London Calling

London makes history this summer, becoming the first city to play host to a modern Olympic Games on three occasions. From Wembley Stadium to the O2 Arena, Lord’s Cricket Ground to Weymouth Coast, the world’s finest physical specimens, marked out not only for their superlative abilities but also the fierce hard graft required of the modern athlete, will gather for the greatest competition of them all. And there will be a collection of Irish hopefuls in each discipline, aiming to be part of the great drama.

For a small island, we have a proud history in the Games, littered with startling, triumphant moments and inspiring icons, whose feats are indelibly imprinted on our collective mind. Ronnie Delaney running to gold back in the ‘50s; David Wilkins and James Wilkinson sailing to silver in Moscow 1980; John Treacy snatching silver in Los Angeles; the exploits of Michael Carruth and Wayne McCullough in Barcelona; and, of course, the extreme highs and lows of the Michelle Smith story – the latter aside, these are memories to which our current Olympians hope to add. Among those mounting the Irish Olympic challenge this year are John Joe Nevin, Annalise Murphy, Jason Smyth and Chloe Murphy – competing in boxing, sailing, running and badminton respectively. Let’s see what they have to say at the beginning of what may may well be the crucialyear of their young lives...

Jason Smyth

Jason Smyth’s story is one of triumph over adversity. No wonder he is currently earning plaudits left, right and centre, most notably from his training partner (and second fastest 100 metre runner in the world) Tyson Gay.
Born in 1987 to a Mormon family from Eglington, Derry, the Northerner was diagnosed at an early age with Stardgadt’s Disease, a condition that affects his central vision. As a teen he was spotted by track coach Stephen Maguire, who took him under his wing and steered the young runner to the highest level of Paralympic competition. After just four years running, in 2008 Smyth picked up two gold medals for Ireland in the 100m and 200m at the Paralympic Games in Beijing, whilst smashing both world records in a feat akin to Usain Bolt’s extraordinary achievements that same summer. Confirmed as a Paralympian par excellence, Smyth focussed on another goal – competing not only in the next Paralympics, but the general 2012 Olympic Games as well. Part of that plan – thanks to a deal Stephen Maguire brokered with coach Lance Brauman in 2008 – involved relocating to the National Training Centre in Clermont, Florida, to run alongside the likes of Tyson Gay. Smyth then became the first Paralympian to compete in a European Championships in 2010. While he has not qualified yet, Smyth is very much on course for London. With the 100ms in mind, he has 0.04 of a second to shave off his personal best. If he does, he’ll be making some remarkable history.
Smyth’s achievements in 2011 were all the more impressive given the fact he’d started the year bedevilled by injury.
“If last year I had been looking forward,” he ref;ects, “I would have snatched at what did actually happen but on the other side of that, once you get through the year, you’re always wanting more. Hopefully I can kick on this year for the big one.”
You’re dealing with such small margins when you pursue these qualifying times.
“As you know, 100m is ridiculously short, it’s only ten seconds. So any part of your race you don’t get right, you can’t make up the time. If you don’t start, the race is over. Small margins become big margins when it comes to the 100m race.”
Is simply getting to London enough?
“For these Olympics, it’d be getting there – and, then, being able to get out and run at that Olympic Standard again. Looking further ahead, the 2016 Olympics will probably be the one where I will be better positioned to achieve. For how many sacrifices you’ve got to make, you’ve got to have something big to aim for.”
Is it a massive leap up in class from Paralympic competition?
“It really is a big change. I probably didn’t appreciate how big a step-up it is. You’re going into groups where you have the best athletes in the world. The hard work they put in, the intensity… Honestly, that first year I struggled.”
You credit training in Florida with your incredible improvements: are the facilities and coaching so much better there than in Ireland?
“Florida has been extremely important. The facts will show you that I’ve continued to run faster and faster since I went. Yes, you have super weather and good facilities – but to be training, day in and day out, with the people who are the best in the world, you learn so much from being there and training with them. They’re very welcoming.”
In particular, you seem to have developed a strong relationship with Tyson Gay.
“I get on well with him. Tyson’s very good to me. He would openly give me advice or relate things technically that he would think of in races. There’s not very many people who are better to learn from than Tyson. That experience is priceless. I go into the group, keep my head down and just work hard. I think that might be what he respects about me. Just saying nothing and getting on with it.”
Considering he recently claimed that he envies your running technique, calling it superior to his own, would you ever say something to help him out?
“I dunno about that (laughs)! He’s run a lot quicker than me. I don’t really tend to give him tips. I think I’d feel wrong, he’d probably go, ‘What the hell are you doing giving me tips?!’”.
Tyson’s comments have understandably garnered media attention, as has your story of dealing with disability. Do you ever get tired of talking about being the ‘visually impaired runner’?
“Not at all, actually. The fact is, I’m a paralympic athlete. I’m visually impaired. So I don’t have a problem answering that question. If I had never had my impairment, I never would have been an athlete. I’d never be getting the funding that allows me to be full-time, never would have gotten to the States and had the opportunity to improve what I do.”
You’ve called it an “odd blessing”. Does your disability in any way aid you on the track?
“I don’t know about race day but… other senses improve – my coach Steve would often say, ‘That boy can hear everything!’”.
Apparently it took some time for Steve to realise you had trouble with your vision?
“Yeah, until my dad told him he didn’t know. I can see enough to get around but not if you want to challenge me on something. And I’m not the sort of person that would go around telling people: I just get on with it.”
Are you partially driven to inspire others who are impaired?
“That’s probably what I like about what I do. If anything, it just might give people an opportunity or make them think, ‘He’s normal, I come from normal places, there’s no reason why I can’t aspire to do something good’. When you physically see someone doing it, it makes it so much easier to relate and think you can do it yourself.”
You’re also the pride of another minority on this island, given your Mormon background and how vocal you’ve been when expressing what your faith means to you.
“I’m very religious and what I believe is a big part of who I am. It keeps me well grounded and gives me a purpose, a sense of the opportunities in life that I’ve been blessed with and an opportunity to be an example to others. Am I the most famous Irish Mormon? Well, there wouldn’t be a lot of us! My biggest thing that I’ve noticed is people’s understanding of it is not exactly what we believe. I always get the questions, silly things like, ‘How many wives have you got?’. People hear something from somebody and all of a sudden you have these rumours that are rubbish. That’s probably the hardest thing to deal with. ‘He does this and that’, when the reality of it is, that’s not what we’re like at all! It’s a bit like Paralympic sports too. People’s initial thought of it is of people running around with really bad disabilities, y’know? That’s not the case. But there’s a lot of that, in most parts of life.”
Coming from Derry, was it a tough decision choosing between representing the UK or Ireland?
“When I was declaring I could have gone either way to be honest. My dad at the time said to both countries that I had that option and the Irish Sports Council came back straight away and were very enthusiastic about wanting to support me and do whatever they could to make me achieve. But the British came with the attitude of, ‘Whatever’, y’know? A lot of it comes down to whether people are Catholic or Protestant – but for me that wasn’t an issue, it was about what was best for my career. Of course it is a big deal for anybody to represent their country at any level. I think that’s probably the best thing anybody can do. To be able to represent Ireland, to be on the podium as the national anthem plays, that’s special.”

John Joe Nevin

One of the most talked about amateur exponents of the sweet science, at the age of 22, John Joe Nevin is ready to take that big career leap and potentially turn pro. But first, there is the Olympics. John Joe’s been there and done that before, reaching the Beijing Olympics as a teen. Now, he may just be ready to go all the way.
The Irish have long thrived inOlympic boxing, with Nevin joining a line that includes the likes of Wayne McCullough, Barry McGuigan and Kenny Egan. He qualified for London 2012 at the AIBA World Boxing Championships in Baku last October, where he reached the semi-finals before bowing out with bronze, losing to England’s Luke Campbell. But that was a contentious decision, with many feeling that Nevin had been the better fighter.
He will be representing not just his country but his community. Born and bred in Westmeath, John Joe’s family are travellers through and through, and he has become something of a poster boy for young travellers the country over in recent times.
Looking back at 2011, Olympic qualification takes precedent, but a nomination alongside the likes of Katie Taylor for ‘RTÉ Sportsperson of the Year’ must have been the cherry on the cake.
“It was be a big deal,” he says very directly. “It shows that I’m getting recognised for what I’m doing and that I’m up there with the best. And I’d know Katie well alright. We’d train together at the IABI High Performance Unit. We often spar together and we’ve been away together on many trips. As for the year, qualifying for the Olympics was definitely the highlight. That and getting my second bronze medal.”
After the controversial win on countback for Luke Campbell at the World Championship semi-finals in Azerbaijan, Nevin commented that boxing can be cruel.
“Yeah it can,” he says, “but I’ll just train harder, get my head down and get him back in the main one. It’s one apiece now. I’d beaten him well two years before and hopefully I can learn from the defeat and get him back. 2012 is the big one. I can pull anything off if I perform. When I went to the last Olympics I was 18 years old, I was only a baby. I was very cocky, you know how teenagers are! Now I’ll be one of the big guns, so if I bring my A game to the ring I can beat anyone.”
Can he describe the feeling of stepping into that ring?
“It’s a good feeling. Representing your country is always going to be exciting. It can be cruel at times, it can be very cruel.”
At 22, does his experience counter the nerves?
“I’m boxing better and I’ll be 23 when the Games start, so I’m peaking right about now. That said, there’s always nerves. It’s a good partner, nervousness. It keeps you on edge. If you’ve no nerves, you’re in a bad situation.”
What potential opponents worry you?
“Well the toughest boy I ever boxed was the Mongolian, Enkhbatyn Badar-Uugan, that beat me in the last Olympics. He went on to win the Gold Medal and he was a class act. He won’t be at the next Olympics though, he has plenty of money made for himself off the back of that gold! There’s a good few out there, great fighters from Bulgaria, Mongolia, that English lad Luke Campbell, Cubans… all top class fighters. But I know that I can compete.”
Going back to your beginnings, how did you get involved with boxing?
“I was seven years old when I started, but I would have seen my cousins around boxing before that. My dad‘s told me I was all about wanting to go with them at the time but he held me off because he didn’t really want me going that young. Soon enough he couldn’t put up with the nagging anymore though and sent me down. I was eight years old when I got my first decision fight against a lad of 13. He was a stone heavier than me and the All-Ireland champion. I shouldn’t have taken the fight but my coach put me in for the laugh…. Well, he knew I wouldn’t get stopped. My opponent was saying that he’d stop me and that I was too young but I went the distance, I was too fast for him, ducking from all angles. It was the fear, trying to get out of the way. I have a tape of it and I occasionally put it on and have a laugh out of it!”
Boxing is a strong traveller tradition.
“It is, and I don’t know why. It used to be all about handball. In my dad’s time there was plenty of handball and running. A few cousins of mine have actually won a few All-Irelands at the handball.
The story goes that one or two of the lads went down to the boxing club to do a bit of training and once they got down there they enjoyed it and entered competitions. Then as one went in, many would follow.”
And there was no temptation to follow the bare knuckle fighting route?
“No, not at all. I never would. That’s a traveller tradition, but you don’t have to do these things if you don’t want to. Traditions can be broken. Keep your boxing for the ring, because you’re getting recognised. You’re not getting recognised going out there and bare knuckle fighting. You can get paid well alright, there’s money from the bets laid down, but you’re not getting the appreciation you’re getting when you go and represent your country in the ring.”
What does that mean to you?
“It means you’re one of the chosen ones. You look back at previous people who’ve represented the country – Michael Carruth was there, Bernard Dunne, Andy Lee. There’s many a great lad that’s worn the colour. My coach Billy Walsh himself… I’ve met a lot of the former greats. They’re always encouraging you, telling you to concentrate on one fight at a time. They tell me, ‘You only get one chance in this sport, so grab it with both hands’. Then I used to love Muhammad Ali, watching old videos of him. It’s my style, moving up on your toes, so I’d have to like him! Nowadays, it would be Floyd Mayweather. Again, a counter puncher, a mover. I’d love to turn out like one of them and be a World Champion.”
Aside from representing your country, you’re also representing your community. How does being a role model for young travellers sit with you?
“There’s many young travelling boxers going to clubs now and hopefully they’ll look up to me. Hopefully they can achieve more than I’ve achieved. Keep them off the street. It’s better than this bare knuckle stuff. Stay in the sport.”
Does your success help change the wider public’s misperceptions of your people and heritage?
“Hopefully they’ll look that way after seeing me. The odd person puts me down as ‘one of them’. I can get around that. I’ve gone through tougher times and had tougher things to deal with. When I qualified for my first Olympics, my family was looking to hold a surprise party for me. But sure, anywhere they would go in Mullingar, they couldn’t get a reception. This went on for about a month, ‘til I got word of it. It was all over the radio.
“My coach got on saying how terrible it was that we couldn’t organise something. The bookmaker Paddy Power stepped forward and then a Monaghan hotelier got on the air and said they’d love to take us. We went and there was no trouble, my family respect me too much for that. For my family to go in there and ruin my career, make a bad name for me? They’d never do it. So it went back in a lot of people’s faces. I know you’re always going to get travellers out there that are messers, but that goes for the settled people as well. Even with foreigners, they can get jobs and go in their pints of Guinness in a pub, in groups. They have no hassle, but then when it comes to the travellers, we’re just ‘different’ because of the bare knuckle fighting and all that. As I say, you don’t judge a book by its cover.”

Annalise Murphy

Annalise Murphy is a real water baby. Brought up in a family obsessed with sailing, she booked her place in the Olympics, after only three years on the senior circuit, with some stunning displays at the World Championships in Perth in December. Ultimately she ended sixth, missing out on a medal, but her individual racing, particularly early on, was hugely impressive.
At 21 years of age, Murphy – who sails out of Dun Laoghaire – took on the best Laser Radial sailors in the world and, on a number of occasions, left them trailing in her wake. If she carries that form into the Olympics she will be in the final shake-up.
2011 was the year Annalise came of age. She finished third, taking the bronze medal, in the ISAF World Cup in June, held at the Olympic venue in Weymouth. But then she has the heritage – her mother Cathy MacAleavey sailed for Ireland at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.
Our sole representative in the Women’s Laser Radial class, the word among the experts is that her consistency in Regattas still needs work. But if she has a strong wind behind her, she can beat anybody.
As it happens. qualification came quite early on in the World Championships when the fleet split and Annalise made the top half.
“Yeah, it was overwhelming,” she says. “And it’s still hard to believe that I actually managed to do it. If you’d asked me three years ago what my chances were, I would have laughed. I hoped maybe for 2016 – but I had such a good year last year and I’ve been getting progressively better. I was quite lucky. It was a six-day event and we couldn’t sail on the second due to thunderstorms, so they split the group 50/50. I counted up the nations and realised I was within the top 29, in the gold fleet, so I’d qualified for the Olympics. It was a huge relief!”
You’re still a long way off your peak years and yet you’re challenging seasoned sailors.
“For medalling potential it’s quite an old sport, yeah. Generally people with a lot of experience, who have been to one or two Olympics before, come through. The older athletes have been in every situation before and know things are going to happen that I would be completely oblivious to until it suddenly happens to me! At my first Europeans, there was this American girl, Paige Railey, in the senior fleet, who was unbeatable. I remember seeing her and thinking, ‘Wow, I would absolutely love to be her!’. I thought she was the most amazing person I’d ever seen, I was in awe of her. Now, she’s a person that I regularly beat! But coming eighth in the World Championships 2009 was just because I had had the event of my life. I wasn’t that standard at the time – but by doing that I got into the Sports Council funding system and they made it so that I could defer my degree in college and start sailing full-time.”
Choosing to defer must have been a huge decision.
“It was. I’d done my first year of Science in UCD and then I had a good summer sailing at the World Championships. I didn’t really know what to do, I was terrified that if I deferred I might just end up sailing for the next few years and not actually doing that well, having given up going to college with all my friends. It was a pretty scary prospect. I actually went back to UCD for two weeks and I was there going, ‘I shouldn’t be here, everyone else is training full-time’. My mum told me to go for it, that I’ve forever to finish college.”
Your mother has Olympic pedigree in sailing, and your father distinguished himself in the sport as well. It seems to be something you were born to do.
“My parents met sailing actually, we’re like a sailing-freak family! My sister and brother sail as well. I grew up knowing what Mum had achieved and was quite proud of that – so few people get to go to the Olympics. I started sailing with them when I was about five but I just enjoyed the swimming and splashing around in the water. Then when I was ten I went down and did a junior sailing course in Dún Laoghaire. That’s when I realised I liked it, so I started racing.”
How did your family react to news of your qualification?
“Both my mum and dad are really supportive but they never ask, ‘What were you doing in this race?’ We talk about other stuff, which is quite nice! I guess because my mum did it all herself, she knows the pressure that’s involved. They know when to back off or start talking about something completely different. They’ll ring me and say, ‘Yeah, so… the economy…’”
Given their romantic history, do they expect any boy you bring home to have his own boat?
“I don’t think they’d care (laughs)! Although my mum is always saying, ‘You’ll have to marry a sailor!’ – she thinks no-one else would understand the obsession.”
Does the obsession have a downside?
“Well, having deferred college, I miss the whole social aspect of going out and seeing my friends. I do spend quite a lot of time by myself and it can be quite lonely. But luckily I’ve made great friends from all different countries on the sailing circuit and they’re friends that I’ll have for life. And at 21 I’ve managed to go to so many countries – Australia, Japan, New Zealand, America – all these really cool places. So there’s definite perks.”
So how do you assess your chances in London?
“On my good days, nobody can beat me. It’s a case of making all those good days fall together on that one week in August. I know I can win races in World Championships. I won six at Weymouth, the Olympic venue last year, which is a big boost. It’s all going to depend on the weather as well, the kind of wind.”
What conditions suit you best?
“I really like it when it’s windy. That’s where I’m better than everyone else. I’ve been working a lot on my light and medium weather sailing to try and be as good in those conditions. Generally during a Regatta, you’ll have a mix. I feel I’ve really improved on dealing with that. When August comes around, whatever happens, I’ll sail my best and hope that’s good enough. Still, it’d be great if everyone could wish for it to rain and gale all summer!”
At your service...

Chloe Magee

In the ever-burgeoning world of Irish badminton Chloe Magee, 23, of Raphoe, Co. Donegal, has already entered the record books. Having unexpectedly qualified for Beijing 2008, in that momentous year, she became the first Irish person to win a game of badminton at the Olympics. Her brief run ended after that first round triumph, but it put a fire under her – and the past four years have all been about getting back to the summit of sport, hopefully to give an even greater account of herself.
That drive, determination and near-obsessive love for her sport shouldn’t come as any surprise when you take a glance at her early life. Put simply, badminton is in her blood. It was her father who initially caught the bug, prompting him to run a local club in Donegal (chiefly, he has said with a smile, because it’s too rainy in Donegal to play tennis). Chloe’s childhood days, along with those of her brothers Dan and Sam, were spent at the club. When push came to shove post-Leaving Cert, Chloe almost opted for academia, but her father pointed out her talent with a racket, and she opted instead for the superior training facilities of Sweden.
Beijing beckoned – and success has followed success since. 2011 might have been her best year yet – she was all but confirmed for London 2012 when she made the quarter-finals at the Irish Championships in Lisburn last December and she won her first ever international senior women’s tournament at the Lithuanian International Open in June. For Magee, however, it remains a family affair. Along with her brother and badminton partner Sam, she also picked up gold in the mixed doubles at that same Lithuanian event, and is coached by older brother Dan. No doubt they’ll make the trip to London to cheer her on.
In many ways, her win at the Beijing Olympics put Irish badminton on the map. What does she remember of it?
“It was unbelievable,” she says. “The whole thing went so fast. I was so young and didn’t expect to get there. Then when we arrived it was straight into training and then into the hall. Everything flew past me, it didn’t even feel like the Olympics! But I’ll never forget the crowd. There were 10,000 people in the arena and it was such a good feeling when I won that match. It was in China but everyone sort of got behind me, I don’t know why!”
Chloe’s participation in London will be made official after the badminton season ends in May. Does she see it as the culmination of a four-year process?
“It will be, yeah. Beijing was unexpected but this time, I really wanted to be there. I’ve trained to be there, done everything to be the best I could and get to London.”
It ended with a very strong 2011. Your best year yet?
“My victories at the Lithuanian International Open were huge. It’s a mental thing for me as well now, knowing I can actually do it. Over the past year my ranking’s been better. I’ve won more tournaments and been in better positions in the big tournaments. I’m just a better player, so everything’s looking up.”
Looking at the number of matches you played at that event (ten in three days), you get a sense of the intensity of the sport.
“Lithuania was just crazy. It was a lot of matches but I was fit enough to do it and delighted to get both titles. Most players don’t play two events [singles and mixed doubles] but because I’m doing so well in both, I don’t want to give them up. It depends on my brother Sam: he’s a doubles player and he might want to move away from the mixed. We’re both young at the minute so it’s not taking too much out of us but in two or three years we’ll have to choose.”
Sticking with major tournaments, Chloe took part in the Yonex BWF World Badminton Championships in London right around the time of the riots. Boris Johnson, Lord Mayor of London, turned up, thanking the crowd for showing the city in a good light. Did she get caught up in the unrest?
“Yeah, it was exactly at that time! We were warned to stay within the hotel and badminton hall, not to get involved with anything outside. The rioting came close to where we were. It was bad timing, being the World Championships, because everyone was there: Europeans, Asians… and then they’re coming back for the Olympics after being scared to step outside their London hotel last year!”
I’d imagine badminton crowds aren’t too rowdy?
“Strangely, if you go to Asia they can be noisy, but in Europe they’re quite reserved. In Asia, badminton is massive. It’s their best sport and they’re brilliant at it. When we went to Beijing, images of Lin Dan, the best in the world, were everywhere. They love it, whereas over here it’s football or rugby.”
Can anything be done to raise the game’s status?
“The problem is that it’s not on TV enough. It’s the fastest racket sport in the world, and the people playing it are unbelievable athletes. If people got to watch it more often and understood the game, they’d love it. So many people have come into my house and said, ‘I’ve never seen badminton played like that before!’ Also, Ireland’s never really had anyone doing well in the sport, so it hasn’t been promoted. Now Scott Evans and myself are doing quite well, so it’ll hopefully get a bit more coverage.”
Your love for the game is evident.
“My dad ran the local club so myself and my brothers were always going there. Most of the time I was just playing against them and I think if I didn’t have them I wouldn’t be as good as I am. I was lucky to have better people to play against all the time. But my dad could watch badminton from when he gets up till he goes to bed. He absolutely loves the sport. When I finished my Leaving Cert, I didn’t want to play and he was telling me that it’d be wrong to give up the opportunity, that it was such a great experience. Looking back I’m so pleased that he made me realise that.”
What were your reservations?  
“You know the big hype about college life, I just wanted to be part of that. I knew it was going to be very lonely going away by myself to train in Sweden, where I didn’t know anybody. It was very, very daunting.”
Chloe spent a lot of time in Sweden.
“I was living there for about two years. I had to leave because there was nothing in Ireland. Now I have one of the best set-ups I could possibly have here but my brothers are still based in Denmark because they need to play better players all the time. It’s just the way it has to be.”
So where will you be based in the run-up to London?
“At the minute it’s crazy because I want to be at my best for London. It’s all fitness for me now as I’ve had pretty good results in tournaments. A lot of running, a lot of weights. Every single day, bar Sunday, I’m doing something. I’m currently training full-time in Dublin and then I go over to the German League about 14 times a year which gives me good sparring practice with other players.”
Unavoidably, that must come at the expense of a social life?
“Oh for sure. All my friends live completely different lives! Before Christmas, I hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol for eight months. When you’re 23 years of age, that’s not exactly what everyone else is doing. But I actually quite enjoy it. Once you’re going out for one or two nights, I think you get enough of it anyway. I really want to be better at my sport, so I know if I sacrifice that side of things I will be.”

The 2012 Summer Olympics take place in London between July 27 and August 12.