Win or lose, Irish Olympians showing it's a triumph to be on Paris stage

Comments from Rhys McClenaghan and Aidan Walsh were instructive over the weekend.

RESPECT: Ireland’s Aidan Walsh with Makan Traore of France after their fight on Sunday. Pic: INPHO/Ryan Byrne

Sometimes in journalism, it’s all too easy to superimpose your thoughts on an athlete’s story, trying to get them to think or feel or express something that, in truth, is just a product of your own innate hunch.

But ultimately, their stories are theirs alone to write, even if someone else puts them on paper. That was made clear over the weekend in Paris via the words of two Irish competitors: Rhys McClenaghan and Aidan Walsh.