Irish Athletics - A bit of a disgrace in truth.

Food for thought.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/on-a-fast-track-to-irrelevance-3197116.html

Imagine leaving Morocco  ( 1 Olympic bronze medal ) and travelling down the coast of West Africa. These are the countries you will pass through:
Western Sahara - 0 medals
Mauritania - 0 medals
Senegal - 0 medals
Gambia - 0 medals
Guinea-Bissau - 0 medals
Guinea - 0 medals
Sierra Leone - 0 medals
Liberia - 0 medals
Cote D'Ivoire - 0 medals
Ghana - 0 medals
Togo - there's a theme here
Benin - just need to figure it out
Nigeria - population 162m
Cameroon - 0 medals
Equatorial Guinea - 0 medals
Gabon - 1 silver medal - YEEEEES - get in son, and well done to Anthony Obame in the Taekwondo
Congo - 0 medals
DRC - 0 medals
Angola - nothing either
Namibia - 0 medals
i think that puts us in a better light lads...

I love the way people make references to countries with huge populations and comparing that to Rep of Irelands 4.6 million give and take, so if you have a huge population you should be churning out olympic champions conveyor belt style?, no it doesn't work like that.

Take India for example, will probably surpass China in the next 20 years to become the worlds biggest population, they forget that about 95% of the country live in poverty many in abject poverty, nobody in Ireland would come anywhere close to the squalor these people have to endure, there's almost certainly plenty of sporting superstars hidden in the slums but no infrastructure in place to unearth them.

Where were China about 20 year ago?, now its one of the strongest economies in the world, money was invested and now they're reaping the benefits, you can make references to drugs all you want (are all these super human Jamaican athletes clean, with a population of less than 3 million?), many of the events the chinese excel at are not endurance sports, but sports where skill and acrobatic ability are foremost.

New Zealand has a population less than us, yet they managed a very respectable total of 5 golds. 3 silver and 5 bronze.
Remove boxing from the equation and we excelled at nothing really, a few decent performances here and there, Annalise Murphy had a medal within touching distance, but when the chips were down she blew it, still it'll be a little churlish of me to knock her performances over one bad day where nerves can play a big part.

Cian O'Connor's bronze had more to do with his horse than it had to do with him, they're all very accomplished riders but if your horse decides today is not the day not much you can do about that, we can't talk to the animals.

Nobody is suggesting Ireland should be winning tonnes of medals but we should be doing an awful lot better than we do, we might unearth another long distance endurance runner like Eamonn, Sonia or John within the next 10 years or so to put us on the map for a period, but now that most of the money in the country was squandered or sits in offshore tax havens I won't wait up for any serious sporting infrastructure to be put in place in the distance never mind near future.

distant!

just as an aside silvergreaser , nigeria is one of the WORLDS BIGGEST OIL EXPORTER...

True workrider but like most African nations the Dictator and his family usually pocket the lot.

Another aside, Morrocco has had some of the best middle distance runners ever over the last 20 year, Said Aouita and El Guerrouj weren't bad now were they?, and there are many other good Morrocans.

agree fully with you there silvergreaser , just trying to put a realistic take on our so called failure...

superb post there from silvergreaser-says a lot that needs to be said .
Situations like this need careful analysis instead of the barstool type spouting we hear on much of the media.
I would start by asking why Olympic medals are regarded as so important at all. Yes it's nice to be in the winners' circle now and then but why do we think we need double, treble or more medals anyway ?
Does the rest of the world give a fig about Ireland's position on a medals table that appears for a few days every 4 years ?
Far preferable to set up adequate sports facilities in schools and communities so people can get into the habit of exercise and fun. This can build up a sense of wellbeing and counter obesity spread.
If any individuals pop up with innate talent and the requisite motivation to sweat the hard yards -then fine -but I don't think we should go down the road of hothousing youngsters from the age of 5 or 6 as happens in countries like China. I read an article lately which suggested that there might even be an attempt made to genetically manufacture Olympic performers in the near future ( if it isn't happening already). This is the stuff of nightmare .
We need to draw back from Olympic hysteria and calmly assess our basic ongoing societal needs . Olympic medals are going to be rare and can be cherished accordingly but they are only a small part of what sport is and represents in our society.

I remember reading after Sydney 2000 a bit of national soul searching on this, and again after Athens and again after Beijing. Here we go again.

We don't seem to have had any leaders with the bottle to make courageous decisions when it comes to sport. Some here will throw the book at me for this but minister after minister, TD after TD has pandered to the GAA for decades (GAA types just close their minds to any sports other than their own at times such as these, wait for the noise to die down, and then just carry on as normal).

Why if we had the Lotto for years before GB, 1987 and 1994, have we not used that money proportionally in the investment in other sports? Or have we?

GB. They have to thank John Major who was a big sports enthusiast unlike Thatcher who hated it all. Don't forget also in the UK in the 80s going into the 90s there was an intellectual school of thought that derided competitive sports, thought it messed up kids in future life. This resulted in 1996 for GB at Atlanta, 1 Gold, 15 medals in total. That was their lowest point, coming after 24 medals in Seoul 88 and 20 in Barcelona 92. It was in Sydney 2000 that the lottery funding started to show results, 28 medals and the start of dynasties such as Redgrave in the rowing and Ainslie in sailing which also helped people to link from games to games along with always having an average to above average athletics pedigree, which are seen as the core element of any Olympics. Athens then brought 30 medals and Beijing 47. Blair followed Major and also understood the importance of sport as a catalyst. Cameron thinks the same. Gordon Brown less so. I suspect if Labour had stayed in power under him that funding would have been reduced and while GB would have still had a successful games, it would be nothing like what has been achieved.

It's going to be difficult to change the mindset in Ireland away from it's national albeit parochial sports outlook to a more outward approach that shows the country in an international light. I just don't think there's much political or even wider public enthusiasm for that. It's a shame because if someone had pushed it in say the mid 1990s, I think we'd be getting 10/12 medals now and getting them regularly, more people would be playing sports, we'd be fitter and to quote Obama, 'punching above our weight'.

Now I'll sit back and watch myself get criticised as a West Brit.

well said, vubiant.

the headlines in todays sunday times is , Irish equal best games medal haul....

Rather than blame the GAA, maybe we should give athletics back to them. In fairness to the GAA they get a lot of stick but they know how to make the best use of funding. If all those fancy clubhouse and pitches that have popped up in parishes all over the country via a lottery injection were forced to include a running track and facilities for field events, hammer, javelin etc. we might be in a much stronger position now. I'm sure there's plenty of lads playing GAA who never got the chance to pick up a discus or shot putt who might just have the talent to perform at an elite level.
As it was setup with the aim of promoting athletics I'm sure the powers that be would be happy to embrace it without worrying about adverse affects on football or hurling participation.

Can someone on here explain why it bothers you so much that we don't win more medals?

What exactly is it you're unhappy about?

Probably not winning more medals bothers.

superb post vubiant

@Gant
Question was why?

Using words like "disgraceful" to describe our athletes suggests that the person feels we have been let down in some way.
Isn't it really just a childish sulk that we don't get to get excited as much as other countries do?

good idea irishro, the GAA however, in my experience, tend to be very insular and defensive vis a vis other sports.

That's true Ozy but if you look at original make up of GAA it included athletics so you're just giving them back what's rightfully theirs-An easy sell if done properly!

Don't get as excited as other countries dc?, were you away on holidays for the Katie Taylor fights?, the country went stark raving mad for a boxer who we already knew had virtually one hand on the gold medal before the games had even started such was her previous and current dominance, the bookies had her priced up as a near certainty, ok the genuine affection for Katie might have exaggerrated the hysteria just a little, but imagine if we won a medal with a rank outsider?.

of course the gaa try to look after their own sports it would be completely counter productive to encourage participation in other sports..what about all the money the fai and irfu have got...why blame the gaa for our athletics failure??
the bottom line is no one really cares about athletics apart from every four years..is it really worth it to plough millions into track and field with maybe one bronze medal to show for it conceivably in the next 12-16 years..better to put money into smaller sports not as much investment needed and opportunities for serious medal hauls..

I think alot of people are disapointed because most of the athletes are fulltime and getting paid/grants.......I think they should do better.....look at rugby when it went pro.......You would roar your head off at a GAA player and he after working 6 days that week.

GREAT POST VUBIANT, indeed i only wish a lot more sports were played ,taken up by irish athletes, the g.a.a players for instance ,to try these sports and put ireland on the map as it wre, not some backward g a a mentality, WHICH IS HOLDING BACK A LOT OF PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY! And people thought the Catholic church had a becalming influence on irish society..

Eamonn Coghlan ran to school, ran home for lunch (one mile) and back, and probably ran home.
Today if the chauffeur doesn't arrive on time in the 4X4 hit the speedial.
Too much ball sports and nil athletics does not produce athletes.

Eamon Sweeney should be ashamed of himself for writing that tripe and I'd love 10 minutes with him to put manners on him after it.

In Jamaica Sprinting is the National Sport. Every single kid grows up wanting to be an Athlete. 40,000 people turned up to see a 16YO USAIN Bolt before his real talent was even known in the National Junior Championships.
Every single ounce of potential in track and field is unearthed.

What a lot of people forget is all the talk about funding, excellence etc. after each Olympics is just that, Talk.

Look at the example of Billy Walsh and the Georgian coach that Vincent Hogan portrayed in the indo yesterday as opposed to the tripe written by Sweeney who probably never left his couch for the Olympics.

Who is willing to step up and invest a couple of Million in Annalise Murphy, Natalie Coyle, the boxing team etc.. to ensure all these coaches and Athletes can move forward to 2016?

The person that does can have their say, the likes of Eamon Sweeney with his snide articles can shagg off imo