It has been a bountiful summer for Team Ireland at the Paris Olympics 2024. The nation’s high achievers have smashed the games with a record-breaking medal haul. Let’s have a look at the highlights! See all the results on Tonybet!
Ireland’s current seven-medal tally has already eclipsed the previous record of six set at London in 2012, though whispers of double-figure podium appearances for the Irish this year are starting to become more audible on the banks of the River Seine.
Gone is the old Irish inferiority complex and instead, confidence simmers as Ireland’s athletes continue to mix comfortably at elite level in France. What we’re witnessing is the best Irish performance at an Olympics in a century.
Seven medals split between gold (four) and bronze (three) were bagged in rowing, swimming, gymnastics and boxing events, and there are further realistic prospects in athletics and martial arts before the closing ceremony.
Ireland sits 19th in the standings for gold medals won, ahead of nations such as Brazil, whose population of approximately 215 million dwarfs our own. Indeed, Ireland ranked third at the Olympics for gold medals won per capita (one per 1,320,400 people), and it’s worth reminding ourselves just how remarkable it is that we can compete at all.
Paris 2024 – a love story
Having already tasted success in swimming, rowing, boxing and gymnastics, it has been an unforgettable week for Irish Olympians in Paris, and it’s safe to say the whole country has enjoyed the romantic jaunt through the City of Love.
First, let’s have a recap of who has won what so far.
Mona McSharry – Bronze
Women’s 100m Breaststroke
Mona McSharry secured Ireland’s first medal at Paris 2024 last Monday when she won our first-ever medal in a breaststroke event at the Olympics. The 23-year-old touched the wall ahead of her rivals with just 0.01 seconds of wiggle room to make the podium.
After the medal ceremony, McSharry said:
There was a moment on the podium where I started tearing up and it was like ‘Oh sh*t! This is really happening!’
It is unbelievable. It has been a lot of hard work and there has always been a little bit of doubt. Do I really belong on the top? This proves it!
Daniel Wiffen – Gold and Bronze
Men’s 800m Freestyle and 1,500m Freestyle
On Tuesday, Daniel Wiffen was the next Irish swimmer to succeed in the pool when he propelled himself forward late on to win gold in the men’s 800m freestyle event, setting a new Olympic record in the process.
Wiffen was locked in a three-way duel for top billing with opponents from the USA and Italy. However, he surged through the final 100m to make history. Wiffen’s gold was Ireland’s first in Olympic swimming since 1996.
In the aftermath, an emotional Wiffen said:
I’m stuck for words at the moment. It’s an unforgettable experience, I’ll remember this for the rest of my life.
On Sunday, Armagh man Wiffen was back in his lane for the 1,500m men’s freestyle event, where he swam brilliantly again to earn a bronze medal and become the first Irish man ever to win multiple medals at a single Olympics.
Philip Doyle and Daire Lynch – Bronze
Men’s Double Sculls Rowing
On Thursday, dynamic duo Philip Doyle and Daire Lynch took their turn to represent Ireland on the biggest stage when they took bronze in the men’s heavyweight pairs event in the double sculls rowing niche.
Doyle and Lynch became the first ever Irish Olympic medal winners in heavyweight rowing when they finished just behind their Romanian and Dutch counterparts on the Seine.
In an interview back on shore, Lynch spoke about the achievement, saying:
Rowing is one of those sports where you can win all the World Championships and all the World Cups you want, but if you don’t get to an Olympics then nobody cares.
There are only a few sports in the Olympics that are like that, so it puts even more pressure on it.
It’s been a tough week and we’re really happy to come away with some silverware in the end.
Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy – Gold
Men’s Lightweight Double Sculls Rowing
Skibbereen lads Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy stole the show on Friday when they successfully defended their Olympic gold medals in the men’s lightweight double sculls event on the water.
The pair secured gold for Ireland in the same race in Tokyo, though they matched that achievement in Paris to become the first ever Irish athletes to win back-to-back gold medals in the same event. O’Donovan also became a record setter in another direction as the first Irish athlete to win medals at three different Olympic Games.
Rhys McClenaghan – Gold
Men’s Pommel Horse
Current world champion and ‘Prince of the Pommel’ Rhys McClenaghan isn’t one to buckle under pressure, and the 25-year-old delivered a sublime routine on the apparatus in the event’s final on Saturday to grab the gold medal that many expected him to deliver for Ireland.
McClenaghan’s triumph was a first for the Irish in an artistic gymnastics event at the Olympics. The County Down native saw off challenges from Nariman Kurbanov (KAZ) and Stephen Nedoroscik (USA) to win the day, and his success also meant that Ireland had won medals in four different sports at the Olympics for the first time ever.
McClenaghan said after his gold-winning display:
It’s a lifetime of work. It is not just that four years or three years of work, it is a lifetime of work.
Everything I’ve done since I started gymnastics was demonstrated in that 46-second routine that I showed yesterday.
Kellie Harrington – Gold
Women’s 65kg Boxing
Dublin’s Kellie Harrington made history on Tuesday evening when she became the first Irish female athlete to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals when she outfoxed and outboxed China’s Wenlu Yang in the final of the women’s 60kg event.
The official result was a split decision, though the five judges ruled the bout 4-1 in Harrington’s favour after the 32-year-old landed more of her punches with accuracy and style across the three rounds. Harrington hangs up her gloves after Paris, though she has signed off in sensational style.
Speaking after her incredible win, Harrington said: “This is my great team of coaches here and we have Noel over here who is also my coach and one of my best friends and I didn’t think he’d be here today and it is just the best surprise!
It just gives hope to all these young kids, all these teenagers, it gives hope to them.
It gives hope to the people of Ireland – that is what it means! This one was for me!
But things didn’t always run smoothly…
Running alongside the tales of triumph written by Ireland’s medal winners are stories of near-misses, disappointment and heartbreak. It’s the nature of the Olympics and sport in general that some must fail for others to succeed, and Irish hard luck stories have already been prevalent in Paris.
In boxing, medal hopeful Aoife O’Rourke’s Olympic journey ended in controversial fashion when she lost to Poland’s Elżbieta Wójcik on a split decision after some hugely contentious judging and point-scoring in their last-16 bout.
Indeed, Team Ireland’s boxing contingent have fallen short of expectations on the whole, with nine of their 10-member outfit bowing out early. Kellie Harrington carried the torch for Irish boxing with her success in the 65kg final on Tuesday evening.
Canoeist Liam Jegou came within a whisker of a place on the podium last Tuesday when he was denied a medal by a centimetre in the canoe slalom final.
The 28-year-old brushed against the final gate on his run through the course and incurred a two-second penalty as a consequence. This penalty knocked him from second place down to seventh in the reckoning after he had produced a career-best performance to put himself in contention for a medal.
Elsewhere, European champion runner Ciara Mageean was denied the chance to compete in the women’s 1,500m event by an ill-timed injury. The Portaferry athlete was unable to overcome a persistent Achilles issue and withdrew on the eve of the heats. The 32-year-old harboured genuine hopes of launching a push for the podium in Paris.
Ireland’s mixed 4x400m relay team of Chris O’Donnell, Sophie Becker, Thomas Barr and Sharlene Mawdsley also failed to make the cut for the final after they finished fifth in the semis with a time of 3:12.67.
They would have expected better having won the European title in June. However, the absence of Rhasidat Adeleke was telling. Adeleke is chasing individual honours and has a real chance of being involved in the medal shakeup in the women’s 400m.
21-year-old Adeleke is an inspirational figure and one of a growing number of up-and-coming Irish athletes gearing up to compete for honours in their discipline for the long term. If things develop as they should, Team Ireland should smash the records they are setting in Paris when they travel to contest the LA Olympics in 2028.
Ireland’s Olympic future has never been brighter
With magnificent medals dangling from Irish necks, the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics looks brighter than ever with unprecedented success for Team Ireland.
However, this already feels like the start of something much bigger, and watching this current Irish crop in France, it’s easy to be bullish about Ireland’s Olympic future.
Investment and achievement tend to run along parallel trajectories in sport, and Team Ireland have benefited from an extra financial push. In 2008, just €35m was injected into the pre-Beijing Olympics cycle. However, the more you put in, the more you get out the other end, and approximately €89m was pumped into the pre-Paris Olympics cycle.
Ireland’s achievements in Paris have provided the ultimate payback and should trigger another windfall of investment as the country prepares to up its game again in Los Angeles.
After his latest rowing triumph, three-time Olympic medallist Paul O’Donovan said:
Believe me, there will be a lot more Irish athletes who will do it in the future [defend an Olympic title]. And will do it more than twice, I have no doubt about that.
O’Donovan wasn’t being blasé on the banks of the Seine – and that’s the difference now. The mindset has shifted. The path has been cut and Ireland’s next generation of Olympians have plenty of footsteps to follow.
At Tonybet, we’ll be following the journey of Ireland’s current crop as well as the nation’s future Olympic stars here on our sports blog, while our sportsbook will continue to provide extensive markets and razor-sharp prices for all rowing, track, boxing and swimming events involving Irish athletes.
Follow along with all betting on Tonybet!
