Rachael Darragh: 'The highs make it worth it but there is so many lows'

The ‘Chloe and Sam’ she speaks of are her aunt and uncle Magee, both top class international badminton players who won many medals domestically and at international level.

FAMILY AFFAIR: Rachael Darragh during the Team Ireland Paris 2024 team announcement. Picture: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

Happily for Rachael Darragh, badminton is an indoor sport. The 26-year-old was spending the final few days of her Olympic preparation at Sports Campus Ireland and the rain outside is almost biblical. Has been for days. Rumours, thought to have originated with the swim team, have it that an odd-looking bearded man has begun to herd animals two by two on to a newly built wooden boat across the road at the aquatic centre.

But on the warm dry badminton courts in the indoor arena the only things being herded are lines of excited children. Darragh and her colleague, Nhat Nguyen, the only qualifiers from Ireland for the women’s and men’s singles in Paris, are happily signing autographs and posing for ‘selfies’ with the young hordes from the school’s programme who have turned up to admire their heroes at an open training day. Their beaming, curious faces remind Darragh of her own first baby steps in the sport.