Lack of facilities limiting local impact from Paris Olympics

By Orlaith Delaney

Ireland’s achievements at the Paris Olympics have rightly been praised: seven medals, four golds and three bronze, with a total of 26 top-10 finishes. With the Paralympics set to kick off on August 28, that Olympic tally may be further increased.

The coverage of the Olympics combined with Ireland’s outstanding achievements have inspired many, both young and old, to take up a new sport they may not have considered before.

Youngsters who want to get more involved in swimming or athletics would be well served by the Athlone Regional Sports Centre, which has a 25-metre pool, while the Athlone Institute of Technology has 400-metre tartan and 200-metre indoor running tracks.

However, those now looking to get involved in a local club may find themselves on a waiting list.

According to Patricia Cleary of Athlone Swimming Club, and former president of Swim Ireland, the club is “more or less full”, so they would not be able to accommodate any new swimming enthusiasts.

“We are choc-a-bloc at the moment”, with no more times available in the pool for more lessons for potential new members, and no more coaches available to take on additional classes.

The club has a connection with Mona McSharry through her uncle, Ray McSharry of McSharry’s Pharmacy. Mona visited the club in 2022, giving a poolside demonstration and coaching session to its elite swimmers.

Cleary said the elite swimmers from the Athlone club would also have met both Mona and Daniel Wiffen at swim meets in Dublin. Patricia has also met Wiffen, describing him as “a very personable guy. How he is on TV is how he is in real life.”

Cleary said while the increase in interest in swimming due to Mona and Daniel’s successes is very positive, going forward, Athlone would need another pool to accommodate everyone.

“There are nearly a thousand houses going up around Athlone. Where will all those families get swimming lessons?”

And the tendering, planning and construction of any new facilities will take time. The Athlone Swimming Club, according to its website, is “dedicated to the promotion and encouragement of competitive swimming in an enjoyable and motivating atmosphere.” It provides training on indoor swimming as well as open-water events. Ireland currently only has four public Olympic-sized swimming pools in operation: one each at the National Aquatic Centre, University College Dublin, University of Limerick, and Bangor Aurora Aquatic Centre. There is another 50-metre pool in storage in Cork awaiting funding for its installment.

For Irish swimmers in other parts of the country who want or need to train in an Olympic-standard pool, they are forced to factor in long journeys before their training sessions.

One major legacy of the Olympic Games is the exposure it gives to sports that generally do not get a lot of coverage year-round, such as rowing.

According to Paul Donovan, president of the Athlone Boat Club, the impact of the success of Irish rowers at the Olympics has been noted by the club since Paul and Gary O’Donovan won silver in the Rio Olympics in 2016.

The club has seen extra interest again in the wake of the Paris Games, but it also has a waiting list for new members.

“We are always high in numbers because Athlone has a strong history in rowing.”

“We have had seven people from the club represent Ireland over the past year.” This includes the World Championships and European championships like the Home International and the Coup de la Jeunesse.

The waiting list is in large part due to the fact that, unlike with GAA or field games where a large group can go out together for training, with rowing there are “only a certain number of boats and coaches available”.

In addition, dropout rates are low, with most club members staying involved until they go to college.

Rowing “has always been a minority sport”, said Donovan, but the Olympics have increased the numbers who are getting to see the sport on TV, with Irish rowers winning medals increasing exposure for the sport.

Donovan hopes this coverage will continue for the World Championships, which are currently taking place in Canada until August 25, and at which the club is well represented. The Claffey brothers, Donagh and Riain, are competing in separate teams while Fergie Hannon is acting as part of the coaching team for Ireland’s U19 team.

Such minority sports can now often be streamed online, increasing coverage for them, and this feature will be available for the World Championships as well.

Donovan commended locals for their donations to the club, allowing them to invest in equipment, and also praised Rowing Ireland and Sports Ireland for the support they provided over the years.

The success of Team Ireland at the Paris Games is indicative of the investment Sports Ireland and the Olympic Federation of Ireland have been making for each Games cycle since Rio. But when athletes are in contention for Olympic medals, most of the hard work has already been done.

A consistent message by the pundits providing commentary on RTÉ’s coverage of the Games, including past Olympic medallists like Sonia O’Sullivan, was that investment in sporting talent needs to happen at an early stage.

More funding also needs to go towards providing facilities, coaching, and support in terms of conditioning, mental health and treatment for injuries so that athletes can perform to the best of their abilities.

As Team Ireland arrived home with their haul of medals from the Paris Games, Ireland’s Minister for Sport, Thomas Byrne, announced funding of over half a billion euros for athletes and facilities ahead of the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.

This would include €400 million for world-standard facilities, such as the new national velodrome and badminton centre that will be located at the Sports Ireland Campus in Dublin, as well as a national cricket stadium, all also “minority sports”.

It would also include €120 million for high-performance sports, which covers the non and semi-professional athletes that make up most of Ireland’s Olympic team.

As Minister Byrne announced the approval of the national cricket stadium, he said: “Continued Government investment is essential to increasing participation levels in all sports, across all sectors of society. We understand that in order to achieve our participation targets, we must provide world-class sporting facilities for our athletes.”

The cricket stadium will be used to prepare Irish cricketers for the 2028 Olympic Games, which will once again include the sport on its agenda. The stadium will also be used during the 2030 T20 Cricket World Cup, which will be co-hosted by Ireland, Scotland and England.

The new programme for spending under the sports capital programme will be formally announced in September. Many local clubs, already running at capacity, will be hoping to be recipients of funding so that they can welcome new members while memories of Paris remain fresh.