunch of professional athletes from Australia, it doesn't follow on that we cannot make it at other sports.

thirdmantackle

no point giving grants to a few elite athletes when 95% of the country have no access to good swimming pools, we've no proper indoor running track, no indoor cycling track, very few decent outdoor running tracks, crap facilities for rowing and boxing clubs

provision of facilities and introduction of children to sport is left to all the sporting organisations rather than being done in the schools

Dodge

lt_cmdr_worf wrote: »

Seeing as Ireland are coming back from another Olympics empty-handed

Can we close the thread now?

robinph

Not empty handed at all, bronze guaranteed now.

Sparks

Pherekydes wrote: »

Worst disaster in Irish sport?
The Irish government.

Amen to that. €50 million for the entire capital spending of all Irish sports in an olympic year? Padraig Harrington will earn enough from the British Open win to pay for that without effort. Hell, he'll earn enough from the British Open win (prize money+endorsements+all the rest) to pay for the entire budget spent on Irish sport in the last four years. And the money that is going to the rest of Irish sport for capital spending is not permitted to be spent on buying land on which to conduct sport. The single most expensive part of any sports club is the ground it stands on, and to even qualify for further financial aid from the Sports Council, you have to already own that or have a 20-year lease on it. So if you're not established, you're stuffed. Want to know why you're seeing only a few medals? That's why.

(And the GAA don't hoover up young talent - they get a lot of young talent coming to them because in most of the country, they're the only organised sport with facilities in the local area and coaching and any kind of structure. When and where other sports invest in facilities and coaching and so on, they clean up as well - look at the junior and schools programs in Archery or Target Shooting. But when you can't get help to set up facilities, and there's no funding for facilities coming down the line, how can you chase after young talent for your sport?)