With the Olympic opening ceremony just over 4 days away we take a look at the Irish contingent who are competing in London Arguably the biggest sporting event in the World, few gatherings evoke as much excitement as these historic games.
Sixty-five of our athletes are currently preparing for the biggest event of their lives, priorto the opening ceremony on Friday. Irish athletes will be participating in a wide range of sports including track and road events, boxing, canoeing, gymnastics and triathlon (and many more). The country will be right behind all of our Olympians in the hope that we can build on our 23 Olympic medals, which have amassed from the performances of Irish sporting legends such as Ronnie Delany, Michael Carruth, John Treacy and Sonia O Sullivan (and plenty of others), since our Olympic debut in 1924. As the games are “next door” to us, support should be better than ever before for our athletes.With the eyes of billions of viewers watching, it will not be an easy task but no our athletes will give their all. Lisa Kearney is our first athlete competing in Judo (48kg class) at 9 30 on July 28th.
10 To Watch In London
Katie Taylor (Boxing)
Paddy Barnes (Boxing)
John Joe Nevin (Boxing)
Robert Heffernan (Athletics, racewalk)
Olive Loughnane (Athletics, racewalk)
Peter O’Leary & David Burrows (Sailing)
Annalise Murphy (Sailing)
Eoin Rheinisch (Canoeing)
Billy Twomey (Show jumping)
Aileen Morrisson (Triathlon)
Of course, there is so much more to the games than just our own athletes as the world’s finest athletes come together. There will be 204 countries being represented at this year’s games and there will be a huge media and fan-focus on names such as Usain Bolt, Jessica Ennis, Oscar Pistorius, Roger Federer, Michael Phelps and the Brazilian and Great Britain football teams to name but a few. This year could prove to be the greatest Olympics yet and there is sure to be excitement, drama, broken records and sheer entertainment.
We will be following the Irish team closely over the course of the games so keep an eye out for our updates. We wish the team and supporting staff the very best of luck over the next few weeks, there is no doubt you will do us all proud!
