Clare badminton star Moya Ryan chasing her Olympic dream

OLYMPIC DREAM: Moya Ryan of Ireland in action against Margot Lambert, and Anne Tran of France in their badminton Women's Doubles Group Stage at the Jaskolka Arena during the European Games 2023 in Poland. Pic: Tyler Miller/Sportsfile

Just four Clare natives made the Irish Olympic team in 2021 and Moya Ryan is hoping to match them, in badminton, at Paris next year.

The Banner provided hockey’s Naomi Carroll and slalom canoeist Liam Jegou, plus coaches Ed Slattery (rugby Sevens) and Paul Talty (swimming), to Team Ireland for Tokyo.

Ryan and her mixed doubles partner Joshua Magee face the top seeds in their final group game at the European Games in Krakow on Thursday, a tournament which is not just their 2023 European Championships but also their first Olympic qualifier for 2024.

Easy wins over Italian and Slovakian pairs have already secured a quarter-final spot so a ‘free shot’ at the world-ranked #8 pair from France, should be invaluable before the knock-out stages start on Friday.

What makes Ryan unusual in her sport is that she is not a Magee because one Donegal family has provided most of Ireland’s top badminton players for over a decade.

Joshua is their youngest, his niece Rachael Darragh is also in Poland competing in singles and all of Ireland’s doubles are now coached by Sam Magee, a three-time bronze medallist at this event, twice with sister Chloe.

How one badminton club, founded in a tiny village hall in Raphoe, has produced so many Olympians is remarkable.

Chloe Magee was the first Irish player to win an Olympic badminton match in 2008.

“Chloe was at her peak when I was young. When you have someone like that you think ‘Wow, she’s come from a relatively small country and can do that!’” 

Getting to train with her hero before her retirement, and seeing first-hand just how hard she worked, provided further motivation and Ryan points out that it was even harder for the three-time Olympian who had to travel abroad to train before Badminton Ireland established its high performance training centre in Abbotstown.

Ryan (25) comes from an even tinier spot - Bridgetown in East Clare - where An Droichead Badminton Club represents another marvellous community facility producing sporting gems to be polished elsewhere.

Her mum Wilma is immersed in the club and her sister Aishling also helps out as a coach. Throughout her schooldays at St Anne's, Killaloe, Ryan’s parents ferried her to Dublin twice a-week for national squad training and she first played senior international at 18.

“In badminton if you want to give yourself the best opportunity to improve you have to base yourself in Dublin,” she explains of choosing DCU for its proximity to Irish badminton’s HQ.

She graduated in 2020 with a PE and Biology degree and is currently doing a Master's in Education, by distance learning “just to keep my brain ticking over” but otherwise it’s all badminton and all doubles.

She partners Dubliner Kate Frost in women’s but her relatively new partnership with Magee is most successful.

“Breaking top 50 was our target last year and we made it to 51 so that’s always in the back of our minds but mostly now we’re concentrating on always improving and qualifying for the Olympics.” 

An extended trip to Asia last year was her first experience of playing in huge, sold-out arenas with crowds screaming at every point.

“In our last competition, in Singapore, we played a pair from Thailand who were ranked quite a bit ahead of us. We didn’t actually win the game but we played really well. It really felt like the first time we proved we could compete with the top level in the world.

“If we’re ever going through a difficult patch now we think back to that match and think about reaching that level again.”