Disaster and triumph, Wilkins experienced it all on the Olympic seas

David Wilkins is one of only three Irish athletes to compete in the Olympics five times.

4 August 1980; Flyweight bronze medallist Hugh Russell, centre, with Flying Dutchman silver medal crew David Wilkins, left, and James Wilkinson at the Irish Olympic team homecoming in Dublin Airport from the 1980 Summer Olympics held in Moscow, Soviet Union. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile

Annalise Murphy didn’t just captivate a nation as she sailed the waters off the coast of Weymouth in 2012. Then 22 years old, the vast sweep of the Dubliner’s Olympic experience, from the enormous swells of hope to the crashing despair of finishing just outside the medals, served as a bracing introduction to one of sport’s crueller codes.

She had won the first four races in the Laser Radial class, still held the overall lead through eight of the ten runs, and found herself in the gold medal position at one stage of the last, definitive race. Murphy drifted in and out of silver and bronze too but ultimately lost out after some small but significant tactical errors.