Marty Morrissey

and what did he say wrong there?she is and if your irish(whick i doubt) be proud of her.she not usain bolt was on the front page of the financial times today..what does that tell you?

she would be joint most well known with usain bolt..fact.

Seriously you think Katie Taylor would be as well known as Usain Bolt?

She did brilliant and fully deserved her gold medal after being at the top of her weight class for years. However womens boxing is a minority sport and while that does not take anything away from her remarkable achievement most will have never heard of any of the competitors in the discipline including Katie outside of Ireland.

Usain Bolt on the other hand is surely one of the biggest and best known sport stars on the planet who runs in the blue ribbon event and is the first man to win the 100m and 200m at consecutive Olympics. He is up there if not the biggest sporting superstar there is.

Slightly off topic,but surely the best headline from yesterday was United States Manteo Mitchell in the 400m relay finishing his race to make sure they qualified for the final with a broken leg.

Comparisons with Usain Bolt re laughable but I assume they are said in jest. Bolt is up there with what Tiger Woods used to be and probably is close to still being.

One key example is that Katie did not appear on any news round up that I could see on ESPN last night, which means that it made no impression whatsoever in the States, or at least not enough to include in the programming schedule. She is a superstar and it is huge news here, in Britain and possibly a number of other countries. However many many countries simply would not care.

They said last night that Rudisha's performance was one of the greatest seen on the track and it was. It was simply outstanding. However when asked would he transcend sport and the answer was an emphatic no. More people seemed interested in Bolt doing laps of honour than Rudisha getting presented with his medal.

Katie is currently huge in boxing circles and could be huge in the States if she turned pro. At the moment they don't care, or at least they care much less than they do about Manning making his debut, Howard transferring between teams or the Yankees winning the series. The world of boxing in general has really stood up and taken notice but it will be mostly within the confines of the sport and outside of Ireland and the UK, few people other than boxing fans will remember it.

Bolt is one of the biggest names in sport for the past 50 years and has probably been responsible for Track and Field beginning to get a little bit of coverage again after the drug scandals has destroyed it and relegated it to a level that the BBC red button would not even accommodate it.

Katie is a sensational athlete and has done the country proud, is a great ambassador for her sport and her country. She should be celebrated for everything she has achieved without ridiculous statements being used by media men that should really no much better.

The one comparison that would be valid is that Katie has almost single handedly brought Womens Boxing to the public consciousness and to the Olympics.

Bolt has similarly almost single handedly rescued a great sport and dragged it off its deathbed.

Both have done as much and more for their respective sports as they have for themselves.

Of course Marty is swept up in sentiment. For all that coverage RTE need a good story and this is one. I will say though the NY Times article on Taylor is fantastic.

Been from the North Wicklow area and having met her a few times, from my own experience she is a unaffected individual who has worked so hard to get this far and even in this nation of begrudgers I struggle to find how anyone could have a bad word to say about her. A model sportsperson.

thats my joke bobby!!..your the guy who was riduculing katie from the start.im sure your surprised to see her the headline on all the papers and news bulletins in ireland and much of britain..

Oh yeah and one last beauty from Jimmy the Maggott

"Ireland Lives the Dream"

I actually had to check my bank account online after that one to see if someone had put a grand into it. Like some clown in Twitter said yesterday "The recession is over"

By the holy grace of God it is

Calling kavvie a ghoul is just wrong,he didn't backtrack he qualified.
There is something about Katie Taylor that is so winsome,she is unaffected unassuming and so pretty,she is also cool as a mountain stream ,
I watched the fight in a pub where tears flowed freely,the medal ceremony brought more tears(not mine)but she was calm as you like.Her interviews showed her character ,polite unassuming and when pressed on the bad behaviour of her Russian opponent  refused to criticise.
We are probably going over the top but so what,the bit I don't like is the arrival of a few vultures,the reptilian Max Clifford wheeled out by RTE openly touting for business.Taylors personality and character will mean she will be sought after she is a PRs dream,mind you we had a PRs dream before,pretty intelligent Fluent Irish speaker now whatever happened to her.

I thought nobody could eclipse Magee for sheer unadulterated, shameless hyberbole, but that comment from Morrissey has just shot him to favouritism in the race for the hyperbole Gold Medal, but I've a feeling Magee could regain the initiative if one or two of our male boxers win today.

Wildman, was there any need for O'Herlihy to press Katie on the Russians pre and post fight comments when she and her father were been interviewed last night live from London?, put the girl in an awkward spot, you got the feeling it was the last thing she wanted to talk about, he even reminded her of all the money she can make now ffs?, there is a time and a place for everything.

really admire katie and all the work shes put in but the reaction has been ridiculous..like it or not she is competing in a minority sport..she scraped through the final that was probably closer than even the judges scored it..if shed won the 800 m or some major track event  i could understand the adulation but i cannot believe some of the comments..are people living in the real world..the amount of people ive heard saying shes the greatest Irish sportsperson ever..the major news agencies reporting her success see it as a novelty event..id still put sonia way ahead of her in terms of olympic achievement..

I confidently expect to hear later today that Katie , having completed an ascent of K2, has brokered a ceasefire in Syria , initiated peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, turned down proposals of marriage from Usain Bolt and Tiger Woods and been appointed personal secretary to Ban Ki Moon.

Fluent Garlic speaker !!!

erris1
10 Aug 12 23:53
..........id still put sonia way ahead of her in terms of olympic achievement..

Goes without saying that erris. Sonia was in another league.
Jessica Ennis appears to have flown under our medias radar over the past week.

I'm delighted for Taylor because she's worked hard to get to where's she's at and her humility is refreshing and endearing, but the level of hyperbole attached to her achievements is embarrassing.
It's exactly why we are not taken seriously as a nation!

To be fair Vubiant, Katie can't do much about the 5hite peddled in what passes for media in this country.
As workride said above, she herself has done nothing wrong and is a massive credit to her country.

1 gets the distinct feeling of sour grapes here from the usual culprits ozy ozy ozy and vubiant......

Not surprising the media goes overboard, it is pandering to what it perceives to be a national appetite. We really do need some more sporting role models in this country though and good news, is good news for a change.

Some elements of RTE though(Magee/Morrissey/O'Herlihy) would be the televisual equivalent of the tabloid press. They now look as if they are from another age, the mostly younger reporters coming up behind them must cringe at some of their comments. Like I said before, clear out is needed at RTE. Can't happen quick enough.

Katie, a big credit to all but for me Sonia edges it if it's an analysis between both sports.

You just feel with Katie that if you stopped her in the street next week, she'd be no different. This world would be a better place if we had more people like that around us.

To clarify for the dim-witted , my comments were not directed at Ms. Taylor but were aimed at the total lack of perspective displayed by a slavering media.
Why would I exhibit 'sour grapes'? My life is not affected in any fundamental way whether the Irish team win twenty medals or zero.