Curling admitted to Olympic council

THE Irish Curling Association was formally admitted to the Olympic Council of Ireland last night.

The admission took place at the council’s final agm before the Beijing Olympics.

The sport of curling has become a spellbinding if not exciting television sport thanks to the progress enjoyed by Britain in major international events.

Parallel to this, the Irish Curling Association has progressed to the A Division in Europe in what was something of a meteoric rise to the top flight.

The association was founded in 2004 and the team is now in eighth place in the European rankings.

Their progression was aided by a €50,000 grant from the Irish Olympic council which enabled them to contract a Canadian coach, Ron Meyers, and, according to Stephen Martin, chief executive of the OCI and former Olympic gold medallist, they will continue to receive support.

“They are now in Division A in Europe and that qualifies them for next the world championships in Sweden in December and seven of the top 10 at those championships will qualify for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.”

They will help fund three training camps and three competitions in their build-up to the world championships and the OCI has also assisted in getting a sports psychologist Ciara Losty from Waterford and a sports trainer, Les Davidson and sports therapist, Jennifer Hunter.

Their case for admission was put by the president of the Irish Curling Association, Gordon McIntyre, who predicted a bright future for the team.

“This year we won the gold medal at the European “B” championships in Fussen, Germany, and we are looking forward to building on that in the A Division.”

That team comprised Peter Wilson from Kells, Co Kilkenny, Robin Grays from Blessington, PJ Wilson and Neil Fyfe from Stranraer and Tony Tiernan from Northern Ireland.

With the Beijing Olympics less than a month away, last night’s meeting was concerned mainly with those Games.

OCI President, Pat Hickey, referred to the previous day’s team presentation and, in congratulating the 51 athletes who have qualified, he singled out some for special mention.

Emma Davis, he said, deserved special mention as she becomes the first triathlete to represent Ireland in the Olympics. He also mentioned the two teenage swimmers, Aisling Cooney and Melanie Nocher, who were selected on B standards with a view to London 2012.

He also paid special tribute to race walker, Jamie Costin, who battled back from a broken back sustained in an horrific traffic accident on the eve of the Olympic Games in Athens to qualify for Beijing.

He said international sponsors were already taking a much greater interest in their territory and Ireland was about to benefit from this.

“With Samsung now supporting innovative programmes, through my role as president of the European Olympic Committees, we have in the last year secured a position as one of the test markets for the Samsung Get Up and Go programme encouraging young people to discover the joys of sport.”

And with London 2012 in such close proximity he predicted further funding through sponsorship in coming years.

He revealed that the OCI had teamed up with An Post to produce two very exciting stamps to commemorate the 2008 Games with leading Irish artist, Graham Knuttel, painting an exclusive series of pictures.

And the council has teamed up with Moya Brennan to release an exclusive song for the Irish Olympic team with the proceeds going to promoting a youth sport project.

He also had words of praise for the volunteers who are the backbone of Irish sport.

“Everyone in this room knows that volunteers are the lifeblood of Irish sport,” he said. “I myself am an unpaid volunteer as are all the executive and for practically everybody in this room.

“But lately the thinking has crept in that if you are not a paid official you are somewhat unprofessional and you are not as good as the person who is being paid.

“This is a load of hogwash in my opinion and I would like you all to be proud of yourselves as volunteers. We bring into our role our business skills from other areas of life that are important in the development of sport.”

Dermot Sherlock, hon general secretary, reported to the meeting on the appeal brought by Star Class sailors Maxwell Treacy and Anthony Shanks to the selection of Peter O’Leary and Steven Milne for the Olympics.

He said that yesterday was the final day for lodging an appeal to Court of Arbitration for Sport and that there was no indication of any appeal being made and the original selection stands.