Olympic women bring smiles to county and country

THUMBS UP Mayo-born Sinead Diver after finishing in tenth place in the women’s marathon at Sapporo Odori Park at the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games. Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile


It may have been delayed by over a year, and affected adversely by the Covid-19 pandemic, but the Tokyo Olympics have brought a hugely welcome distraction. There was no doubting the exploits of two females athletes over the last few days have certainly given everyone a much needed lift.
First up, late on Friday night, was the remarkable story of a 44-year-old woman born in north Mayo, who was running for her adopted land of Australia in the women’s marathon.
Sinead Diver is a Mayo woman through and through, and all of her family and friends in Corclough stayed up late in the night to see her finish a remarkable tenth in a race run in searing Tokyo temperatures.
Our reporter Michael Gallagher was lucky enough to be invited into the heart of the celebrations, and on pages 16 and 17 of this issue he brilliantly described the atmosphere among young and old as the race unfolded into the early hours of Saturday morning.
As Michael states: “The Erris heroine’s talent, passion, power, resilience, attitude, ability, application, courage and humility had given Corclough its proudest night.”
Sinead Diver’s story is a truly inspirational one. She only took up marathon running when she was 32 years of age and has since run in three world championship marathons for Australia. As she told Australia’s Channel Seven after the race: “I’m speechless, I’m so happy. I didn’t expect to come top 10. That was something I really wanted before the race, so I’m absolutely stoked that I fought for that spot at the end. I had to sprint to get past the girl in front of me, so I’m so happy I managed to do that.” Sinead’s story had a particular resonance with everyone in Mayo, but it was a 32-year-old boxer from inner city Dublin who gave the whole country something to cheer about on the last day of the Olympics.
Most experts believed Kellie Harrington had a very good chance of a medal, but winning gold is no easy task at any Olympics. Only two boxers have ever won gold medals for Ireland, Michael Carruth in 1992 and the legendary Katie Taylor in 2012. Howver, as dawn was breaking on Sunday morning, Harrington sent all her family in Portland Row into sheer ecstasy with victory over her dogged Brazilian opponent.
Due to Covid-19 restrictions, there can be no official civic reception to welcome her back to Dublin this afternoon, but her proud family will just be so happy to have her back in one piece, with that gold medal hanging around her neck.
Both Kellie Harrington and Sinead Diver gladdened the hearts of a nation that has taken a battering over the last 18 months, and the memories of their epic performances are sure to stay with us for many months to come.