Paul Kimmage: A journey inside the toxic world of Irish rowing and the true cost of Olympic medals

Appletart Upsetter

https://share.google/v6qoA1b2oi0rrngNd

I don't have access to this but it looks pretty dramatic. Does anyone have further details they can share?

80sDiesel

https://archive.ph/2025.11.09-075737/https://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/paul-kimmage-a-journey-inside-the-toxic-world-of-irish-rowing-and-the-true-cost-of-olympic-medals/a393086728.html

Appletart Upsetter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123974270#Comment_123974270

Thank you for that.

Absolutely shocking treatment of various athletes, particularly Monika Dukarska.

almostover

Very interesting article and it seems like the achievements in Olympic Rowing of the last few years have come at the expense of bullying some of the athletes. It's a shocking read.

I live very close to the national rowing centre and walk along the riverside near there frequently. It gives me a moment to reflect on an incident I witnessed there before of a rower screaming expletives at a coach. I brushed it aside as someone just losing their cool and it may be unrelated to what's written in the article. But either way it seems like staff and rowers alike were bullied in the high performace director's regime.

retalivity

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123974494#Comment_123974494

It sounds like the success came in spite of the coaching, not just at the expense of others. The Italians seem like a bunch of High Performance Tossers.

StevenToast

Enter the toxic mind of Paul Kimmage....

Appletart Upsetter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123974950#Comment_123974950

I think the evidence outlined in the piece speaks for itself.

That said, I'd consider Paul Kimmage the finest sports journalist this country has produced.

Working class heroes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123974950#Comment_123974950

Are you saying he made it up?

fits

I read the whole thing. I’m not sure the article is getting across the issue fully. Like it sounds like th HP director was an asshole and the athletes were t listened to but not much more. But the format in the link above is all mixed up so I dunno if I got everything. The story with The o Donovan mum wasn’t really concluded in link above.

fits

I just looked at it on BorrowBox and the story continues next week. Recommend reading it in there rather than the archive link above.

Working class heroes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123976034#Comment_123976034

what’s BorrowBox?

fits

library services app. You can read newspapers on there.

MojoMaker

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123974950#Comment_123974950

Cheers Phelim 👍️

breezy1985

Reads very similar to the bullying scandal involving Shane Sutton and British track cycling. That one had added doping though so was far more serious.

It's a sad read but not that shocking in sport and certainly doesn't live up to the Independents as usual over the top description as "One of the greatest scandals in the history of Irish sport"

cheese sandwich

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123976784#Comment_123976784

Yeah agreed. It’s also really badly written - like a lot of Kimmage’s articles, there’s loads of details like contents of emails etc. but little summary or analysis of what the core allegations are. So it’s hard to follow the throughline of the piece, if there even is one. At his best Kimmage can be excellent, but a lot of his articles basically involve throwing a load of mud at the wall and hoping some of it sticks

jackal

I really hope there is more to this to justify the headline. What I’m seeing is shouty, results driven HP coach helps Ireland win a bag load of medals while treating some athletes like ****. It’s not a kids summer camp with participation trophies he is running like. I know little about rowing but it’s very much you can do it or can’t, if you are injured or not up to it you are not going to finesse your way to a result.

MojoMaker

You missed the bit about how the athletes were already winning medals without the need to be shouted at like children and made to feel belittled.

Of course in the minds of many Italian men, a woman's role is in the kitchen, making meals for the menfolk, so that fits.

And a confident woman who expresses an opinion or takes a stand has to be put back in her box very quickly.

Not a hope Paul O'Donovan was treated this way.

dastardly00

I'm guessing that the bit at the start about O'Donovan's mother will be addressed in the second part of the story this Sunday. And that then will give the story more gravitas towards being "One of the greatest scandals in the history of Irish sport". 🤷‍♂️

Dr Turk Turkelton

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123977479#Comment_123977479

I could have wrote this post myself.

Hopefully this week's article elaborates more because it's reading like an Italian man was mean to us and because of it we won loads of medals.

top floor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123987707#Comment_123987707

But according to the article these athletes were winning the medals before the arrival of the Italian man?

Working class heroes

Anyone got a link to the second part that’s not paywalled?

fits

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123997920#Comment_123997920

you can get it in BorrowBox if you are a library member.