Your essential guide to our athletes in Rio
Despite the feelgood factor generated by London 2012, the Olympic Games has one last chance to prove its integrity
WE CAN delude ourselves and talk about the greatest show on earth. We can pretend that this latest Olympics is the same as its predecessors: a harum-scarum rush to get facilities and venues finished, indefensible expenditure by a country that cannot afford the outlay, and fears about crime and health, before all the doubts and misgivings are replaced by the biggest sporting spectacle of them.
It’s not like that this time. This is not LA or Beijing or, God forbid, London, truly the greatest sports show of them all. No, we prepare to view the Games of the 31st Olympiad through eyes that have taken in as much as they can bear.
We have witnessed proof of statecontrolled cheating in Russia, followed by the craven response of the pathetic International Olympic Committee. We have read reports that indicate serious problems with doping in Kenya and Jamaica, the star states of, respectively, distance running and sprinting.
We understand that there are major concerns about the effectiveness of the World Anti-Doping Agency and its ability to properly expose cheating.
Everywhere, there seems to be another reason to shake the head and whisper a few words in memory of the Olympic Games. Why bother, then? Many say they will boycott the Games in their own way, ordinary, decent people who once loved the spectacle and the sporting excellence. Some will not watch at all, others speak of refusing to watch anything that features a Russian competitor. Disillusionment seems the only response to the torrent of rotten news that has sluiced through sport over the past two years, since the German journalist Hajo Seppelt began to expose the Russian system.
An example needed to be made of that country. An exemplary ban of all their athletes would not have tackled the problem in other countries, but it would at least have shown that the suits who claim to administer the Olympics understood how precarious the future of the Games is.
Because people will only take so much. They can only watch so
many dopers and liars before they walk away. People are not fools. This country had its exposure to an unlikely Olympic fairytale 20 years ago, when it all seemed too good to be true. And it was.
That hardens us. It makes people doubtful and cynical. Better that than be eejits once again, we shrug.
Five days before the opening ceremony of the Rio Games, it is clear that the Olympics has never been so vulnerable. Were a doping story to break involving one of the stars of world sport, it could do irreparable damage.
As matters now stand, the watching world does not know who or what to believe in. Who is dirty and who is clean?
The truth is there are no easy answers to bring quick consolation. All we can do is hope that the crooks are caught and that the virtuous get to shine and that it does not take years for this to happen. Rob Heffernan is still waiting on the Olympic bronze medal that is rightfully his after the Russian winner of the 50K road race in London was subsequently found to be a cheat.
If believing that the good guys can still succeed is a feeble hope, it is the only one we have. There is no reason to suspect that Usain Bolt will be unmasked as a user of performanceenhancing drugs, and he is certain to be one of the stars of the coming weeks.
He has the charisma and the remarkable talent to dominate Rio as he did London, but in the 100m he will face Justin Gatlin, the American sprinter twice banned for doping yet who speaks the language of victimhood. Shamefully feted by parts of the US media, Gatlin recently talked about his critics, declaring: ‘You defeat them with success.’
He will also be on the US 4x100m relay team going up against Bolt’s Jamaica. A teammate of Gatlin then will be Tyson Gay, another athlete who has been banned for doping.
Hopelessness could easily consume the sports-lover – but amidst the hucksters and the chancers there are inspirations, too.
This country sends a team of 77 to Rio, the largest representation in the name of Ireland since 1948. Twentysix are women, and the team is spread across 13 sports.
Within that selection are stories that nurture faith in the Games. Take Sinéad Jennings. The 39-year-old rower gets to compete in an Olympics 16 years after winning her first world championship medal.
In 2000, she took bronze, and the following year, again at the world championships, she claimed gold. Both successes were in the lightweight singles category, for which there was no Olympic version. She spent years trying to find a partner with whom she could qualify in the lightweight doubles, and finally managed it, with Claire Lambe, 13 years her junior, alongside Jennings in the boat. But that’s only half her story.
Jennings is a qualified pharmacist and medical doctor, and a married mother of three young daughters (her husband is two-time Irish Olympic rower Sam Lynch). Tired of trying to get to the Olympics as a rower, she tried and failed to get there as a track cyclist in London.
She is a remarkable character, one of the outstanding Irish sportswomen of her time and the type of person
We hope that the crooks are caught and the virtuous get to shine
that those official agencies who fret about female participation in sport should be begging to help them. But Jennings is an inspiration to women and men alike, and we must remember that damaged as the Olympics may be, true warriors like her still feature.
Jennings and Lambe are regarded as outsiders for medals, and Irish hopes in that regard will be concentrated on the boxing ring. Michael Conlan is strongly fancied for gold in the bantamweight division but nobody will attract the degree of attention in Ireland that Katie Taylor does.
The 2012 champion defends her gold after two defeats in 2016, and there are at least three challengers with credible hopes of beating her in Rio. Were Taylor to retain her status as Olympic champion, it would not only be the highlight of her career but would also be the likely highlight of the Irish effort.
Heffernan is the strongest athletic contender, but people must be cognisant of the level of competition in track and field. Reaching a final would constitute a career-defining achievement for many Irish participants. Ciara Mageean, after her bronze medal at the European Championships, is best placed to do that – and were she to manage it in the 1500m, it would be sensational.
Her recovery from serious, persistent injury is another tribute to the determination that fuels hundreds of honest athletes in Rio. Most devote their lives to their sport, knowing full well that success and fame are unlikely to come their way.
They do it because they want to be the best they can be. They are answering an ancient urge to get the most from themselves. At its best, that is what sport is about.
At its finest, that is the kind of effort the Olympics can facilitate.
Hope remains, fragile and endangered as it may be. Not every reason to believe has been devoured by the cheats, yet.