This year's Olympic Games come home to Athens. Ian O'Riordan profiles the emerging Irish team, and predicts that medals may come from some unlikely sources.
The Olympic Games are about taking part. That may surprise a lot of people. Modern sport, it seems, has only one measure of success, and that is winning, but the Olympics are still different. It's a big deal just to get there. Just ask anyone who has.
In less than four months, Athens - the birthplace of the Games - will play host to the next edition of the biggest sporting event in the world, part circus and part carnival and still the dream of every aspiring athlete on the planet. To date, Ireland has secured just 40 places across eight sports, some of which have yet to be finalised. And that reflects the increasingly difficult task of just getting your name into the exclusive club of Olympic participants. Some of those Irish qualifiers have spent the best part of their career getting this far, and for others it will provide a glorious climax. Only the few and very talented get to experience the Olympics before their time.
With the obvious exception of Sonia O'Sullivan's performance, the Sydney Olympics four years ago were not the most memorable from an Irish perspective, and to improve on that, the Olympic Council of Ireland has laid down more stringent qualification criteria. June 30th has been set as the cut-off point for those still hoping to secure their selection, and the current list is unlikely to be expanded by much.
Athens has been building slowly and not so steadily toward the last two weeks of August, when the world comes together united by the premise of sporting excellence. Medals will be limited to a small percentage. For the Irish who have booked their ticket to Greece, it has already been a difficult journey that is often lost in the unrealistic expectations set by those around them.
Over those 16 days of next August, the glory won't be confined to the winning of medals. It's the being there, the personal battle involved, and that honour of being called an Olympian.
ANDY, LEE BOXING
It used to be that Ireland would every four years send a team of boxers to the Olympics, many of whom had genuine medal hopes. But as European boundaries were redrawn, the competition for qualification alone become almost as difficult as actually winning medals at the Games.
So far, just one Irish boxer has succeeded in that arena, 19-year-old middleweight, Andy Lee from Limerick. That he was the first man to do it - and possibly the only one - has already made his Olympic tale one of great accomplishment. But he's also talented and experienced enough to be going to Athens with the ambition to take his dream even further.
Twice now, Lee has proved his ability to perform under both pressure and expectation. Two years ago at the World Junior Championships, he took the silver medal when fighting a close contest with a Cuban boxer who had home support.
Then last February he travelled to Pula, Croatia with an eight-strong Irish team, knowing the next week could present a rare chance for Olympic qualification. Lee admits he got a decent draw and then said, "I'm going to Athens" - although a hand injury sustained in his first contest might have thrown a lesser boxer off. Lee kept his focus, beat an English and a Serbian boxer to set up a semi-final place - and with that his guarantee of a place in the ring in Athens.
ROBIN SEYMOUR, MOUNTAIN BIKING
Robin Seymour, from a background in motorbike trials, switched to pedal-power in 1991 and since then has proved unbeatable at national level in both mountain bike and cyclo-cross competitions.
In Sydney in 2000, he got a puncture, and didn't have the smoothest of rides. Now in his 30s, the Dublin native is based in the hills and natural training ground of Wicklow, and his dedication to his sport has never waned. Seymour will travel to Athens with all the experience and maturity that a rider will need. Another consistent year in 2003 saw him finish the season ranked 37th in the world.
DERVAL O'ROURKE, 100-METRE HURDLES
There is a new generation of Irish athletes known mostly as speed merchants. Derval O'Rourke combines natural speed with the technical demands of high hurdles. At 22, she is the youngest athlete to qualify for Athens so far.
A native of Cork and now a student at University College Dublin, O'Rourke works with the small but exclusive sprints group of Jim Kilty, the former national coach. There she has worked tirelessly on both power and technique, and from Irish junior champion four years ago with a best of 13.49 seconds, she is now Irish senior record holder with a best of 12.96.
Any 22-year-old who runs under 13 seconds for the 100 metres can be considered a real talent. Put 10 hurdles measuring two feet nine inches in the way and you have a sportsperson of O'Rourke's calibre - unique and truly special.
MICHAEL WILLIAMSON, 200-METRE BREASTSTROKE
Of all the Irish Olympic qualifications to date, Michael Williamson's was probably the least expected. The 200-metre breaststroke was the event where just last December a certain Andrew Bree had won the silver medal when the European Short Course championships were staged at the National Aquatic Centre in Dublin. If anyone could qualify for Athens, then the Bangor swimmer had to be the main contender.
But Williamson, a native of Lisburn in Co Antrim, was following his own Olympic dream. While Bree was struggling with his form in America, Williamson quietly went about his own qualification and on April 7th found his form at just the right time.
Swimming in the British Olympic trial event, he took second in the semi-final with a time of two minutes 14.18 seconds - edging himself just .02 of a second under the qualifying time. Only British swimmers were allowed to contest the final, but Williamson had already got the reward he wanted.
And for those who have followed his career, it wasn't a total surprise. Just last August at the World University Games staged in Daegu, Korea, the Lisburn student earned the bronze medal in his speciality with a time of 2:15.52. That represented Ireland's first medal in the competition since Gary O'Toole won gold in Sheffield back in 1991, in the same event.
MARIA COLEMAN, SAILING
There was a moment at the Sydney Olympics four years ago when Maria Coleman was briefly in the national spotlight. She was lying third in the Europe single-handed class and apparently sailing herself onto the medal podium. Though she ultimately faded to 12th overall, by the finish she had confirmed herself as a genuine contender on the world stage.
Almost everything that has happened in the four years since has underlined that position. A year later, she was ranked number two in the world and already identified as one of Ireland's main medal prospects for Athens. And that campaign has been following a mostly consistent course.
Coleman will be nine years a full-time sailor by the time Athens comes around, but that's the sort of experience necessary when attempting to handle the specially designed dinghy that measures just 11 feet and weighs 99 pounds. Now largely based in Baltimore in west Cork, Coleman has spent much of her time in Denmark and more recently in The Netherlands.
Her qualification was confirmed at the combined class World Championships in Cadiz last September, where she finished in a slightly disappointing 15th place, but still within a short distance of the top of the fleet. More than any other Olympic event, conditions can play a role in determining medals, yet Coleman will be as prepared as any sailor can be.
JAMIE COSTIN, 50-KILOMETRE WALK
Think about that distance of 31 miles and the four hours it often takes to finish and you get the idea - punishing. Yet Jamie Costin has such a natural love of the event, he almost makes it sound attractive. Though still only 26, he has dominated it like no other Irish man in the past.
A native of the Ring Gaeltacht area of Waterford, he displayed his talent for race walking at an early age and in 1995 was the 13th best junior in Europe. He then benefited from the effective coaching of Pierce O'Callaghan, former race walker of international distinction. Costin is the first Irishman to crack the four-hour barrier, walking 3:59.01 when taking 12th place at the European Cup in Berlin.
Sydney four years ago proved a difficult experience but he was determined to finish, and came home 38th. Now, Costin is a more mature and composed athlete. Last year he clocked 3:53.58, and at these Olympics, a top-10 finish is within his range.
Costin is seen here with his brother Niall Costin, a competitor in ramp bowling in last year's Special Olympics.
SAM LYNCH/GEAROID TOWEY, ROWING
It's normal for Olympic athletes to speak softly about their medal chances. Sam Lynch and Gearoid Towey don't see it that way. Whenever they talk about Athens and that morning of the lightweight double scull, you will hear the word medal, followed not long after by the word gold. But then, at their best, Lynch and Towey are that good. They have proved it before and they're determined to prove it again when it matters most. It's a quest that started in earnest last August when, as a lightweight pair together for just four months, they took the bronze medals at the World Rowing Championships in Milan. It's one of the toughest events with the toughest of competition, but they beat Australia to make the final, and collected bronze behind world record holders Italy and reigning Olympic champions Poland.
That was the performance that ensured their Olympic qualification, and since then, Athens has filled all their thoughts during long and lonely training periods in Seville. Some recent performances have confirmed their status as genuine medal contenders and there's an unmistakable determination in their approach to the event.
They have the experience to go with that confidence. Towey was in the lightweight four boat that competed in Sydney and since his teenage years has never been far from success. Lynch has already found fame in the lightweight single scull by retaining his world championship title in 2002. An Olympic medal of any colour would be their crowning glory.
DEREK BURNETT, CLAY PIGEON SHOOTING
For a name that rarely appears in the sports pages, Derek Burnett can make two unique claims in Irish sport: he is our first athlete from any event to qualify for Athens, and the only man in the country who can call himself a clay pigeon shooter by profession.
In the months after the Sydney Olympics of 2000, Burnett, then aged 29, left his job as an electronics engineer to shoot full time. At the Games, he had briefly matched the best in the business clay for clay, before nerves and a little inexperience took over, and "I didn't do myself justice".
Clay pigeon shooting, also known as the Olympic trap, is as much about mental strength as it is hand-eye co-ordination. The clay saucers are flung into the air at various angles over six rounds or 125 targets. Burnett was first drawn to that challenge as a youngster in Keenagh in Co Longford, and now travels to Athens ready to shoot as a true medal contender.