Only the best 50 for Beijing

IRELAND may not have their biggest representation at next year’s Olympic Games in Beijing but it will be the best prepared and most qualified team to compete at that level.

That was the message from the Chef de Mission, Dermot Henihan, at yesterday’s briefing held in the plush surroundings of Olympic House, overlooking Howth Yacht Club.

Qualification will not come easy said Pat Hickey, President of the Olympic Council of Ireland, insisting that athletes and swimmers will have to achieve A-standards before they can be put forward for a place in the team alongside the competitors from other sports who must go through the competitions and criteria set down by their respective sports.

“The national governing bodies have submitted their ‘long lists’ and already those are being cut back,” Mr Henihan said. “At the end of the day we would expect 50 athletes representing 11 of the Olympic sports to qualify.

“From the point of view of the OCI, we want to get a team to Beijing next year that is ready to perform. Our job is to give them the opportunity to perform to the best of their ability — to provide the environment that is right for our athletes.”

He said that the Olympic Council of Ireland, along with the Irish Sports Council and the national governing bodies, were working closely together to ensure that athletes will leave Ireland next year for Beijing well prepared and that what is provided for them in China is what they will expect — an environment where they can produce the best performances of their careers.

“But,” he stressed, “every country is going to be upping the ante for the Games so that will not guarantee you a medal. “But it means that if you produce your best performance there, you can be happy in the knowledge that you have given it your best shot.

“Of course our hope will always be that we can come back with something but I don’t want to create expectations — I want to come back with a team that is happy with their performances and if some of those have put us on the podium then it will be absolutely fantastic for Irish sport.

“It is very dangerous to promise anything in high performance sport so let’s not talk about medals right now. If our athletes go out there and perform better than they have ever performed before then we will be very proud of them. We want to give them every opportunity to do that in a proper environment. At the end of the day it is up to them to perform.”

He said that for the past several months they have been working on building what he described as an Olympic family — taking team management to a new level.

“We have had all our managers on board for some time now. They are all known as Team Manager’s Designate. When they have athletes qualified and selected for the Games the designate goes and they will get the bag and their blazer.

“We have had at least 11 interfaces with the Manager’s Designate either on a one-to-one basis or in group sessions and in doing that we have created a great team.”

One notable diversification from previous years is that officials from one sport will, for the first time, be able to cross over to another sport once their particular team has finished its Olympic assignment. This will provide more manpower in instances where small teams of athletes have resulted in small management teams.

“And they are people who will know each other not just turning up for the Games and meeting other members of the Irish team for the first time,” he said. “We have great co-operation between all the sports at the moment and I am quite certain that will continue throughout the Games.”

Athletes who qualify will have to prove their current form before being selected and will then attend pre-Olympic training camps in Europe. They will return to Ireland before leaving for Beijing.

Pat Hickey said it was remarkable that a country the size of Ireland could qualify 50 athletes though insisting that it was a great credit to the athletes themselves. He said they were hoping to get a hockey team qualified because they had found from the European Youth Olympics that team sports generated excitement and provided great support for the athletes in the individual sports.

“Many European countries are already looking towards London 2012,” said Mr Hickey who is also President of the powerful group of European Olympic committees.

“I know of many countries that are already arranging seminars post Beijing to see how they will prepare for 2012 and the drive for medals there.”