Hickey: No need to hurry Rory on Olympics
The Holywood golfer and US Open champion originally declared an interest in representing Britain when asked back in 2009 but has refused to confirm or deny any intentions when asked about the matter since.
“I don’t think there’s any pressure to be put on them now at this stage,” Pat Hickey explained yesterday at the official launch of Cadburys’ sponsorship of the Olympic and Paralympic Irish teams for 2012.
“You know the rule: every athlete in Northern Ireland has the choice to go for Great Britain or for Ireland, but they don’t have to make that choice until way nearer the date. Rio is 2016 so 2015 is when they’d have to make that choice.”
Graeme McDowell is another who faces the same choice and Pádraig Harrington caused a major stir earlier this year when he suggested that the two Northern Ireland golfers should declare for Britain and open more spots for those south of the border at the Games.
Golf will be making an appearance at the Olympics for the first time in over 100 years while rugby (Sevens) is also returning to the festival, in Brazil, for the first time since 1924. Here, too, there is uncertainty over Irish participation.
Irish Sevens sides have been conspicuous by their absence from the ever more popular global circuit in recent times and the chances of any representation in South America grows slimmer by the week. However, Hickey feels the code holds promise.
“The Sevens kicks in at the Rio Games and the IRFU at the moment are deciding on how much they’ll pump into Rugby Sevens – will they concentrate on a male or female team? We don’t know yet what decision they’ve made but it’s purely their decision. Personally, I’d think there is a huge future for Rugby Sevens female, for Ireland to win medals. I think it’s a great game for females and I think that we could do very, very well in that in the future.”
All that is four years and a whole other Olympic cycle down the road. The focus now is squarely on London and the pre-Games countdown is, as usual, being accompanied by stories both weird and wonderful.
Among them was the revelation earlier this month that the British Olympic Association’s chief medical officer was advising their athletes not to shake hands in the Olympic Village due to a “hostile” environment for infections.
Hickey was incredulous at how such advice could emanate from his British counterparts but was adamant that there will be no such harebrained ideas directed towards Irish athletes before the event in England.
“I thought that was the most … I tell you, when I read that, how the British Olympic committee ever devised such a thing … but there’s great embarrassment. I see the British government came out and decried it.
“The whole experience of athletes living in the Olympic village is to meet all the different cultures from around the world, meet new friends.What an experience the Olympic village is. I wouldn’t have any worries.
“I think our athletes are very well balanced, very able, very mature. We’ve had all these meetings around Ireland, technical meetings, medical meetings, coaching meetings, and they’ve been alerted to everything.”
The same will apply for athletes using social media.
The International Olympic Committee has encouraged athletes to use social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, throughout the Games but has warned that they could be excluded from competitions if they are found to have misused them.
The Olympic body has also warned that it can withdraw accreditation and start legal action for damages if rules are broken. The bottom line seems to be that athletes should avoid using social networking and blogging for “commercial and/or advertising purpose”.
“It is just like in the old days when an athlete couldn’t operate in the athletes’ village for a newspaper or a radio or TV station and they have dressed the rules up now for modern technology,” said Hickey. “Socially tweeting is no problem, as far as I understand it.”
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