Keegan putting punch into Institute of Sport

Gary Keegan created the blueprint for the emergence of Ireland as a world force in amateur boxing, so it is no surprise that when his time with IABA came to an end, he would be earmarked to apply his expertise and energy to the country’s entire sporting environment.

He has taken to the task as Director of the Irish Institute of Sport with relish and the results are evident. Despite only accepting the ‘A’ qualifying standard for selection this year, the Olympic Council of Ireland will send a bigger team to London than to Beijing four years ago.

At numerous press events over the past month, athlete after athlete has referred to the support network provided by the institute in any number of sectors, ranging from strength and conditioning to nutrition to developing life skills.

The opening of the sports medicine and physiotherapy clinics at the institute’s headquarters in Abbotstown last April has improved the service further as revealed in the body’s 2009-2012 report, which was launched yesterday.

The new clinics provided more than 800 individual consultations to 121 athletes until December, such was the demand. Keegan revealed that in the period from January to May of this year, there had been 760 service sessions across the board for athletes in 13 Olympic sports, nine Paralympic sports and two non-Olympic disciplines (cricket and golf).

“I remember in 2009 talking to some of the media and the discussion was about what we were planning to establish,” recalled Keegan yesterday. “From 2009 we’ve been heads down, low profile, getting the work done, building the important relationships and going about our business.”

The institute was established in 2006, taking over from the National Coaching and Training Centre in Limerick.

“Over the last eight years, we’ve had significant development in the sports and the national governing bodies themselves. The programmes have developed, the expertise has developed around the athletes — particularly performance directors and coaches — and there was time for a transition to take place, to take the noise away from the athlete so they could begin to concentrate on their own preparation and performance in competition.

“One of the challenges presented to us was a lack of integration… service providers not working together, (not) communicating on what the best needs of the athlete were.”

Now, if a conditioning coach feels the need to alter an athlete’s physical preparation, that won’t occur without consultation with a nutritionist, to ensure the demands of that preparation will be fuelled properly. Knowing all bases are being covered enables athletes to focus on their jobs.

“Our system is guided by a very important remit to produce a world class support structure around sports and athletes. We can’t do that in isolation. That’s something that has to be supported and collaborated with.”

With the cooperation of the sports, the NGBs, coaches and athletes, he and his team are clearly going in the right direction.

Included in the process is a support system to enable athletes deal with the post-Olympics low. Nothing is being left to chance.

“You can’t have performance without accountability...We talk a lot about high performance athletes but actually it’s about high performing experts around high performing athletes. It’s about ensuring that we have the best people around our athletes.”