Tipperary athletes ready to take their place among the elite at Olympic Games

The Olympics dream is about to become a reality for three Tipperary athletes.

The years of dedication, commitment and sacrifice made by rower Daire Lynch, sprinter Sharlene Mawdsley and rugby player Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe will pay off when they join more than 10,000 other elite athletes from around the globe at the 30th Olympic Games, which get underway in Paris this weekend.

“I always had the dream of representing Ireland at the Olympics and now that I have realised that ambition I am going to continue to work hard and push myself to the limit in pursuit of those Olympic medals,” Clonmel’s Daire Lynch stated after he secured Olympics qualification and won a bronze medal at the World Senior Rowing Championships in Belgrade last September.

The 26-year-old will team up with Philip Doyle from Banbridge, county Down in the Double Sculls event in Paris and they will be in action in the first round at 10.30am on this Saturday, July 27.

The pair followed up last year’s World bronze medal by claiming another bronze at the World Cup at Lago di Varese in Italy in April, which has put them in good fettle for their participation on sport’s biggest stage of all.

Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe’s early interest in sport was triggered by athletics and she was a juvenile member of Tipperary Town AC, training at the running track in the Canon Hayes Recreation Centre.

The 29-year-old Tipperary Town woman took up rugby at the age of 15 with the local Clanwilliam club and is now a fixture in the Irish Women’s Sevens rugby team.

Ireland won the HSBC World Series in Perth, Western Australia earlier this year and Amee, alongside Irish captain Lucy Mulhall and Terry Kennedy (who was on the men’s team that finished third in the tournament) were all selected on the tournament Dream Team.

A player with a very impressive pedigree, she has gone on to become the top try scorer for the Ireland Sevens team and a leading scorer on the series since making her international debut ten years ago.

She was the top try scorer in the 2021–22 World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series with 36 tries and was nominated for World Rugby women’s sevens player of the year in 2022.

Ireland will face Great Britain in their first pool game in Sevens rugby at the Stade de France this Sunday afternoon, July 28, followed by a clash with South Africa later in the day. They will play Australia the following day.

Sharlene Mawdsley’s participation in the games will erase the heartache she suffered ahead of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, when she was dropped from the Irish 4x400 metres mixed relay team to make way for Cliodhna Manning, despite having been part of the team that secured Olympic qualification.

Since then her form has made her an automatic choice for selection this time around, especially her performances at last month’s European championships in Rome, when she won gold with the Irish mixed relay team and silver with the women’s team.

The Newport AC athlete, along with Sophie Becker and Rhasidat Adeleke, are all potentially available for the mixed relay, women’s relay and the individual 400 metres.

“I will go out on the track as many times as I can, either before my individual event or after,” she stated recently.

“To be an Olympian means everything and I’m a big team player, I love the relays. So I don’t see why I wouldn’t do it”.

The women’s relay final on August 10 falls on her 26th birthday. The first round of the 4x400 metres mixed relay is on Friday, August 2, with the first round of the Women’s 400 metres on Monday August 5.

Daire, Amee-Leigh and Sharlene, along with all the other Irish athletes, are wished all the very best in Paris.