TEAM IRELAND - NEWSLETTER #3 December 22, 2017 | | | | “I trained on Christmas Day for the last seven years, so I took this Christmas Day off. That’s one good thing — finally having a break. The last few Christmases I’d either go for a run, do a gym session at home, or go on the bike for a few hours. I went sailing on Christmas Day two years ago, while the rest of the family went down and jumped into the Forty Foot.”
Olympic Silver Medallist, Annalise Murphy speaking on Christmas 2016.
| | | | Many of us are looking forward to a break over Christmas but for many of Ireland’s current and future Olympians Christmas Day is also another training day!
The countdown is well and truly on for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games taking place from 9th to 24th February, we’ll detail our athletes current progress. Six athletes have already achieved the “A” qualifying standard ensuring this will be our best qualified Winter Olympic team to date!
Ireland’s swimmers, rowers, boxers, track cyclists and top taekwondo player were all in international competition recently and are featured, as is the strategic decision of two of Ireland’s World Champion rowers to change weight classification to improve their chances of attaining Olympic success.
The IOC has added a number of mixed events to the competition schedule for Tokyo 2020 to achieve better gender balance and diversity. In for the first time are a 4 x 100 mixed relay in swimming, a mixed 4 x 400m relay in athletics, mixed doubles in table tennis as well as mixed events in judo, fencing and archery. Triathlon will also have a mixed event for the first time and we feature this sport in the High-Performance Corner of this edition.
We also feature a very successful female leadership session held in late October in which a wide range of women from our member federations took part.
The end of the year also saw us hold an EGM and we’re pleased to have we implemented all the recommendations from the Deloitte report on Good Governance. We also launched our strategic plan which sets out our vision up to 2024. The Athletes Commission presented their Vision and Mission and on Thursday 14th December, Minister for Sport, Shane Ross confirmed that he was re-instating statutory funding to the OCI.
We are looking forward to a fantastic year of sport in 2018 that will not only feature the Winter Games but also some of Ireland’s most promising young athletes will take part in the World Youth Olympic Games in October.
We are grateful to you all for your support throughout 2017. We wish you and yours a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year and to all of our Olympians out there training whilst many of us are relaxing you truly are inspirational!
Happy Christmas. | | | |
| | YOUR SPORTS ROUND UP A sacrifice to achieve an Olympic dream, success on the snow in Austria, a 15th EU Championship appearance, a welcome funding boost for the Irish men's hockey team, International medals in boxing and cycling and an Olympic solidarity scholarship for Taekwondo Click here for more.. | | | HISTORIC OLYMPIAN BOWS OUT
Belfast's Lisa Kearney, who, in 2012, became the first Irish female judoka to represent Ireland in an Olympic Games, has just announced her retirement.
She was also a Commonwealth bronze medallist (52kg) in 2014 but a knee injury in 2015 dashed her hopes of qualifying for Rio. The 28-year-old won 11 World Cup medals during her career, including four gold. Click here for more.. | | | ONE TO WATCH Wexford showjumper Bertram Allen needs no introduction but his young brother Harry recently stole his thunder by winning the prestigious Longines 2017 'Rising Star' award at the FEI's star-studded end of year gala in Montevideo, Uruguay. Click here for more.. | | | FEMALE LEADERS BENEFIT FROM INSPIRING SPEAKER The Olympic Council of Ireland, aided by funding from the Olympic Solidarity programme ring-fenced for the promotion of diversity and gender balance in Tokyo 2020, brought world-class leadership expert Gabriela Müller Mendoza to Dublin in October to speak to women involved in leadership roles in a wide range of Olympic sports. Click here for more.. | | | HIGH PERFORMANCE CORNER - TRIATHLON We caught up with Stephen Delaney, a native of Sutton, Co Dublin and Triathlon Ireland's new Performance Director. He is a former international cyclist and winner of Rás Tailteann, and has worked full-time with Triathlon Ireland for the last five years, most recently as National Development Coach. Click here for more.. | | | OCI WELCOMES REINSTATEMENT OF STATUTORY FUNDING The OCI is delighted by the decision of the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Mr. Shane Ross T.D. to restore State funding to the organisation with immediate effect. Click here for more.. | | | OLYMPIC COUNCIL OF IRELAND STRATEGIC PLAN 2018 - 2024 In December, the OCI delivered its Strategic Plan 2018-2024, the plan was developed following extensive consultation with the people who matter – athletes, member federations and others. The OCI set out a clear path for the future of the organisation. Click here for more.. | | | | | | |
