TAOISEACH Simon Harris urged Team Ireland to go for it on the eve of what could be the greatest Olympics in our history.
The 133 athletes are out for glory – with a little help from Peppa Pig– and an entire nation behind them.
A buzzing Mr Harris, the first Taoiseach to meet the team in the Olympic Village ahead of tonight’s opening ceremony, said: “I’m genuinely really excited.
“I was excited about these Games before coming here but being here today really brings the point home.
“We have our largest ever squad, 133 athletes, up from 116 in Tokyo.
“It’s just been absolutely brilliant to see such a range of incredible athletes representing our country, to see the excitement, to see the nerves and also to see some of the benefits of having an Olympics closer to home.”
Cycling ace Ryan Mullan was already a winner in Paris last night after taking his son’s Peppa Pig on a tour of the Olympic Village.
The nine-time national champion, all set for the gruelling Men’s Time Trial tomorrow, made sure to pack the cartoon star before heading for the French capital.
He has since been sending snaps to little Gino who “just loves Peppa Pig.”
Ryan told the Irish Sun he had some “really obscure photos of Peppa in the food hall. And Peppa was on top of the start ramp yesterday.”
He added with a laugh: “I’ve seen Snoop Dogg walking around so I want to get Snoop Dogg to hold Peppa Pig.
“That would be peak life for me.”
The 29-year-old, racing for the nation for 15 years, is just one of a record haul of 133 Irish athletes going for Gold in the City of Lights.
Mr Harris toured the sprawling Olympic Village ahead of a planned summit with French President Emmanuel Macron today and told how he hoped to see as much sport as he could.
He said he had a “number of working engagements” including the meeting of world leaders at the Elysee Palace.
But that, along with his wife Caoimhe, he couldn’t wait to watch the boys and girls in green go for Gold.
The Taoiseach said he was “really looking forward to being at the Opening Ceremony representing Ireland.
“I’m hoping to get to the rugby, hoping to get to some of the boxing, maybe some of the gymnastics – it’s all a bit fluid at the moment.”
Thousands of fans expected to travel
As well as the athletes, around 25,000 spectators from Ireland are due to attend the two-week sporting extravaganza.
It is 100 years since Paris last hosted the Olympics and 100 years since the first Irish athletes competed for an independent nation.
Hundreds of millions of people worldwide are set to tune into tonight’s ceremony which is set to take place along the River Seine.
Yesterday France’s Ambassador to Ireland Vincent Guérend said it would be the first time an Olympic opening ceremony was not held in a stadium.
Pressure is on
He said proudly: “You’ll have 200 teams cruising down the Seine.”
But once the contests kick off, the pressure will pile on the Irish athletes amid high hopes and mega support.
Ryan Mullen said he was all ready to roll, telling us: “I know what I need to do to be competitive.
“I still think I am a very strong time trialist, in the past I was a lot better, I was given the opportunity to pursue that but then in the last few years I’ve steered more towards sprint lead out.
‘Wait and see’
“But in the last few months I’ve been given the all clear to go back to the roots, go back to the dedicated time trial training and I’ve really, really enjoyed it.
“I know what I’m capable of but whether that translates into a result we’ll wait and see.”
He said he had paid the price faced by athletes which often takes them away from their families for extended periods, adding that his wife Georgina and wee Gino were on his mind.
He said: “I’m not going to sugarcoat it, it is hard, especially with cycling it is a time-consuming thing, I go away for weeks at a time.
Cycling trips
“I started the year in Australia so I was gone for three weeks there, I came home for two weeks and was gone again for two weeks in the UAE.
“I came back for a week or two and then was gone for a month in Belgium for the classics and the odd training camp here and there to prep and get focused for the next block and then I did the Tour of Turkey for a week and came back for two days, then I went to the Giro for an entire month.
“So by the time June had rolled around I think I had seen my son and my wife for maybe 20 days of the year, and that’s at a push.
“They’re coming for the road race, so that will be nice. But yeah, it is hard.”
‘Dream come true’
But, focusing on the work to be done, he said he was feeling “very excited.
“I’ve been representing Ireland for 15 years now, since 2009 and that’s more than half my life, which is crazy.
“I don’t feel old but when I say that sentence, wow, I’ve been around a while now! But to make it to the Olympics, it is honestly a dream come true.
“I know everybody says that, but when I finally got here, it was like, ‘wow, I made it – I did it.’”
Rory's gold
by Barry Moran
RORY McIlroy will be among the world’s best-paid athletes when he tees-off at the Olympic Games.
But the number three ranked golfer has some way to go before catching some of the US’ highest-earning stars.
LeBron James will be the only billionaire to compete in the Summer Games, leading the NBA players who comprise the highest-paid group of athletes in Paris by a wide margin.
Among female athletes, tennis players reign supreme in terms of earnings, with Poland’s 23-year-old Iga Świątek ranking No.1 with an estimated $23.9 million in earnings in 2023.
As for male tennis players competing at this year’s games, Carlos Alcaraz is set to overtake Novak Djokovic as the highest-paid tennis player thanks to his recent wins at Wimbledon and the French Open.
John Rahm had the highest-earning year of any golfer Forbes has ever recorded, thanks to his defection to the LIV Golf tour that came with an estimated $175 million upfront payment form the Saudis.
But PGA stars including McIlroy will also be among the best-paid at the global spectacle, thanks to lucrative top-ups for ignoring the Saudi offers.
He said arriving in Paris for the historic festival of sport “was weird,” adding: “I was trying to catch my breath a little bit. I was almost hyperventilating, having palpitations. ‘God, I’m at the Olympics.’
“I’ve done the European Games, the European Youth Olympics, European Championships, World Championships, and I do World Tour races with my professional team throughout the year.
“But then coming here, it is very different, it’s completely different. You go from being pushed around in this pro cycling bubble, where wherever you go you’re kind of the rock star, and you come here and you’re like a little tadpole in a pond.
“It’s weird. I literally shoulder-barged Andy Murray by accident yesterday, and I was like, “Oh my God, what is this?” It really is amazing.”
Although hailing from England, he said his family made sure he was “just raised Irish.”
He said that although his “accent suggests otherwise” his grandad Jim “moved from Duleek in the 1950s or 1960s.
“He’s still got that thick, thick Duleek accent, he’s never lost it.
“My entire family was Irish and when I started road-racing, no other country got a look-in.
“That’s all I wanted to do, I just wanted to represent Ireland.
“I have relatives all over Ireland, all over Meath and Louth, they’re everywhere. Honestly I get the feeling that half of Meath is my family!
“I’ve had a plethora of messages from everybody so everyone’s cheering back home.”