EDITORIAL: Olympics fever grips Mayo and country

The Olympic Games for 2024 are up and running, and two of the athletes competing for Ireland have strong connections to Co Mayo, adding a bit of extra interest in the county.
Ciara McGing (diving) and Eric Favors (shot put) will both proudly wear the green of Ireland and fulfil a lifetime’s ambition by taking part in the biggest sporting event in the world. Sinéad Diver from Belmullet will also compete for Australia in the Marathon.
Ciara McGing has a whole host of cousins living in both Killawalla and Tourmakeady, and many of them will be making the trip to Paris to support her in her endeavours.
“I nearly had to pinch myself. It’s just amazing being here and it’s the absolute stuff of dreams,” the 23-year-old athlete told The Mayo News Head of Sport Michael Gallagher when she spoke to him from the Olympic Village in an interview carried on page 9 of our sports supplement this week.
“I was lining up for food and I looked around and Simone Biles, one of the most successful gymnasts in history, was standing beside me. After that I spent the evening playing poker with some of our boxing team in the Team Ireland zone, which looks out at the Eiffel Tower, so it wasn’t a bad evening.”
McGing will proudly wear the Mayo crest on her Irish uniform at Paris 2024, and her heart will swell when she does so. “I was born in London but my family are from Mayo and Donegal, and there will be no prouder person on the planet when I dive for Ireland on August 5. All I ever wanted to do was wear the green at the Olympics and it has been my greatest dream since I was a little girl. Now, it’s happening and it’s just the greatest feeling ever. All the effort was worth it and I’m loving every second.”

In with a shot
Mayo will also be represented in Paris by Eric Favors in the shot put. Eric’s grandmother Margaret Kerr came from Ballina and he grew up in Rockland just outside New York. In high school, Eric was trained by Ireland’s Sydney Olympic hammer thrower Paddy McGrath. He broke the 20-metre mark (20:07), and Paddy Quirke’s 30-year-old Irish record, for the first time in 2022 and came very close to breaking 21m in the US in April this year. He has qualified for the last two World Championships, and missed making the final at this year’s Europeans by just 11cm.
Everyone in the county will no doubt now follow these athlete’s progress in the coming weeks, and with a record number of Irish competitors taking part, there are high hopes that a whole host of medals could be won before the end of the games in Paris.

Heartbreak for Galway
While the biggest sporting event in the world is going on in France, we had one of Ireland’s biggest sporting events taking place in Croke Park last Sunday.
Hopes were high that Sam Maguire would be coming west for the first time in 23 years, but Galway’s hopes were dashed by the narrowest of margins. Armagh managed to eke out a one point victory in an entertaining final and win the All-Ireland football title for only the second time in their history.
Galway’s captain Seán Kelly was unable to take his starting place due to injury and the loss of star forward Rob Finnerty after only ten minutes was a cruel blow to Padraic Joyce’s men.
However, the success of Armagh will give plenty of counties hope that they too now can go on and be very competitive in 2025, and I’m sure Kevin McStay and his Mayo team will be enthused for their own shot at glory next season. However, it would be foolish to think that the likes of Dublin and Kerry will be gone away for too long. A quick glance at the bookmakers odds for next year’s championship has the two big guns back at the top of the market.
But for now, football and hurling enthusiasts must focus on the club scene and wait and see whether the powers that be make any format changes to the inter-county schedule ahead of next season.