Shuttling round the world for destination Rio

Okay, so here’s the deal. You choose. A week spent in Cork and Dublin, or a destination anywhere else in the world.

And we mean ‘anywhere’.

Seriously. Name it. Sydney. New York. Tahiti. Milton Keynes. The world is, literally, your oyster. Hell, you’d be scrambling for your passport, wouldn’t you?

For most of us, the concept of foreign travel is one to be embraced, and unreservedly. But, as with anything, familiarity can lead to, if not contempt, then exhaustion. This column has a friend who once upon a time spent his life travelling to destinations as exotic as the Caribbean and South Africa for work. To such an extent, that the prospect of an evening on the sofa at home was his idea of heaven.

Some of our best athletes would agree.

They may have a poster of Rio de Janeiro plastered on their bedroom walls, or a screensaver of the Copacabana saved as their desktops, but the business of booking passage to Brazil in 2016 is an arduous one that can involve hundreds of thousands of air miles and countless hours spent hanging around airports and in faceless hotel rooms.

It’s one of the reasons why an event like the Carlton Irish Open, which is being held in Baldoyle in north County Dublin this week, is such a welcome stop on the merry-go-round for the small but significant number of international-class badminton players who hail from these shores and yet spend so much time away from them.

“Ah, I don’t think I can describe how nice it is to play at home,” said Sam Magee, one of Ireland’s best prospects, as he drove from Dublin to Cork last Monday to face Taiwan in an international at the Mardyke Arena. “It was 13 hours flying from Hong Kong (last month), like. It’s constant flying. Even after this, I’ll be in France playing and then Italy after that, so everything is just constantly travel, travel, travel. It does wear you down at times and you do have to get your schedule right because it can mentally take a lot out of you.”

It’s not a whinge. Let’s say that, straight up. Magee has spoken in the past about the life that badminton has afforded him and the friends he has made through it. His siblings Daniel, Chloe and Joshua were all bitten hard by the same bug and have travelled the world representing their country, yet most of us tune in to the Olympics every four years and don’t truly appreciate the lengths to which our athletes have gone to simply be there.

In fairness, how could we?

Sam Magee’s itinerary this last 12 months alone makes for astonishing reading. Already this year he has touched down in Switzerland, Germany, Finland, Russia, Greece, Spain, Canada, USA, Brazil, Denmark, France, China and Hong Kong. That’s by no means every stop along the way and some of those listed have been visited more than once.

Most of that is done away from the limelight. The achievements of Chloe Magee and Scott Evans in making the Olympics in Beijing six years ago and again in London, in 2012, succeeded in directing a modicum of exposure to the sport, but other gains are being banked far away from the spotlight of the five-ring circus.

Last month, the Irish team qualified for the European Mixed Team Championships for the first time and they will be held in Belgium next February. Evans has just enjoyed his best year yet and Sam and Chloe Magee currently sit 30th in the global standings. The top 16 qualify for Rio, although the rules limiting each country to just two representatives will eliminate at least a few high-ranked Chinese hopefuls come the May 2015 deadline.

Chloe and Sam may have grown up on opposite sides of the net in Raphoe, but they are at the foothills of their partnership on the international stage. Even still, they reached the semi-finals of their first event together, the Yonex Canada Open, and featured in the decider of the Brasil Grand Prix, which drew a particularly high-class field, given it served as a test event for the 2016 shindig.

Chloe sits out the Irish Open this week with injury — as does Evans — meaning Sam will have to concentrate on his other nascent on-court relationship, that with his younger brother Joshua. Playing with a brother and sister has obvious advantages, on and off the court, but for Sam it brings with it its own challenges.

“At the minute, it is very tricky because me and Chloe have a very high ranking in the world, so we can play the best tournaments. The problem is that me and Josh are starting out with a low ranking so I have to bounce about. Last week I was in Hong Kong with Chloe at the best tournament and next I have to go to Italy and one of the smaller tournaments with Josh.”

Next year brings with it another new destination: that of Baku in Azerbaijan for the inaugural European Games. Just another step on a long road that more than one Magee hopes will end at Pavilion 4 in the Riocentro exhibition hall down by the Copacabana in two summers’ time.