Annalise Murphy came agonisingly close to a medal in London
Jack Leahy
Staff Writer
The dust has settled following London 2012 and cold, hard analytics can begin in earnest.
The more perceptive of us have noted that four of Ireland’s five medals at these games have been repatriated by boxers, a fact which has given rise to calls to increase the sport’s funding to near-exclusivity.
It is fitting that my colleague within the The University Times would chose to advance the argument in favour of a mass funding reallocation on the same day that Olympic athlete Rob Heffernan spoke of a culture of amateurism in Irish athletics. Heffernan, who finished 4th in the men’s 50km walk in London, reminded us that while elite British athletes are professionals, Irish athletes lack the same access to dedicated training time and medical, physiological, and nutritional advice.
Sporadic achievements in athletics and equestrian pursuits aside – not to mention an unfortunate swimming triumph in Atlanta – by and large gloveless Irish athletes have underachieved on the biggest stage. There’s no doubting that the potential for medallists is there; Paul Hession was once the only white man in successive European 200m finals and Derval O’Rourke has continental medals over 110m hurdles, but both confirmed their sad demise with dismal showings in the Olympic Stadium.
What this points to is the need to increase funding across the board in Irish athletics. If we ever want to achieve consistent Olympic success outside of the ring, a more fertile environment for success needs to be encouraged and that begins with supporting athletes financially. All we can do is imagine the titles O’Rourke might have won had she more support from the Irish Olympic Council – but I can tell you for definite where she’d be had she none at all.
To argue in favour of, essentially, becoming a one-nation sport is to hold that little or no hope exists outside of that single sport. The problem is not that that hope does not exist, rather that it is allowed to fail by a system that doesn’t support it. Try telling Natalya Coyle and Annalisse Murphy that they won’t be sufficiently supported to Rio 2016 because boxing is the new big thing. Some children develop great sprint speed, swimming technique, or other diverse talents in their early teens – telling them to become boxers or struggle with poor facilities for as long as their interest holds is constructive to absolutely no one’s end.
Boxing is successful in Ireland and that cannot be denied. Katie Taylor’s victory has given me and countless others memories that will never be forgotten, and has highlighted the successes of a system that – excuse the pun – is punching above its weight. Boxing has proven itself to be worthy of increased investment but by the nature of their failures, other sports have proven themselves dependent on it.
An all-or-nothing systems exists in the UK. Its consequences dictated that, despite their heroics, Jessica Ennis and Mo Farah would have had their funding withdrawn had Team GB’s track and field athletes won one medal fewer. I think we can all agree that this is a ridiculous dichotomous situation that we need to avoid at all costs.
