Kilty a man with a mission in Rio for Team Ireland
Paul McGinley’s glaringly green golf sweater isn’t so much loud as ear-splitting (and eye-watering) in a gathering of otherwise sober suits and dark jackets, none of which are divested until the new arrivals have had some minutes to fully shake the winter cold from their bones.
McGinley would still have stood out had his jumper not.
Lauded for his captain’s role in Europe’s recent Ryder Cup triumph at Gleneagles, his unveiling as team leader for Ireland’s golfers at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio all but stole the show at a press conference where 16 other team ‘skippers’ and €2m in extra funding were also announced to a sizeable audience.
Sitting at the top table — along with McGinley, the Olympic Council of Ireland’s Pat Hickey and Minister for State Michael Ring — was a man whose face few would know, but whose responsibility it ultimately is to deliver a smooth and satisfying experience for all 60-plus or so of the Irish athletes expected to qualify for the event in Brazil.
His name is Kevin Kilty and he is Ireland’s latest chef de mission.
As a role, his is not unlike that of a referee, in that it is only when the proverbial hits the fan that the unfortunate chef de mission is thrust front and centre and into the limelight, but Kilty is already elbow deep in the process of ensuring that there will be no media firestorms over unsuitable accommodation or the like come 2016.
By the time the Olympics swings around in 20 months’ time, he will have already travelled to Brazil at least five times to dot the infinite number of i’s and cross the endless t’s and it is, in so many ways, a far more complicated task than that faced by his predecessor, Sonia O’Sullivan, given the geographical and other disparities between London and Rio.
“London was a home Games in the sense that we could keep athletes at home and send them in very much at the last minute,” said Kilty yesterday. “The closest (advantage) we have next time is that the time difference is not too bad. It’s going to be slightly different. We’re not going to be able to shuttle people backwards and forwards like we did in London and to get across London was quite easy.”
Ireland’s pre-Games holding camp two years ago was in St Mary’s University near Twickenham. Roughly, it was a 75-minute journey by rail and Underground to Olympic Park. The base in Brazil is in Uberlandia which, to reach the Olympic venues in 2016, will involve a flight that takes twice as long, but Kilty & Co. are confident they have found the ideal springboard from which to launch the team’s bid.
Uberlandia, a city of over 600,000 and whose name translates roughly as ‘Fertile Land’, certainly sounds promising. It’s safe for a start, by Brazilian standards. Team Ireland will be based in the newly-built Hotel Plaza and prepare in the Praia Club, a members-only affair with, in what sounds kinda like a contradiction, a membership of 25,000.
All events need to be prepared for.
Portuguese doesn’t exactly trip off most Irish people’s tongues so an ex-pat living in Uberlandia this last three decades will play middle man for the various parties who visit between now and showtime. Near the top of the priorities are medical facilities. Uberlandia’s hospital, for instance, is just 10 minutes from the team base and everything is being rubber-stamped by people in the know.
“We have already had one medical doctor out there with us, Dave Fegan, who is an expert in infectious diseases,” said Kilty. “He came out with me in April of this year and that was specifically because we had some concerns about the water quality at the sailing venue.
“We made connections with the medical facilities in Uberlandia and also with the medical staff of the Rio organising committee. We are bringing out a bigger medical group next and headed by Dr Sean Gaines who is chief medical officer of the OCI. We also have (the IRFU’s medical chief) Rod McLaughlin and Aidan Woods, our physiotherapist, going out.”
Kilty’s last visit was back in August, a deliberately timed trip that coincided with the time of year when the Games will take place. The good news is that the temperatures and humidity will be nothing like Beijing in 2008. Neither will smog be a factor in a city that nestles in a hollow between sea and mountains and which lacks for major industries.
If it all seems a long way away now, that’s understandable. Ireland’s only confirmed participants so far are limited to eventing and sailing, but the trickle will morph into a steady flow throughout 2015, by the end of which the vast majority of Kilty’s work will have been done.
And, all going well, we won’t see much of him come the gig itself.
* Email: brendan.obrien@examiner.ie
* Twitter: @Rackob
