Irish reputation tarnished by medal controversy - Hickey

The Cian O’Connor gold medal controversy has given Ireland a bad reputation, the Olympic Council of Ireland admitted today.

Council president Pat Hickey said the saga was being discussed Europe-wide and that it would reflect badly on a number of national organisations as well as on the Irish people.

“It is giving us a bad image,” he told the Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Sport and Tourism. “But that’s life and when it arises we have to go through the proper procedures.”

Mr Hickey said everybody had moved “way too fast” and should slow down and wait for O’Connor to decide how he wanted to proceed.

Mr Hickey also said he believed immigrants would make up a large proportion of Irish Olympic teams by 2012. “The standard of wrestling, weightlifting and ladies volleyball in clubs has increased enormously,” he said. “Immigrants are starting to take part and it is very, very good for Irish sport.”

Reflecting on the Irish team’s disappointing overall performance in Athens, the OCI president said he though Ireland’s expectations were too high.

Fine Gael TD Jimmy Deenihan asked why so many international consultants were being drafted in to assess what went wrong in Athens, saying such problems could surely be identified by the Irish themselves.

Mr Hickey agreed an enormous amount was being spent on consultants considering how much expertise was available within the OCI.

He also told the committee he could not understand why a council member did not sit on the Irish Sports Council.

“When he was sports minister Jim McDaid put Dermot Sherlock (OCI general secretary) off the council and we have never had anyone on it since,” he said. “So when funding is allocated we are not consulted, and again, we have huge expertise in this area.”

The Council said more resources had to be ploughed into the younger generation, nurturing young talent and plucking out potential medal winners at an early stage.

Progressive Democrat TD Fiona O’Malley said it was time for fresh blood on the Council and that officials rather than the athlete had become the priority.

Mr Hickey “absolutely and utterly” disputed the allegation and said that the OCI dedicated itself to the athletes.

The OCI is due to publish a review of Ireland’s performance at Athens in mid-December.