Countries that have more gold medals than Ireland

?

Countries that dont have more than Ireland

England
Scotland
Wales

Not to mention their embarassment at Euro 2012.

England had a great Euros of course, outclassed by the old master Pirlo, not to mention the Ukraine goal that was not given. Get some decent comparisons mate.
BTW I think Ireland will be well up the ladder before the end of the week with basically zero in funding compared to team GB,s billions(yes not just England)

Venezuela
Kenya
Algeria

England unbeaten at Euro 2012. Ireland humiliated.

I guess the likes of Kenya, Grenada and Slovenia have millions of funding as well?

Been cheering on the British athletes all the way. They have done brilliantly and deserve all the plaudits they get. There behaviour and appreciation of their fans off the field puts the footballers to shame.

Now, dont begrudge us our first gold later today and cheer on Katie.

Ireland has always had a poor Olympics record.  As a developed European country with a population of around 4.5 million (plus some athletes from the 1.8 million people in NI choosing to represent the Republic) it can reasonably be compared with the likes of Denmark & Norway.

Over the last half-dozen Olympics, Denmark has collected 15 golds and Norway 18 (Norway is also 'split' by winter sports where it has won a staggering 53 golds in the last six games).

In contrast, ROI's total golds is just four, and three of them were from the dubious source of Michelle Smith.  Boxing has been the staple of their medals and they will be added to shortly, especially from the outstanding Katie Taylor.

One puzzle is maybe why the generally strong Equestrian team has always done so poorly, although Cian O'Connor (bronze here the other day) 'won' showjumping gold in Athens until his horse failed a dope test.

Hurling and Gaelic Football are Ireland's biggest sports while soccer and rugby are the biggest after that. Only a small % participate in other sports.

Hurling and Gaelic Football are Ireland's biggest sports while soccer and rugby are the biggest after that. Only a small % participate in other sports.

1.01 landed.

I think every knows he's wum and a bit of an eejit , if you cant have a laugh what can you do, its only sport afterall

Great Britain excel at sports in which the competitor is sat down (quite appropriate for the most obese country in Europe).  The Irish could do worse than implementing a similar strategy, it would suit their genetic make-up as well imo...

More than 50% of all sporting competitors in Ireland play GAA games as their first love . So seen on the excellent facilities you will see throughout Ireland , south and north , in villages , towns , and cities on pitches that are a credit to all concerned . The majority of the funding to set these facilities in place came from local communities , plus grants handed out by the central administration of the GAA . All players are ( nominally anyway ) amateur , hence the availability of funding for pitches etc -- no overpaid prima donnas like elsewhere .  Its our choice .

The soccer and rugby people of Ireland have had cause to be grateful to the GAA for the use of Croke Park for a certain length of time recently while the Aviva project was being completed .

For those unfamilair with hurling , if it was in the Olympics every other field sport would be trailing in a poor second or worse as regards a spectacle and competitive / skilful sport . Best field game in the world , restricted essentially to one small country , despite efforts to promote it further afield .  But you have to be born with a hurl in your hand to play at the highest level , guess Rory's dad took that on board regarding a different discipline . Plus you need competition to develope and hone your skills under pressure .  Just watch it sometime !

Those in the GAA family tend not to experiment with other sports , parish thing essentially , so that accounts partly for below par performances ( if its true ) in internationally recognised sports .

We are good at golf , rugby , boxing , rowing where we rank with the best in the world .  We used to be good at soccer , but thats another story . We also have a good record in long distance cycling , the roads throughout Ireland are relatively speaking well filled by recreational cyclists every weekend , summer and winter , good exercise . But no velodromes , and no £10 k bikes . We also provide about 50% of the worlds top jockeys , but no medals for that .

If you are making comparisons , the Scottish input to Team GB these last 2 weeks has been immense and the Scots should be taking a bigger bow than they have been afforded to date by the media . Great to see our neighbours ( and team -mates depending on affiliations ) doing brilliantly  , especially those regarded as "amateurs" . Morthern Ireland should have 1 gold so far ( a la Houvernagel saga in the womens team pursuit , it was promised but not delivered ) plus 3 rowing and 2 boxing of various medal colours , good performance  , and Cian was very unlucky in the jumping to only come up with bronze . We helped the Chinese gymnastics to gold , one of the few areas where we have a world class facility ( take a bow Rory ). No fantastic athletics facilities anywhere in Ireland  ( Mary Peters track one of the few good tracks , but Mary needed Olympic gold to help with that ).

Katie will win gold , boxers may deliver gold also , but Olympics is not the pinnacle of everyone associated with sport in Ireland --south and north . Its a debate for another day .

Excuses,excuses.
You've had 7 years knowing the games were being played next door,you have totally embarrassed yourselves.

Oh I forgot about the Kenyan connection . Approximately 10 of their gold medallists over the last 25 years put their success / interest down to the efforts of a few Irish exports . We Irish never exploited our foreign connections , not in our nature , we just want to see everyone getting a chance .  Its about sport .

Good post Kelly.

Met with a typical inane forum response from Freeze

The main problem with Ireland is the exodus of younger generations to other countries where they shed their Irish nationality...

Suggest you read the post Freeze .  We are not as interested / obsessed in medal tables as some have become .  The Olympics should be about competing , nice to win , but you can only play the cards you are dealt with .

Again i go back to the footballers. Hopefully, this olympics will cause people to think just how pampered, overpaid and arrogant most are in comparison to those athletes we have seen this week. Always gracious in triumph and truly appreciative to those who support them.

GB had a great chance to win the football at these olympics but it did not seem important to them. You would thought they would have more national pride with the games being at home and would want to repay the supporters for their past failings. Gareth Bale is in my opinion the only world class British player but he could not even be bothered.

Yeah I read it,a plethora of excuses.
'Don't exploit foreign connections',your not including the football team in this,then.

We are not as interested / obsessed in medal tables as some have become
Because your not on it.

I cant think of many things to evoke more pride than standing on an olympic podium and seeing your national flag hoisted and the national anthem played. The footballers would rather have a summer holiday.

I think very few athletes are doing it for their country.

Look at Jess Ennis, not interested in trying to strive for a medal for GB in the 100m hurdles. Rather save herself and make cash for herself in Grand Prix races at the end of the season/risk failing in 100m hurdles and taint her golden girl image and sponsorship endorsements that that attracts.

Agree Paddletoe .  One of the things that the Olympics has indicated to me is the strength of what might be termed "middle England " . The Olympics appeals to all classes , but more so I suspect to those in the upper socio economic groups  , lets say middle class for the sake of reference . They have really put their shoulder to the wheel , fair play to them , across all sorts of sporting disciplines , and they have got a great return this time , and had a great time . Sport rules !

Soccer traditionally is an inner city thing , in England ( ignoring the other constituent elements of the GB set up ) it is more or less specifically now about the Premiership , which is populated largely at the top echelon by non native players , chasing the big bucks . You reap what you sow .

Strewth,worry about yer own countries abject humiliation.
Yer bint boxer will probably get a gold,she has a 10 point start.

UK have 12 individual golds so far.

Ireland if as expected Taylor wins will have 1 (may have chance for others I do not know).

On population size this would appear pretty much in line, and nothing to see here really.

The difference between the footballers and many of the athletes who have competed is that millions of people in britain make it possible for the footballers to live a wealthy and priveleged life. You only have to see how much the people have supported these olympics. You would have hoped the footballers would think they owed it to the people to try and give them something to cheer about.

On population size this would appear pretty much in line, and nothing to see here really.

1.01 landed

Why have a go at the Irish?

Isn't it enough GB have had their best Olympics since forever?

Seriously, how well or not Ireland are doing never crossed my mind and good luck to them if and when any of their athletes are in a position to get a medal.

Because every damn post on here,criticising the GB athletes is from a mushroom stacker.

Yes Freeze, the 1.01 is landed.

UK + Ire two similar countries next to each other. If I take a random sample of 5 million people over the whole British Isles I expect to get 1 individual gold medallist.

Ireland's population about 5 million so 1 gold medallist would be as expected.

Everyone can see no statistical anomolies here.

What about 'statistics' on a single medal then Einstein.

It is not a good sample size obviously.

So again nothing to suggest anything statistically different between performances of UK and Ire

Notwithstanding the fact that Britain has a lot more history and participation in certain sports than Ireland there is another important factor. Britain has a lot more ethnic mix than Ireland and some sports suit cetain ethnic groups better.

Kelly

09 Aug 12 12:02
Joined:

08 Mar 01
| Topic/replies: 2,369 | Blogger: Kelly's blog

More than 50% of all sporting competitors in Ireland play GAA games as their first love .


There aren't many countries in the world who couldn't say something similar though. GB football, rugby league, union and cricket account for miles over 50% and they contribute essentially nothing in Olympic terms. 

As for Ennis, she could have made more money by getting a medal in the 100m H as that will be the main Diamond League event she will be booked for, and promoters pay a premium for medal winners and setting up the rematch.

As something like the Olympics evolves , perceptions change . Originally the Olympics were about pure athletics . Dont think BMX racing was on Baron de Coubertins mind . Nowadays there are so many disciplines trying to get in on the act  , talking to someone like Roger Federer about Olympic medals is to me akin to asking Rory about the monthly medal .

Golf , tennis , soccer ( at professional level ) , even internationally organised athletics ( professional essentially ) are all disciplines which exist mainly on their own efforts , and to a large extent the Olympics are  largely irrelevant ( except for athletics , which is not well supported world wide on a spectator level except at the Olympics ) . Cycling has proved very popular spectator wise  , but we have to remember that the biggest cycling event in the world is essentially free to spectators , and everyone loves a freebie .

Overall I hope there is spin off from the Olympics , particularly in terms of facilities for those who want to try out the various disciplines they fancy . The swimming has been great , but how many people would want to be swimming on a cold November morning in the Serpentine ?

Ultimately the proof of the pudding will be in the eating . In the meantime , enjoy the success of Team GB etc , great for morale  , making up for the rubbish weather we have all endured these last 2 months .

Fair point Inner , often wondered why cricket would not qualify as an Olympic sport , although its possibly due to commercial interests , most sports are nowadays .

Rugby 7s are in the next games, as is golf. I think cricket is probably still too small and niche to feature. I think sports like squash and netball should feel very hard done by, I'm guessing with netball it's the IOC's desire to include sports played by both sexes that sees it left out.

Refence your first point , Inner , quoting rugby , football and cricket as counter attractions .  Apart from rugby league which is only played in 2 countries in the world  , and in England in about 10% of the country , we in Ireland also play rugby , soccer , cricket  , proportionally at the same level as in UK .  That still leaves 40 to 50 % unaccounted for . It is a big factor which you people do not have as a counter attraction . Cheers .

If the Olympics is not the pinnacle of the particular sport it shouldn't be included IMO. Simple as that

I agree JWB.

ESRI in 2004 had GAA football played by 4% of your population, hurling 3%. Generally speaking, excluding walking, sport participation rates across both GB and Ireland are around 55%, so that would leave the other 48% available to all other sports. The size of that difference is not only small but also only exists if you can't establish similar local factors elsewhere. Equivalent local factors may be a greater portfolio of sports (be that a greater number of niche market sports, an interest in winter sports or whatever) or patterns of over-representation and emphasis in specific sports.

Who are ESRI , Inner ?

Would have thought those figures are way off in representing what actually happens .. Suppose it depends whats constitutes "playing" . And where the playing age is drawn .  Golf is probably our most played sport across the country , we have 400 clubs plus with probably 500 in each club , which works out around 5% of the population .  But the number of people under 30 playing golf is less than 10% of those playing GAA . Shows how you can manipulate figures .

Our 2 local GAA clubs have 1000 paying members plus , each .  Guarantee you you will travel far and wide in these isles to match that in terms of participation at local level , all amateur , no hype , no stars , no Olympic medals , some All-Ireland medals from 20 years ago , thats all . Playing fields are full every weekend , 300 there today on summer scheme for kids  , all paid for by ourselves .  Thats the way it should be , in an ideal world .  Volunteer supervision . No cost to the state . Others could copy .

They're the major research institute in Ireland. 

The major issues for both GB and Ireland in terms of sport are culturally pretty similar.
-The overall participation rates are too low in both countries.
-Both countries experience a massive drop in team sport participation at the start of adulthood (75% drop off) (people move away, people start jobs, less free time) so targeting individual sports at a younger age may be beneficial, particularly in terms of the olympics.
-The cult of the gym has taken over.
-Unreliable weather, too much time indoors, long, dark, wet winters.
-Not as organised or as active in getting people into sport. I was speaking to an Aussie at the Olympic park on Saturday, and he was saying it's routine at late primary school age that as part of their medical they are assessed for their body type with a view to finding a suitable sport to match. In my day you had a choice of rugby or football in winter and cricket or cricket in the summer!

Adjusting for population, Ireland are 16th in the world in the gold medal table, ahead of the US, Russia, France, Germany and Japan. Grenada are top.

Like several other large European countries, Britain benefits in sporting terms through the historical legacy of empire building and colonialism, especially in Africa and Asia, and in much more recent decades, inward economic immigration. People who are familiar with the 1908 Olympic games in London will appreciate just how many gold medal winners, representing Britain and USA, were actually Irish.

Great seeing the British do so well.After team GB the irish are the next on my list of teams to support and used to enjoy
watching Sonia o'sullivan. Not sure why they aren't doing too well but you can bet your life that if they were they would be
getting immense support from the Irish supporters. It's probably down to a lack of facilities/funding .They don't have to have
top end coaches they can have them brought in like other countries have. Maybe it all comes down to a lack of wealth in the
country as I'm pretty sure they'll have some talented sports people  there.

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