IRISH sailing is well-placed to deliver an Olympic medal this summer.
And – it could provide a conveyor belt of success in the future – if the funding gap with other countries is closed.
That is according to performance director James O’Callaghan as the sailing team for the Paris Games– although Marseilles hosts the sailing – was officially confirmed.
Finn Lynch will compete in the men’s dinghy with Eve McMahon entering the women’s event whilst Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove team up in the men’s skiff, with
Lynch took part in the Rio Games but missed out on Tokyo at which Dickson and Waddilove competed with this the first Games for 20-year-old McMahon.
O’Callaghan said: “We’re in a good place, the goal is to get the boats into the medal race, then see what happens.”
“At the test event last year, a dry-run for Paris, Finn had an opportunity for a medal, and he finished sixth.
“All six were well clear from the rest, and any one of them could have medalled on the last day. That experience will count.
“I don’t think you can ever be 100 per cent confident, you do need a little bit of luck, but as I say to the athletes.
“It’s so important to be a position to take advantage of that luck when it comes your way. It’s no use being lucky if you’re at the back of the fleet.
“It’s fair to say Finn is probably our leading chance, with a World Championship silver, a bronze from the Europeans in February, is a bit more experienced having missing qualification for Tokyo, and come out the other side even stronger.”
Dickson and Waddilove won two races in Tokyo but were disqualified when one of their harnesses was found to be heavier than the permitted weight.
They qualified a boat for Ireland last year but had to wait until last month for their selection to be confirmed, holding off a strong challenge from Cork duo Séafra Guilfoyle and Johnny Durcan.
O’Callaghan has been trying to temper the expectations of McMahon who has been mentored by Rio silver medallist Annalise Murphy.
But he said: “That’s part of her strength, that she is so ambitious, she’s at that beautiful time in your life when you don’t know what you don’t know.
“But she works hard, is not afraid of anything, trains with the gold medallist from Denmark, Anne-Marie Rindom.
“Annalise has been a great mentor to her, she’s surrounded by excellence, and that’s what she wants.
“For us, in Irish Sailing, if she goes to the Games and makes the medal race, it’s an absolutely outstanding debut, and hopefully she’ll be around for two or three more.
“We’re not going to stop her being ambitions, and making the medal race is certainly within the bounds of possibility.”
Murphy and David Wilkins – who won silver alongside James Wilkinson in Moscow in 1980 – were honoured at an ASJI Legends Lunch in Dun Laoghaire.
ON THE MAP
They are the only Olympic sailing medals Ireland have won but O’Callaghan outlined the steps they have taken, and others they need to, to add to that haul in future years.
He said: “Annalise coming fourth in London was a big moment, the fact she came so close. That kind of put sailing on the wider map, 220,000 watched that race live on RTE.
“But you need a system behind that, and coming back from Rio, we looked at the countries who were ahead of us, and the thing that was missing was a HQ.
“We have a place to call home now, and that’s been the biggest game-changer.
“In 2022, and 2023, we won 19 youth and development medals, second only to Italy on the global table, but they need coaches now, and we need investment in that space now.
“Look at New Zealand and Denmark, the same size as us, with the same GDP, but win a lot of sailing medals
“New Zealand are on €3m funding, Denmark are €2.8m, we’re €1.2m, and between philanthropy and commercial, it’s a €1.6m programme. We want that to be a €2.6m programme for the next cycle.”