A Little Respect When I Come Home

I marvel sometimes at the colossal stupidities people regularly spout, that masquerade as pearls of wisdom. One of the great ones currently is the contention that we should only send people to the Olympic Games or the World Championships who are in with a chance of a medal.

In with a chance of a medal! It is a safe bet that anyone who trades in that kind of bullshit has never been actively involved in sport. They know nothing of the dedication and self-sacrifice that is necessary to get even within spitting distance of the best in the world, never mind what it takes to compete successfully against them. They haven’t a clue just how good the guys who come in tenth or even twentieth have to be. And as for getting into the top three…
Typically, we’ve seen more than a few politicians spouting nonsense of this kind too, bemoaning our performance in last year’s Olympics as a failure and whinging about what it costs to support our elite athletes. It is a stance that is in danger of becoming fashionable, given the ever tightening economic constraints under which we are being forced to operate. The argument is being made with increasing regularity that putting money into sport is a waste of time if we end up with nothing to show for it in terms of trophies. This is awful nonsense. So, before we go any further, I think, as Millie Jackson might say, we need to to ‘clearify’ a few things.
To start at the beginning, Ireland is a small country with a population of less than 6 million. In all sorts of areas, not least in music, we punch well above our weight internationally. We have produced a far higher proportion of hugely influential and successful artists than we have any right to expect. This is particularly true in literature, where our record of four Nobel prize winners is remarkable, and that list of notables – William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney – does not feature arguably the greatest writer of them all, James Joyce.
The same is true in contemporary music: from Van Morrison through to U2 and on to The Script (it would serve no purpose to recite the complete roll-call here), we have produced musicians, bands and songwriters of extraordinary calibre. But in both of these artistic disciplines, we benefit significantly from the fact that English has long been the dominant language of the world’s literary and cultural activity. This is not to suggest that our estimation of the improbable importance of Ireland’s contribution should be revised downward, just to make what is a genuine distinction between the arts and sport.
In sport, we have no competitive advantages. At the highest level, you go head to head on exactly equal terms, with people from every other country in the world. It isn’t entirely outlandish therefore to suggest that, since in the region of 0.1% of the world’s population lives in Ireland, we are therefore entitled on a per capita basis to expect to take approximately 0.1% of any medals that are going. I know that’s a crude measure that fails to take our relative economic privilege into account, but it still helps to put things in perspective.
In the World Athletics Championships in Berlin, which came to an end last weekend, a total of 202 countries competed. Of these, only 37 won medals. Having taken a silver medal through Olive Loughnane in the 20km walk, Ireland ranked joint 24th. Despite the hostile ramblings of the naysayers, the begrudgers and the cynics, that represents a highly creditable achievement. But it is even moreso, considering that a couple of other Irish contenders ended up just outside the medals.
It is instructive concerning our mean-spirited attitude to sports that Derval O’Rourke has been so poorly treated by the sports authorities here. It may have seemed in recent years that she had fallen short of her original promise. Having won the gold medal at the World Indoor Championships a few years back, she did not succeed in competing to the same standard at the Olympic Games last year, apparently as a result of breathing difficulties. You might think that she would have been treated sympathetically given that there was a medical condition involved, but no. Instead, in the year of the World Championships, she had her grant cut substantially.
Effectively, this decision was an endorsement of the negativity of the boo boys and the scroungers – but, as it proved, the Scrooge-like lack of support was entirely misplaced. When the chips were down, Derval answered her critics brilliantly. She came fourth in what was a fiercely contested final of the 110 Metres hurdles, beaten out of the medals by a hair’s breadth – and in doing so broke her own Irish record.
Think about it now for a minute: in her discipline, right now Derval O’Rourke is the fourth best in the world. How many of the ignoramuses who hurl abuse from the ditch could ever remotely aspire to that kind of eminence? And people thought it wasn’t worth forty grand a year to support her?
David Gillick was another to flourish in Berlin. An athlete who has improved steadily over the past five years, the 26-year-old from Ballinteer in south Dublin has had his finest season yet and thoroughly deserved his sixth place in the 400 metres. He didn’t win a medal? Not good enough! In truth, he was the highest placed European in the event, which is the kind of salient fact that escapes the moaners. Black runners tend to dominate sprinting and he isn’t one, as a cursory glance at his face will confirm. But he can and probably will improve further. To do so, however, will require an extraordinary level of determination and the kind of hard work that the majority of people run away from like Usain Bolt after he’s seen a ghost (before falling over in a heap, their teeth chattering in abject terror).
The point is that, for many athletes, the years when you come in 24th are a necessary preparation. Some get to their peak quicker. Others need to try and try and try again before they achieve their best. There has been a yo-yo aspect to Derval O’Rourke’s career. Similarly David Gillick’s. But they have improved over the long haul only by staying with the programme and working like demons.
Similarly, Paul Hession has taken Irish sprinting onto another level. Described as the fastest white man in the world, he is the Irish record holder in both the 100 and the 200 metres. This time around, having shown very good form in the run-up to the championships, he fancied his chances and so was deeply disappointed not to make the final of the 200 metres. The niggling thought entered his head after the semi-final that he just isn’t good enough. And perhaps he has reached his peak: ultimately there is, after all, a moment when everyone in athletics reaches a peak, after which there are only less impressive times and diminishing returns. But that is not a given – and only Paul and his coach really know what the potential for improvement in the future really is.
Will he have the exceptional character that is required to pick himself up after this anti-climax and give it everything, and a little bit more, again? Because that is what it takes for an athlete who is pushing the outside of the envelope in terms of their personal potential. Hopefully he will, and with refinements to his training regime, and a season free of injury, who knows? He might make another significant step forward, to get definitively into the top eight in the world. But the idea that he should be seen as a ‘failure’ because he fell marginally short of the ambitious goals he had set for himself is deeply insulting and shows a shocking lack of understanding of the demands of competing at the highest level.
So instead of carping, let us acknowledge just how brilliant it is when Irish athletes break into the Top 10 in the world or get close to it. And when we take a silver medal as Olive Loughnane did – well, that’s a cause for genuine respect and celebration. Hers is a classic story of gradual improvement, from 35th place in the Sydney Olympics in 2000, through 17th at the World Championships in Osaka in 2007 and then 7th in the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008 to 2nd in the World Championships in 2009.
Walking may not be the sexiest sport on the planet, but it is no less demanding for that. Hats off to her – and to the rest of the Irish athletes who work so hard in the pursuit of greatness. It is a lonely and often demoralising pursuit in which support and encouragement is vital. They deserve as much of that as we can afford – and a little bit more into the bargain…