Hickey: We’re in great shape for these Games

Olympic Council of Ireland president Pat Hickey feels at his “most relaxed” before any Games during his tenure.

Hickey, appointed to the top post in 1989, is relishing the 30th Olympiad which begins in London on Friday night. Ireland are sending a team of 60 competitors in 14 sports with Hickey insisting the Irish representatives are in top shape.

“I am at one of the most relaxed points I have been ahead of any Olympic Games because I have seen the preparation that has been put in and the results of it,” he said.

“We are in great shape in every department. There is nothing the athletes are in need of. We’ve had a great relationship this time working with the Irish Sports Council and the Institute of Sports and the government.

“We are in really good shape for what we consider a home Olympics.”

Recent Irish Olympic history is littered with conflicts and feuds between the OCI and state sport organisations. Hickey believes the Beijing Games four years ago, when Ireland secured three medals in boxing, marked a turning point in those relationships. And he believes it is vital that such infighting is overcome.

“Beijing was not bad in terms of performances and results,” he said. “After that, because it wasn’t so bad, we then defined each other’s territory for once and for all. But it took us about 20 years to do that! Finally, thankfully it happened.

“Both of us were very conscious that London is like a home Olympics. The Irish are the biggest ethnic group in the UK so there is no point in us going over as paddies having a civil war in the UK territory.

“So we got that out of the way, brushed the cobwebs aside and started to work together and put teams in place to work with one another.

“When they had a problem everything came up the line to me and to John Treacy [chief executive] or Kieran Mulvey [chairman] in the Sports Council. Then we met on a one-to-one basis and we sorted it. It has worked a treat. And we are all going off with a great attitude.

“Everyone is very supportive. Everybody is very happy.”

Hickey believes the Irish team will be under greater media scrutiny in the host nation than at any other Games.

“We are conscious of the UK more than any other country in the world, we are flying the flag for Ireland. The last thing we want to do is to give any avenue to the British media to start attacking the Irish and their participation in the Games. I have to say that the tabloid press in the UK, we just don’t want to give any opportunity for any angle whatsoever.

“There is always a worry there that they [the tabloids] could exploit something in terms of paddywhackery. And we don’t want to give them that opportunity. There are elements who would do that. We want to fly the flag for Ireland in the best possible way, especially now that the relationship between the two islands is the best it has been. We want to continue that and trade on that.”

But it is not just on the areas of competition that the Olympic Council and Hickey are feeling satisfied. The OCI have bucked the economic trend, hoovering up a number of blue chip companies to build an impressive sponsorship portfolio ahead of the Games. And Hickey is happy to take the plaudits.

“I am not going to be shy and I will take the credit for that. My forte is marketing. I am on the marketing committee of the International Olympic Committee. I used all my sources and skills to secure the best of Irish sponsors for our athletes. We have some fantastic sponsors who have put in a great effort.”

Hickey, who also serves as European Olympic Committees (EOC) president, along with being senior vice-president of the Association of National Olympic Committees, also revealed that he receives no money for his work with the OCI.

“I am a volunteer. I don’t get any salary. Everyone thinks I am on 130 grand a year of taxpayers’ money. Since my entry into the Olympic Committee in 1989, I have never been paid. I do it for the love of sport. I am lucky that I have had good business as an auctioneer that sustained me.

“I did it for the love of sport. But as my wife said if I had put the same effort into business I would be a Tony Reilly!”