Michael Conlan: ‘I am going to win Olympic gold’

The beaming smile was on Michael Conlan’s face before he even ducked between the ropes for his first Olympic contest.

He had seen his baby Luisne in her mother’s arms on the arena’s giant screen.

The smile that mattered though was the one he put on the faces of Irish officials here by winning a unanimous points decision over Armenian bantamweight Aram Avagyan. To say it averted a crisis in their ranks was not to exaggerate.