OCI issue high performance director ruling

The Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) will insist that all sports represented at future Olympic Games will have to be led by their high performance directors.

“If organisations don’t put their performance directors forward then we won’t be accepting anybody else because they are the person appointed by their sport to be the lead and therefore they need to be the person on the ground,” said OCI president Sarah Keane.

“They need to be accountable and work closely with us to ensure that we do the best job we can for the team that are there at the games, both winter and summer. We have given over three years notice for that now for the Tokyo Games.”

Keane explained that the numbers of passes available for supporting staff are painfully few at the games and that the insistence on ‘PDs’ being on the ground would allow the OCI to establish long-term relationships with those they will ultimately be working with.

The move was put before the various national bodies at last night’s AGM.

“Some have had PDs for some time and will be very comfortable with that,” she said. “Other sports maybe not so comfortable but sport has moved on and we have to do the right thing by our athletes and coaches.”