Quality, not quantity for Athens, pledge Olympic chiefs
Almost 70 athletes travelled to Sydney three years ago, but the 2004 squad could consist of just 54 competitors, according to Mr O'Brien, who has been handed the responsibility of making sure that everything is in order and athletes can focus on their events.
"So far 33 competitors have qualified eight of them from athletics and as I see it we could be taking a team of about 54 to Athens," he said.
"But I can state categorically that this will be the best-prepared team ever. No expense has been spared and none will be spared in getting them to the Olympic Games in the best possible shape."
While concern has been expressed about the Olympic Council of Ireland's insistence on "A" standards only in the case of athletics and swimming, there has been no major protest, according to OCI president Pat Hickey and no question of relenting.
"It was a very easy decision to make," he said, maintaining that "B" standards were OK in the case of events like the European or world championships.
"There is a situation now where countries are, in fact, setting their own higher qualifying standards." He admitted that, in the past, where submissions were made in exceptional cases, athletes were sent but stressed that the Olympic Games were for the very experienced athletes.
"No request has been made to study any particular case but it would take something very spectacular to effect any change," he said.
Dermot Sherlock, honorary general secretary of the OCI, said the June 30 deadline for qualification was there to ensure that qualified athletes had ample time to prepare for the Games.
"The experience from the last two Games has shown that athletes who break their gut trying to qualify perform badly at the Games," he said. "As we see it, 33 athletes are already in a position to prepare themselves properly for the Olympics.
"There is ample opportunity for athletes those days and I would agree that the European and world championships is the area for the development of athletes and not the Olympic Games."
He said that athletics and swimming were in a somewhat privileged position in that athletes from those disciplines had numerous opportunities to achieve qualifying standards.
"That's unlike other sports and I mention boxing in particular where competitors have to go through very rigorous qualification procedures," he said.
But there could be one exception in the qualification deadline in the lead up to Athens. If the 4 x 400m relay team find themselves in the top 16 in the world they will be given the time needed to ensure that they maintain their position.
Mr Sherlock did not rule out the possibility that standards could be raised or lowered over the coming months.
"The situation is that, for the first time, quotas have been introduced and the IAAF, the world governing body for athletics, may have to increase the standards to remain within their quota or, possibly, lower the standard in certain instances," he said.
And he advised national governing bodies to submit all the necessary data on athletes who them think might qualify as soon as possible.
"We have been informed that while it is very easy to delete a person's name from the list it can be quite difficult to add a name later on. They want to have all the relevant information before the end of April," he said.
By that time athletes will have had the opportunity to avail of the warm weather training camps which have been set up in conjunction with the Irish Sports Council in Cyprus and Seville.
The first of those training camps will be held in Seville from October 19-30, catering for athletics, boxing, judo and taekwondo.
The second will take place in Seville in December aimed at canoeing, cycling and rowing.
Yesterday's Athens update was historic insofar as it brought the Olympic Council of Ireland and the Irish Sports Council together for such an event for the first time highlighted by the fact that Pat Hickey, president of the OCI, and ISC chief John Treacy sat side by side at the top table.
Since the Sydney experience and the searching review that followed the ISC, the OCI and the NCTC, have been working collectively to prepare competitors for Athens and beyond.
Brian Samson, who heads the Irish Sports Council's High Performance Programme along with Kevin Hickey a veteran of 11 Olympic Games when managing Britain teams outlined the massive progress that has been made since the programme was put in place some 18 months ago.
He stressed, however, that while the immediate focus was on Athens next year they were also looking forward to Beijing in 2008.
"We must be realistic in terms of expectations next year," he said.
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