Olympics truly embody sporting determination

Few of us now will remember Pat O'Callaghan, Ireland's first gold medal winner at the Olympic Games of 1928, held in Amsterdam. He reached great heights in the men's hammer throwing event, and returned to the Olympic arena in 1932 when he took another gold in the same event in Los Angeles, joining Bob Tisdall (men's 400 metre hurdles) in the early days of Ireland's gold medal stakes. They were the trailblazers for little Ireland, pushing out the boundaries for sport years before the Republic was declared. How different things must have been for these athletes who had no Olympic Council to lean on, who lacked the equipment and training resources so readily available to modern athletes. While O'Callaghan took two gold and Tisdall one, it was to be a further 20 years before we had another Olympic medal winner - John McNally taking a silver as a bantamweight in the boxing at Helsinki in 1952. And how can we forget that wonderful photograph (in black and white) of Ronnie Delaney, arms flung wide, breasting the tape to take gold in the men's 1,500 metre race at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. He was followed onto the winners' podium by boxers Fred Tiedt (silver), Freddie Gilroy (bronze) and Tony Byrne (bronze). These were all inspiring figures to children of my era - we were torn between wanting to be either Tony or Ronnie, galloping wildly or shadow boxing down our streets. We were all Olympians then in the winter of '56. The youngsters of Co Meath must have been similarly inspired by the achievement of the late Darren Sutherland, a Meath Chronicle Sports Star of the Year, when he won his bronze medal in the men's middleweight boxing event in Beijing in 2008. The Republic has collected a total of 23 medals in Olympiads since 1928, a creditable achievement for a small nation. Of course, we have had our ups and downs in terms of recognition of our status and our independent streak showed through on occasions. Tom Kiely won the "all-around" athletics competition in the 1904 Olympics in St Louis. Unfortunately, he is listed under the title "Great Britain" but we was able to strike a blow for his own dignity and independence when he refused offers by the English Amateur Athletic Association (AAA)and the New York Athletic Club to pay his fare to compete for them and instead did his own fundraising in Tipperary and Waterford to travel independently and compete for Ireland. The British Olympic Association (BOA) was established in 1905 and Irish athletes were accredited to the BOA team from the 1906 Olympics. In that year, Con Leahy and Peter O'Connor objected when the British flag was raised at their victory ceremony. They defied the organisers and raised their own green flag. There is no fear of us these days suffering the indignities of the North Korean women's football team who had to watch the flag of arch enemy, South Korean, being raised as they came onto the field. When we look for true Olympians, what better example could we have than the young gymnast Kieran Behan? Last Saturday, he got his Olympic effort off to a great start but faltered with just two tumbling passes left in his 70-second routine. There were mistakes on landing during the floor routine which meant that his score of 13.966 was well below what was needed to make the top eight qualifiers. Yes, understandably, there were tears. The supreme effort of training for years to qualify for the Olympics only to fail at the final hurdle must be distressing. However, this was a man who had overcome huge adversity to live his dream. Doctors told him after an operation had gone wrong that he would never walk again, he would be a wheelchair user for life. He turned this around and truly embodied the spirit of the Olympics in his determination. He has shown us that it is not all about the winning of medals but about the participation. We may very well see him in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.