FOLLOWING on from a stellar performance at the Paris Olympics over the last fortnight, Team Ireland were able to see just how much support they had from their fans back home.
Dublin County Council held a civic homecoming for the Irish athletes outside the GPO on O’Connell Street in Dublin for Team Ireland on Monday so tens of thousands of fans throughout the city could show their support after the country’s largest Olympic medal haul.
Taoiseach Simon Harris expressed the wish that success in Paris would inspire a new generation of sporting stars.
He said that the team had “lit a flame in so many little tiny kids” around the country, who now “believe they too can be the very best in the world” thanks to their performances in Paris.
“They can represent Ireland, they can win medals,” he said.
One of the biggest cheers of the afternoon was reserved for Olympic boxing champion Kellie Harrington, who entered the stage along with the Irish boxing team to the waving of tricolours and shouts from the crowd.
“Kellie, Kellie, Kellie,” they chanted.
She called for the boxing coaches to come up on the stage and join the athletes saying, “I think it’s only fair we have our coaches up here.”
On winning her second gold medal in a row, she said: ”It hasn’t actually sunk in yet, but it’s the stuff of dreams to be honest with you.
”I think it’ll only be in a few weeks when I actually sit down and have time on my own to think back over the last 20 years…I’m just looking forward to having that time to myself…to see how far we’ve come.”
She added: “I never underestimate anybody, and I always expect the worst when you’re stepping in there and I tried to take the pressure off myself by expecting the worst.
“I wasn’t worried. I wasn’t fearful. Sometimes the fear of losing can be greater than the joy of winning and I didn’t let that happen.
“I just went out there to enjoy myself, and all I wanted was to be happy.
“That is genuinely all I wanted, was to just be happy and I’ve never been as happy boxing as I have been out there when I’ve been boxing.”
The Portland Row fighter confirmed after her fight that she had thrown her last punch in the ring but the question still managed to rear its head at the homecoming, with Ireland seemingly slightly unwilling to let one of their most successful boxers go gently into that good night.
She said: “I think that’s because I knew this is it now, like this is the last leg of the journey, and after this, I’m finished. I’m done. I’m dusted. So let’s just enjoy it.”
“We are a small nation, but we are a mighty nation,” Harrington told the crowd, to a large applause.
Olympic champion swimmer Daniel Wiffen told the crowd: “I’m a dual sport Olympian now so that’s pretty cool,” referring to his decision to swim in the 10K open-water event having already won gold in the 800m and bronze in the 1500m in the pool in Paris.
The Magheralin swimmer missed out on carrying the tricolour for Ireland during the closing ceremony on Sunday night after being rushed to hospital due to a bug.
”I’m okay now, I was a bit ill,” he said, thanking the crowd.
“I definitely felt the whole country backing me going into it. You always feel those nerves but go in knowing everyone back home is backing you.
”I backed myself day and night and that is what I did.
”We train 26-30 hours a week, it’s a bit of a crazy schedule but it’s all worth it when you come home with a medal.”
He predicted that he and his twin brother Nathan would win gold and silver in the same event at the 2028 games in Los Angeles.
He was joined on stage by Olympic pommel horse gold medalist Rhys McClenaghan and rowing bronze medallists Daire Lynch and Philip Doyle.
‘I’m always very focused. Paris was just another training session, that was how I had to trick my mind’ – Olympic champion Rhys McClenaghan on getting his hands on gold pic.twitter.com/qHkH1svC8H
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) August 12, 2024
McClenaghan spoke about the dismount after final routine and the outpouring of emotion following his gold medal-winning performance.
“I didn’t know I immediately pulled it off, that was one of the best pommel horse finals I have seen, and I’ve seen them all,” said the Newtownards native.
“When I landed that dismount, that was just me celebrating what I had done and I was proud of what I had accomplished in that moment.
“I didn’t care about the scores, didn’t care about the podium finish, I was thinking I had done my job and I am proud of myself for that.”
The crowd were also teased with the prospect of a new team of Irish athletes coming together for the next games after Fintan McCarthy hinted that he and fellow gold medallist Paul O’Donovan could team up with men’s double sculls bronze medallists Philip Doyle and Daire Lynch.
“We might have to give it a go (in 2028). We’ll see what these lads (looking at Doyle and Lynch) are doing. We might join forces, we’ll see,” said the Lightweight Double Sculls champion.
Weight classes are set to be eliminated from the Olympic rowing program after the Paris Olympics so that will reduce the amount of medals on offer in the sport in the games in the future.
However, for now, most of the athletes will take a well-earned, well-needed break, however, Paul O’Donovan was back to work with Cork University Hospital already and training.
