Why Ireland doesn't win at Olympics
FIGHTING CHANCE: With €30m of funding, our athletes should be bringing home Olympic medals
By Eoghan COrry
Friday August 15 2008

Michael Phelps is going to win as many gold medals in a few days as Ireland has in its entire sporting history.

With that sobering thought we should stop celebrating the progress of every boxer through every preliminary bout of the Olympics as if it was a triumph.

When our losers return from Beijing it is likely that yet another committee will be put in place to prevent more embarrassment for Irish sport.

The recommendations will be the same as the previous committee following the disaster of Athens (one gold medal, which was returned unused) and Sydney (one silver medal).

Funding

Money used to be the primary gripe for our athletes. About €30m of funding was spent on elite athletes during this Olympic cycle.

At a going rate of somewhere between the bargain basement rate of €2.82m per medal enjoyed by Canada or the €3.07m for Australia in the last Olympic cycle, or the €6m per medal spent by Britain, we should be bringing home between five and 10 medals.

But the system we have put in place seems more capable of gobbling up funds than delivering the success that this country might expect.

Like the health service, the more money we spend, the more pointless the exercise seems. Expensive sports like sailing seem to be capable of saddling the whole elite spending project with big bills and a maximum return of what looks like eighth place.

Even our boxers looked incapable of delivering anything until three months ago, and arrived in Beijing with lowly world rankings. Most of them left it very late before qualifying for the games at all.

Our only top-three ranked sports personality, Jessica Kurten, didn't go to the Olympics. Just two of our Beijing team travelled with a top 10 world ranking. Derek Burnett was expected to finish in the top six and finished sixth last. Eileen O'Keeffe, if not injured, would have been delighted with a top 10 place.

Instead of a serious podium prospect for our €30m we are grasping at straws, hoping someone like Eoin Rheinisch or Ken Egan would snatch a medal out of turn from their mid-teens world ranking.

Money doesn't automatically translate in to Olympic medals but it sure helps. You can chart spending on the medals table. Cutbacks in sports spending have sent some of the champions of 20 years ago tumbling in the medals table.

Bounty

Because of our small population we are paying a high Olympic bounty, €7.80 per head of population compared with €1.17 in Canada and €2.54 in Britain but considerably less than the €9.42 per head they spend in Australia.

But it shows; seven days into the games Australia is in sixth place on the medals table, indicating just how irrelevant population is. India, whose population increases by the population of Australia each year, has just won its first-ever gold medal.

Finland and Norway, our nearest equivalent in geographical, economic and population terms, have two medals each and can reasonably expect two more.

Britain is claiming, mainly in their own media, that their programme is delivering good results and indeed they are loitering around the medals table in 10th place. After the disaster of 1996, when they finished behind Ireland for the only time in Olympic history, the British won 28 medals and spent €151m on their athletes for Sydney.

Their Public Accounts Committee moaned in 2006 that "10 sports... won no medals, despite receiving nearly £14m in total," in the tones of a disappointed fund manager. Their spending is to increase in the run up to 2012.

What to do? Other nations can turn to commercial interests to become involved in Olympic preparation projects. That is not an option for us. We have to look to niche sports, which have little commercial appeal, for our potential medals.

Most of the commercial money in Irish sport (as well as a lot of state funding) goes into racing, soccer, rugby, GAA and golf. They are the sports receiving TV coverage and the guys in the corporate marketing departments demand TV coverage.

Trap shooting or even slalom canoeing is never going to be prime time viewing. Knitting has a better chance of making the TV schedules than dressage.

While it is realistic that Eoin Rheinisch can train abroad on slalom courses, the jump up from the courses we have in Ireland to international level will prove a formidable barrier for any young canoeists inspired by his performance last week.

Like the stock market, nobody wants a slow-growth portfolio to deliver an Olympic medal in 12 years time, just a quick return.

Time to raise bar in pursuit of medals
Sunday August 17 2008

Measured against our low expectations of medals, the first full week of the Olympics should probably be declared a qualified success for the Irish Olympic team.

There have been national records and personal best performances in the pool, Ken Egan, Darren Sutherland and Paddy Barnes carry the flag in boxing, Eoin Rheinisch (right) battled his way through to the final of Kayak K1 Slalom, narrowly missing out on a bronze medal to a Togan who has visited his country once, Rob Heffernan came eighth in the 20km walk and Roisin McGettigan eased through to today's final of the 3,000m steeplechase.

It may not be the stuff of dreams, but set against Ireland's performance at the Olympics since 1960 (an average of one medal per games, and that average is somewhat boosted by Michelle Smith's extraordinary performances in Atlanta), this is relative success, Irish style.

It is also what we have been conditioned to expect. A disappointing and acrimonious Sydney was followed by yet more disappointment at Athens where not a single Irish athlete managed to record a personal best.

The message to Irish sports fans and athletes from the Sports Council, the post-Olympic review groups who always wonder why we didn't achieve more and from almost anyone with a well-paid job in sports administration is clear: forget about medals, rejoice in participation. It may be deemed a realistic approach, but it sets the bar too low.

When pressed, they will talk about the 'numbers game' -- Ireland's population is claimed to be too small to produce consistently high-achieving athletes -- and about money, yet there has been no shortage of funds. The evidence shows, however, that a large population is no guarantor of sporting prowess and a relatively small population is no inhibitor.

The Australians are renowned for punching about their population weight on the medals table and the Chinese are showing what happens if you throw vast amounts of money at a large population, but countries with populations not dramatically dissimilar to Ireland (Denmark, New Zealand, Finland) deliver better performances than we manage.

Just as importantly, countries with relatively small populations and far less money than ours deliver better performances. Even at the half-way stage, the disparities are startling: Georgia (population 5.5m: 3 medals so far, 2 gold), Azerbaijan (pop. 8m; 4 medals, one gold), Slovakia ( pop. 5.4m; 4 medals, 3 gold), Cuba (pop. 11.3m; 8 medals, 1 gold), Belarus (pop. 9.6m; 4 medals, 0 gold).

Quibble if you must about the sports in which they win those medals -- judo and Greco-Roman wrestling figure prominently, as does shooting -- but the point is that with limited resources many other countries manage to deliver Olympic champions.

We, in truth, have given up on that. If a boxer manages to win gold for the first time since 1992, put it down to an individual performance of excellence, not the result of 16 years of careful planning.

The bar could, and should, be set much higher. Great Britain, too, had an awful Sydney but it has subsequently transformed its Olympic preparations. Money was better targeted, elite athletes were chosen with care and outstanding coaches were recruited. The results, particularly in swimming, rowing and cycling, are exceptional, and will improve further for the 2012 London Games.

Ireland does not lack the money -- we have spent hundreds of millions of Euro over the past dozen years on sport -- but we still lack the facilities and the focus to deliver champions.

Sporting politics have played a dispiriting (though diminishing) role in holding us back, but the key problem is desire. If we want to win against the best, then we must set our sights higher, and we must focus more ruthlessly on those athletes, and sports, where that success can be achieved.

The goal is not just Olympic gold, but the creation of sporting icons who can inspire Irish children to run, paddle, jump, ride and box, coaxing them off their ever larger backsides and away from the sedentary pursuits of eating, binge drinking and playing video games.

But whenever we despair too much about our medal prospects, it is worth stopping an Indian in the street and commiserating.

Despite a population of one billion (of whom half are under 25), a booming economy and a fanatical sporting culture, India is an Olympic black hole. Last week Abhinav Bindra won his country's first ever individual gold medal.

There is no lack of sporting talent -- India's cricketers are among the best in the world -- just a lack of focus and a sporting administration that Indian writers say is riddled with corruption.

It proves, though, that the numbers game is a sham. The right attitude, a good talent identification programme, well-directed money, well-targeted athletes and a belief in excellence matter far, far more than the size of your population or your wallet.

Women Archers: Streak Ends
China's Zhang Juan Juan humiliated South Korea's women archers as she won a gold medal in the individual competition at the Beijing Olympics Thursday.

The Chinese archer defeated defending Olympic champion Park Sung-hyun of South Korea 110-109 in the final at the Olympic Green Archery Field in Beijing.

Her victory ended South Korea's streak of six straight gold medals in women's individual archery. Before Thursday's debacle, the country had won every possible team and individual women's gold in the sport since the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

Zhang, 27, beat two other Koreans earlier in the day. She defeated Joo Hyun-jung in the quarterfinals and Yun Ok-hee, the No. 1-ranked women in the world, in the semifinals.

In the final, Park, who was seeking her fourth Olympic gold, was one point behind Zhang after the third end.

The defending Olympic champion hit the bull's eye twice in the final end, but it was not enough to deter Zhang, who was surrounded by local fans.

Yun took the bronze medal match 109-106 against Kwon Un-sil of North Korea.

2008-08-18
Some Irish Olympic Perfrormances were quite dismal - Why?
Written by Siasy

If you are not going to perform at the Olympics, then when are you hoping to perform?

This is a question I'd like to put to some Irish athletes and competitors who performed well below and outside their best at these Olympic Games.

Some complain about being too tired - some had the wrong strategy, some just had an off-day.

Doesn't it sound too familiar from the Irish camp?

Would Kilkenny play in an All-Ireland Hurling Quarter Final or Semi-Final and say - we were tired, or had an off day?

Training is meant to peak your performances at games of this level.

But in sports - shooting, rowing, eventing, badminton, athletics - 3000m Steeple chase, 400m hurdles, 100m hurdles, 400m sprint,
the athletes compete against other competitiors who they know they can beat, and have defeated already this year, but the irish are not peaking at these games.

Why is that?
Hearing from Scott Evans that he knows he should have won that first round match, from Michaelle Carey, that her legs were just tired and that she just did not perform on the day, from Burnett in the trap shooting that he has defeated all of the finalists recently, but he failed to qualify, to watch Gillick, Derval O'Rourke, Eileen O'Keeffe, the 2 rowing teams - all performing well below their best - the Irish equestrian eventing team - 8th place before their best event Show-jumping, after show-jumping still in 8th place - out of 11 teams, delighted at being in the top 21.
irish 470 class sailing team, winning 2 of 10 races, but coming 2nd last of 26 boats in other of those 10 races...
It just makes you wonder, what is it about the lack of belief in the psyche of the Irish competitors, that fail to make the grade, when it really matters?

Is reaching the Olympic Games enough and the dream reached for most Irish Athletes. Can Irish people expect no more than that?

Is it another Saipan, where reaching the Finals is enough? And then, sure we're irish we can show the world how to party - but not how to win!

We do fortunately have some exceptions,
Irish boxers, Paul Hession, Irish Swimmers Bree and Noche (Irish records), and Irish canoeist Eoin Rheinisch, and Denis Lynch with Lantinus still in contention in Show-jumping.

We have the square root of F all in terms of sporting infrastructure here.

the GAA ... swallow a huge percentage of young athletes leaving very few to pursue other sports

China spent 46 billion on the Olympics, we couldn't even dream of 1% of that.

Perhaps the media should look to themselves and the unremitting pressure they place on so few shoulders for the sake of a soundbite and a few column inches.