Hickey: Northern Irish athletes are free to represent Ireland at Olympics

NORTHERN Irish athletes will be free to represent Ireland at the Athens Olympics if they chose to do so.

That was the promise from the President of the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI), Pat Hickey, who last night said that if an athlete from Northern Ireland wished to compete for Great Britain in the Olympics he or she would be free to do so, but the OCI was not prepared to allow the statutes of the British Olympic Association (BOA) to have Northern Ireland included in the title.

This came to the notice of the OCI last November and when verbal clarification was not forthcoming from the BOA, the OCI sent a letter seeking clarification.