Comments on: Irish Women’s Bobsleigh Olympic Spot under threat

By: Maman Poulet » Australian Bobsleigh let in – Court recommends Irish compete as 21st team

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:07:43 +0000

[...] Irish Women’s Bobsleigh Olympic Spot under threat (mamanpoulet.com) [...]

By: Maman Poulet » Pat Hickey predicts a riot

Maman Poulet » Pat Hickey predicts a riot — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:05:56 +0000

[...] Posted by Maman Poulet on 08 Feb 2010 at 11:04 pm | Tagged as: Sport No news yet from the Court of Arbitration in Vancouver on the appeal by the Australian Olympic Council seeking a place for their bobsleigh team in place of the Ir… [...]

By: Harry Leech

Harry Leech — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:19:21 +0000

I have to put my cards on the table here Susie: I’m a card-carrying Pat Hickey fan. Ever since the needless layer of bureaucracy that is the Irish Sports Council was created, the OCI have had no say in dispensing cash to Olympic Sports or any preparation for those sports in between Games.

Pat is probably doing what he does best: Being a politician and scratching backs for the Irish team members behind the scenes. There’s a reson he’s been head of the OCI for so long despite the attempts of the big sports to get rid of him.

And to be fair to him, he fought hard to get women’s boxing included in the Games (though his motivation is no doubt the fact that we have a world beating athlete in Katie Taylor.)

As for where Martin Cullen is: No-ones won anything yet so there’s no reason for him to care! Until he can align himself with someone else’s hard won success (remember when Charlie Haughey won the Tour de France?) he, along with the rest of the Sports Council, doesn’t give a toss.

By: Maman Poulet

Maman Poulet — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:43:59 +0000

Harry agree with you completely – wondering where Martin Cullen and Pat Hickey are!?

And Keith you are hired Was waiting for you to awaken and read this!

By: Keith

Keith — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 16:30:40 +0000

Japan is officially representing Oceania, according to some reports. No real coverage of this story locally though.

(Live from the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, this is Keith for MamanPoulet…)

By: Harry Leech

Harry Leech — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 15:08:43 +0000

Women’s sport in Ireland is massively under-funded, as are minority sports. I coach women in a minority sport (Olympic Weightlifting)so I’m not shocked that this is the first real coverage of this in the irish media.

The real question is why the Irish 1) Don’t fund Olympic Sports sufficiently 2) Don’t strategically invest in women competing in minority sports as a means of increasing our standards at Olympic Games and 3) Then complain that we don’t do well at the Games (especially when compared to other small nations, like New Zealand.)

International success, strong female role models and sufficient funding of ALL sports (not just soccer, rugby and GAA) are the only way we’re going to start reversing the obesity epidemic we’re already well on the way to creating.