“Apart from Rob Heffernan ,our track and field athletes were worse than disappointing. Very few PB’s,not even many SB’s. Pole vaulter never even registered a single jump,The 4×400 ladies relay team gave an interview after there poor race,not even a hint of disappointment in their voices ??”… couldn’t put it better myself. Disgusting to celebrate or congratulation failure. Everything is wrong, so very wrong with the Irish mindset and culture.

Feck John, your second name’s not Tracey is it?

Sad, sad John

People train hard to go to the Olympics and win. She didn’t win and is therefore, by definition, a loser. Glad we’re not throwing a celebratory parade.

We’re a country of 4 1/2 million people. What do you expect? We have a huge amount of sports played here, our national games (Gaa) soak up a huge amounts of potential (not a bad thing) . we entered 60 odd athletes and got 5 medals (very close to having 7 or 8) just under 10%. the brits who had their best Olympic ever (and pour huge money into sport) got just over 10% medals of their enteries. To make the cut for the Olympics is s feet in itself , of course the goal is to medal. But its the likes of you two guys that do more damage to our chances than anyone else. If these competitors don’t have support they have little chance. so why don’t yee just head off and support some sure bets like the good ‘fair weather’ fans you are ..

In relation to John’s comments below If he had any integrity he would give out his proper name. I do note that he states that he thinks the GAA is a fantastic organisation. He is entitled to his opinion of course. Anyway, well done to all our athletes they had unbelievably tough times to run just to qualify. Just going back to the GAA, if Gaelic Games were in the Olympics how would we fair? My own opinion is that we would be trashed in them if other countries competed in them just like our soccer team was in the European Cup and our rugby team was by the Kiwi’s. Our national sport is going to the pub. We would top a medal table for it!

Michael,

What are you shitting on about the GAA in the Olympics….I think you lost the run of yourself.

Well John, what have you done so remarkable with your little life that qualifies you to even comment on someone who at least attempts to compete on a world level. You are right about one thing though “everything is wrong, so very wrong with (your) Irish mindset”, and it will take an Olympian effort to change it.

@dec he wont answer that .. as hes the journals biggest troll .. with nothing good to say about anything , his life must be so full of joys … makes my blood boil when ppl slam the irish like that

Im second generation ‘Irish’ American, not that it makes any difference because I consider myself American and not Irish

You’re Irish American now? You said you were English on another thread, make up your mind troll! LOL

If you could copy and paste where I said I was English, please share it…Im pretty clear where I am from.

Thank god you do John, because your so far removed from what it is to be irish. Your Irish roots mean nothing at this stage.

Whilst I acknowledge my Irish roots, I don’t celebrate them or profess to be Irish. I am American…if Irish culture is about celebrating failure and professional athletes being delighted with coming 57th and 22nd…or a nation who get drunk and celebrate failure dancing on streets around an open air bus. Think Ill give it a miss thanks :)

@John: I guess you’re delighted with Team America’s performance then, right? 104 medals versus our meagre 5. Thing is though, USA has a much larger population, so they should do better, right?
Team America managed 0.33 medals per million population.
Team Ireland managed 1.11 medals per million population.
So yes, we are rightly proud of our Olympians. They achieved great success and deserve to be celebrated.

On the particular story in question, If I achieved a level in any discipline where only 8 people in the world were better than me, I too would be rightly chuffed.

I know where you are from “John”, under a bridge. I distinctively remember you stating that you were English, conveniently for you the offending comment has been removed from the thread below. But you can clearly see where the exact comment has been removed and the proceeding reply which refers to as a “poor deluded sasanach”, it’s pretty easy to tell in what context that was said. Now rather than speculate, and in the interest of fairness, it is possible for Journal.ie to restore the comment.

Aside from the fact that you’re a compulsive liar and a troll, lets not forget that these are amateur athletes and that some of their friends and families actually read these articles. Your comments have not only been personally insulting to the athletes, but they contain latent anti-Irish bigotry. Ironic, as I suspect that you are not English or American, but a self-hating Irishman and a deluded fantasist. Grow up.

http://www.thejournal.ie/ireland-olympics-2012-homecoming-dublin-554496-Aug2012/#comments

p.s. In my haste to expose this troll, I almost forgot the issue at hand – Well done Natalya Coyle!

Oh go away you clown lol

http://www.medalspercapita.com/

Oh look, there’s Ireland in 22nd, one place ahead of GB and a whopping 27 places ahead of the USA. Yeah, quite proud of that I shall remain John. Have a nice day, troll!

Ok John, we will not celebrate your failure as a human being, you shouldn’t have joined the race in the first place, obviously very unfit.

Are 57th and 20th ‘amazing’ also? Should there be an open bus ‘celebration’ through the capital city of Ireland…I know enough about sport to know that the female Irish relay team were the only losers in the race laughing and smiling as they were interviewed in BBC, even the presenter was taking aback…but hey, another was ‘absolutely delighted’ to be 20th….Piss off you fool, if you knew anything about sport you would understand athletes from every other nation train to win, and are devestated when they lose

20th is extremely credible on a global field. I know that athletes from every other country in the world value experience and development as foundations for victory. Anyone who thinks a 21 year old pentathlete turning up to her first Olympics and coming 9th, far above her world ranking, has failed, is completely clueless. If you have no perspective on the value of this experience, you truly have no hope of ever understanding sport, and you’ve certainly never been an athlete of any value.

Bet I’ve achieved more in sport and understand it a lot more than you do. How do I know that?…..because its all about attitude, I always wanted to win, always, as did everyone I knew. If I lost (which I did, regularly) I was devastated, for myself, my coach/college and friends/family not celebrating or laughing on live TV like a mindless fool, I didn’t get a dumb open bus celebratory tour around my neighborhood either when I lost….have these athletes of yours even got a sports psychologist or do they take their benchmark from the Irish soccer team and fans???? Grow up as a nation and Ill respect you, be proud of your winners, expect more from your athletes and organizations, otherwise as you so eloquently said yourself “Piss off!”

So John, what are your sporting achievements? Obviously, you must be an Olympian yourself, since otherwise you’re a failure, right? So what medals did you win and when? From our athletes, we can expect them to perform to the best of their abilities on the day. The sheer number of personal bests, seasonal bests and high placements in these Games indicates a success there. From the public, I’d love to be able to expect an understanding that nobody’s on top of their game all the time, and that sport is not like that. It’s about the moments of perfection when everything comes right, and they’re rare. Considering the obstacles overcome by Irish athletes in qualifying to attend the Games, we should be immensely proud of a seriously strong pack of achievements coming home. So, again John, what Olympic medals have you won? It’d be pretty hypocritical of you to be calling our Olympians failures if you hadn’t beaten their achievements, right?

There’s no talking to him David. He talks about us having “blinkers” on as a nation but won’t listen to anybody else or try to see it from a different point of view. The word failure is top of his list and I don’t know if it’s arrogance or just plain ignorance but like I said you might as well give up trying to persuade him to see that on the circumstances many (not all) but many of our athletes have done us proud….god love any of his kids on sports days!

My kids always try their best, have lots of fun, are happy when they win and are a little disappointed when they lose…its as simple as that! What part of that simple international sporting philosophy do you Irish not understand? Your Irish athletes and public could learn a lot from American kids, or from kids in the UK and everywhere else in the world :)…Imagine, kids knowing more about sport than Irish ‘adults’ here. Let me know how many other open top bus tours you hear about in the world, or how many athletes from other countries celebrate losing on live TV…Ill be waiting, night, night folks…looking forward to the celebrations ;)

John, firstly, I didn’t hear you say when you won your Olympic medals and in what event. You must have forgotten that part. Secondly, there’s a big difference between celebrating failure and acknowledging the sacrifices and achievements of your athletes. Know what happens when you get a group of people who come home, having invested hundreds of thousands of their own money in many cases, and most of their lives, in their sport, qualified for the Olympics and represented their country and themselves, and the public calls them failures? They go back to work, and they don’t compete anymore, because who needs that shit? I imagine Rob Heffernan and Annalise Murphy are disappointed at how close they came to medalling, but they’re going to recognise the value of the experience and that having come fourth in the Olympic Games is an incredible achievement, one very few people are capable of reaching. These people aren’t failures, they’re incredible. They now need support and investment to develop themselves further for the next Games, and the next. Welcoming them home and lauding them as our athletes isn’t celebrating failure or any such thing; it’s an acknowledgement of what they’ve done, and an act of encouragement to better things in the future.

John not when u talk aload of bollocks about our athletes , as u stated on the other topic your not even irish …. Enlightening us with Ur nationality I bet Ur name is not even john …
I have to say I’ve never heard so much clap trap .. You are the biggest troll with the saddest life …
A big well done to all the reds given John :)))))

What have I said that’s wrong Sarah? Do you believe its OK to celebrate coming 57th, 10th, 27th etc and to be “delighted” If so, OK, that’s your prerogative. Instead of throwing around the usual imbecilic ‘troll’ reply, try actually debating or even offering an opinion why I or most of the world who share the same opinion is wrong? Im not bitter at all, I am embarrassed for you guys…could you name some athletes from other countries who said they were ‘proud’ and ‘delighted’ to have lost so badly? Please do. Or indeed any other country in the world who is even considering an open bus city tour to congratulate 86 athletes that performed abysmally.

John, what makes you think you represent the rest of the world? And we in Ireland are quite happy to support all our athletes if we believe they have tried their best. There is nothing wrong with that whatsoever. If believe there is then I hope you don’t have any kids!, and if you do, bless em!

John, if you’re going to WUM, at least get some facts right. There were 66 athletes representing Ireland, not 86. All of ours have to qualify to the Olympic A grade unlike the majority of countries. Yes, there are a massive load of athletes from other countries that were delighted with their performance who finished well down the packing order. Living in London now I saw many of the same interviewed on BBC from Team GB. In fact the male Walker who finished dead last for Team GB exclaimed how delighted he was just to finish the course. In fact Ireland, per capita, beat China, USA and GB on the medals table. No mean feat. The medal haul was our joint best ever. But even then, that is complete beside the point and against the ethos of hte games entirely. If you are not a WUM and are being serious then I pity you as you have completely missed the point of what sport is all about. Bringing people together in peace to take part is a global event.

Finally on this athlete, she indeed has a lot to be proud of. Natalya has finished 9th on Earth is a sport she took up less that 3 years ago. She is a full time student and only trains part-time. At 21 she isn’t anywhere near her peak and for Rio, assuming that she improves and stays injury free, she can be a real medal prospect.

As for people from elsewhere crying to get silvers, did you not see our boxers. All the men were gutted not to win the gold in their division but we’re still happy that this tiny island on the edge of Europe is punching (pardon the pun) well above our weight.

Why don’t you clarify for us once and for all where you are from so we can do a quick comparison of your country’s record vs. ours. No country has “won” the Olympics, it’s not the point. To medal at all, not to mention 5 times is a great achievement for a country with only 4.5 million inhabitants where 4 of the top 5 participation sports aren’t even in the games.

Don’t tell us how to feel when we’re equaling and breaking records. We’ll remain proud of a great achievement and athletes and supporters that carried the flag with honour. That’s what it’s all about after all.

lol

All except the boxers and Heffernan. Most if not all of the others should have been even there, the majority were not even fit enough to compete….awful!!

“could you name some athletes from other countries who said they were ‘proud’ and ‘delighted’ to have lost so badly, proud to have come 10th, 27th and delighted to have come 57th? Please do. Or indeed any other country in the world who is even considering an open bus city tour to congratulate failure.”

Well “John”, it appears someone else called you out on it as well. Are you going to admit to your obvious trolling now?

I can name plenty of other countries who were thrilled with non-medalling performances. The vast majority of athletes know their chance of winning are slim in the extreme, especially if the sport they play is dominated by particular countries (USA, Russia, Romania in women’s gymnastics, Jamaica in sprinting, USA in men’s swimming etc etc) but that is no reason not to bother. They go to achieve personal bests and to compete, and their achievements are acknowledged in their countries.

The boxers were a credit….the rest shouldn’t have even been there, most were not even fit as was expressed on the RTE panel by fellow athletes. Continue to celebrate and applaud failure, continue to fail!!!

Look at the percentages and do the figures john. comparing Ireland to GB in medal numbers shows your innocence in the subject. or in arithmetic in general.

Pity

I hope that it will change now that we have had our best Olympics since the 1950s!! The is serious misallocation of funds in Irish sports!

John I’m old enough to know your a complete and utter troll , and yes I have to admit I did enjoy taken the piss out of you considering you took great pleasure in slating Ireland , our competitors and the people who comment here . You talk about us as if we are backward . Well I for one take offence on what you say , about the Irish nation .
Consider this if you can ……
population of
China 1,347,350,000…
United States 314,134,000…
United Kingdom 62,262,000 …
Russia 143,117,000….
Germany 81,859,000…

Ireland 4,588,252 ….

As a small nation do you thing we had hope in winning all the medals we got 5 well deserved ones
There was approximately 10,500 athletes representing 205 countries
Please remember this next time u decide to take a pop @ us ..,.

2Aisling
Small nation? :)))
How about Jamaica (2,889,187), Lithuania (3,182,755) and many many others?

Could you copy and paste where I said I was English please?

John go to bed its passed your bed time and your mammy has your hot milk and your blanket pulled back for you :)

Aisling how old are you?

I agree Marc, totally agree actually. What gets to me is the attitude. The attitude of Irish athletes and the Irish public is very wrong and very different to that of other countries and sports people, everywhere. Its uniquely Irish and serves only to instill a defeatist attitude into future generations also. No athlete, anywhere in the world should be “absolutely delighted” with coming 9th or “proud” to come 57th. No country celebrates failure quite like the Irish do either. The fact that the majority of Irish athletes there were not fit is equally disappointing, but I would hold the Irish Olympic Council to account for that. As another poster here said……

“Apart from Rob Heffernan ,our track and field athletes were worse than disappointing. Very few PB’s,not even many SB’s. Pole vaulter never even registered a single jump,The 4×400 ladies relay team gave an interview after there poor race,not even a hint of disappointment in their voices ??”

BOOM!!! Well said Sir!!

John what will you be calling urself tomorrow will it be Billy or joe lol ……. I’m sure Ur not American They dont have a sense of humour like urs cause you are really winding ppl up , and not in a good way . I have some good advice for you crawl back under the stone u came from …

I suspected you might be a kid, so i refrained from even replying to you…now I think your just very very stupid and immature. Ok, Ill go under my stone now, ok Aislin g, you um really got me there eh!…cringe if this person attempting to insult me on a screen is an adult

It does not matter who he is or where he is from. He has made some good points but there has been poor debate challenging him. The ‘troll’ phrase is beginning to be used out of context here.

I think we can consider how to best support athletes and sports (such as considering what about boxing’s structure can be emulated) without personally insulting Irish athletes or belittling their hard work.

I agree with you on the GAA taken potential talent but its the only really well structured sports organization and we need better structures in other ares of sports. take a look at GB 16 years ago, they only won one gold medal and now look at them!! When i was a child i started to take up archery but couldn’t because there was nothing around my area!!

True…and to be fair, for an ‘amateur’ organization its run better than most professional organizations in the world.

I agree with that entirely John, we’re not all out to get you..it might just be worth taking a step back for a second with regard to our Olympic athletes. Can you not agree with most people on here that with next to no government funding or backing many of them (who achieved pb’s etc) did very well. Can you also not acknowledge that it is an achievement in itself to qualify? We all recognise that it is disappointing in a sense but we can’t blame the athletes for that! What you need to recognise is that we’re Irish and the Irish mentality (whether you like it or not) will always be to support our fellow country men representing us abroad…win, lose or draw!

Oh and women of course! Lol

I agree with you lot more than I disagree with you…if you took off your insecure jingoistic Irish blinkers you would realize that. My biggest gripe is the defeatist attitude of the Irish athletes and Irish media/public. The Irish ‘mentality’ about applauding failure needs to change. No other nation celebrate coming last or just qualifying and laughing away, joking around, delighted with just participating. No other nation on Earth celebrates failure and sings songs about it…that’s a fact, like it or not its wrong and it’s a bad precedent for the next generation who will see this crazy crap. By all means respect and applaud effort, but why celebrate, party and rejoice in failure?

Shut up John … You would a win medal for. Shit stirring and mouthing off … You big shit bag

Why should I? I am entitled to share my opinion and it is an opinion expressed by many, many more.

They probably delighted with, Irelands shit investment, infrastructure and professionalism, that they even managed to compete with the elite of this world…so out of so many athletes in the world, at this point in time,she is 9th…id be pretty happy with that. Wonder where she trains…what facilities would she train in?…hmmm

But you’re not entitled to comment on how she should feel. She’s delighted, that’s her opinion and that’s all that matters. She’s only 21 and competing in this event for a few years.
Try being cheerful instead of nasty.

When Voltaire said these words ‘I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it’ I think even he would have drawn the line with you.

Don’t reply to “John” he’s a troll.

If I come across as nasty I apologize, not my intention at all…I’m disappointed and frustrated by this Irish defeatist attitude, until it changes your athletes will always be last and sport in Ireland will continue to go backward. Athletes should want to win, you never hear athletes from other countries NEVER, declare their delight with awful performances, coming 20th / 57th / 9th etc….its just wrong, so are those who celebrate it and accept it.

Another imbecile unable to reply or defend something…so repeats the usual ‘troll’ nonsense. Make an effort at least.

shes only 21 only competing 3 years and performed better than expected so she could be one to watch in 2016

“John”, every single comment you’ve written on Journal.ie has been insulting towards Irish Olympians. You claim to be an English, yet you find celebrating Irish athletes “embarrassing” and “humiliating”. You sound like a plain old self-hating Irishman to me under an assumed identity. Either that, or an anti-Irish bigot judging by comments thus far.

John did you actually read my reply or what? I did give an opinion and debated clearly what you said…But just for you i’ll say it again. Many of OUR athletes (I have only now realised that you’re not Irish) have performed exceptionally well “Most of them have put in years of training at THEIR OWN EXPENSE because the funding wasn’t there! This includes travelling to other countries out of their own pockets because we do not have the facilities!” To qualify is a massive achievement and many have recorded personal bests… Don’t be embarrassed for us John because we’re not!!

And the gold medal for this biggest sod on the planet goes to… John! Congratulations bud. Your most notable contribution to the world’s biggest sporting event was big barrel of bile and a record haul of red thumbs. They’ll make a movie out of your mindless negativity and call it “Chariots of Ire”.

Rant over.

John, you’re ridiculous. Natalya is 21 years old and has been competing for just a few years. She put in a stunning performance today to finish ninth on the world’s most elite athletic stage. You clearly have absolutely no idea what it means to even qualify for the Olympic Games. You need to educate yourself or take your trolling elsewhere.

How many Olympics have you qualified for John?

I think Irish athletes at these games for the most part have done their country proud. On another note, I think there is nothing wrong with celebrating effort, which is what the Irish will do in spades. We have also been seen to criticize our athletes on many occasions for poor effort. The criticism of the Irish football team under Staunton is evidence enough of this. I’m a proud Irish man, and part of that Irishness is having an optimistic outlook on life and celebrating the way we do for the things we do is something we as a nation should be proud of and is not embarrassing to me one bit. As for other nations there is little evidence that they are laughing at us because of our celebrations, there is as much evidence displaying an admiration in the way we irish champion our athletes. As for John, his mates may agree with him, but they are clearly in the minority, which makes his opinion a failed one. How does it feel to be a loser without support! :)

So John, youre English, Americans, whatever! Point is, none of these athletes represent you. They represent my country and my people.
Its of no consequence to you how this nation feels or thinks so stop doing that classic American thing of patronising people.

On the issue of the GAA, there are 2,718 GAA clubs all around the world. Our national games are played all over the world by every colour and creed. The same cant be said for yours so maybe you should focus on your own and leave the Irish up to us.

If you read what I actually write you would see I admire the GAA greatly you dope