Podiums in Paris: what can Ireland expect from the Olympic Games?

Irish Olympic sports looks in a better place than it was before Tokyo 2020 or Rio 2016, but what’s a realistic medal haul for next summer’s Games in Paris? In Sport Ireland’s High Performance Strategy 2021-2032, the goal for the Paris Olympics is 5-7 medals. For Los Angeles 2028, it’s 8-10, writes Cathal Dennehy.

BIG HOPES: The below will lead the Irish medal charge in Paris.

SOMETHING had to change. Those working in the boardrooms of Irish sport knew it, just as the coaches out there at the coalface knew it. Adapt or become extinct. Fund high-performance sport properly or risk becoming an irrelevance on the world stage.

Yes, there was talent in the country, lots of it, but where was the system? For years, decades, many had beaten that drum across the breadth of Olympic sports, only to be met with a disinterested shrug from government buildings.