Wiley criticises Irish officials and media

Ian Wiley, who has represented Ireland in the last three Olympic Games, has claimed that the level of competence of the Irish officials who dealt with the team in Sydney was often below par and this served to undermine team morale in the camp.

He also said yesterday that too much was expected of the team, and media and public criticism was often ill-informed and a negative factor when it filtered back to the squad in Sydney.

Wiley is a canoeist with a fine record - his world ranking was in the top five for much of the 1990s and he finished eighth in the K1 kayak in Barcelona and fifth in Atlanta - but says he "blew it" in Sydney and takes full responsibility for a performance which saw him miss out on a place in the final.

He has now retired, and says any comments he makes are aimed at making the situation better for future competitors.

After bad experiences in trying to gain accreditation for a backup team in previous Olympics - he says he ended up "begging" to have his coach accredited for Atlanta - this time he and his team stayed away from the Olympic Village to avoid "negativity" until after his competition.

When he did go the village and met Irish athletes, he says he found his worries about negativity were confirmed. "I could honestly say that not one person had a good word to say about members of the Olympic Council." The athletes felt frustrated by little things: the difficulty of finding out about and using the free transport and official passes to events, despite the fact that these were supposed to be easily available.

"When athletes inquired (about courtesy transport) they were asked, `Who told you that'," says Wiley, who claims that some competitors ended up "doctoring" passes to gain entry to events rather than taking on the tedious process where officials behaved as if they "were doing you the biggest favour in the world".

Wiley says some officials "seemed to be on a bit of a holiday, which added to the whole negative feeling in the camp". While the officials are volunteers, the attitude must be professional at this level, Wiley contends. This said, the pre-Olympic camp was done well and was highly-praised by competitors. But he feels the public expected too much if they thought the Irish were going to bring home a collection of medals.

"We didn't have many medal prospects - Sonia, myself, the rowers," he ventured, adding that he "blew it" and the rowers are still trying to work out what went wrong.

But what athletes saw as ill-informed public criticism on radio in Ireland and remarks by the Minister for Sport, Dr McDaid, did not help. And the men and women who actually take part are "sick of the in-fighting" between the AAI and OCI.

One of the biggest things lacking in Irish sport, now that money is available, Wiley says, is proper long-term planning and structures. Even if it means that a smaller team has to be sent to Athens, the emphasis should be on building towards 2008 and beyond. And a professional approach has to be adopted.