Best Irish sporting achiever EVER

The thing about michelle smith and cheating is interesting when you think of all of the cheating that goes on every weekend that changes the course of where medals go. Look at the diving for penalties, holding back players, feigning injury, deliberating hurting another player, even go back to the 'hand of god' and cheating is prevalent in every sport yet only athlethics and cycling 'cheats' get demonised. There is a difference in how they cheat but surely cheating is cheating so can we get off her back and move on.
 
Niallers said:
Michelle Smith, 3 golds and 1 bronze.
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Even if these medals were pristine pure, I rate 3 swimming golds about equal to 1 track gold. Ronnie Delaney won a Gold at 1500 metres. That is the Blue Riband of the OG and to my mind RD qualifies as Ireland's best Olympic athlete even if Michelle Brown was clean.
 

a very good point.
 
What about Christy Ring, Mick Mackey, Eddie Kehir, Mick O'Connell?. After all, no matter what Harrington has done, no one was marking him!!!!

As for Aidan O'Brien, great achivements, but how much of that was down to the fact that other people's money gave him the best horses in the first place. And if you say Aidan O'Brien was the best, where does that leave his namesake, Vincent O'Brien?. Frankly I'd put someone like Christy Roche ahead of any trainer

If you are talking about acheivers instead of pure talent, what about Denis Irwin?, how many medals did he walk away with from his time at Man U.
 
Mpsox said:
As for Aidan O'Brien, great achivements, but how much of that was down to the fact that other people's money gave him the best horses in the first place. And if you say Aidan O'Brien was the best, where does that leave his namesake, Vincent O'Brien?
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I am being forced to amend my words as the thread develops. My point is that Horse Racing and AOB in particular is a HUGE success story for Ireland. We are a world superpower in that arena. Probably the greatest over achievement of any country relative to its size in any sphere, and not just sport. When's the last time Mary McaFleece praised AOB, or Cowan or Kenny etc. etc.? No votes in Horse Racing, I guess.:mad:

(VOB was a colossus as well, but AOB is probably on course to surpass him.)
 
Ash 22 said:
Are Vincent O'Brien and Aidan O'Brien related?
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No

I agree that AOB is a master of his domain, but horse racing would not, IMHO, count as something eligible for the title of Best Irish sport achievement. 'His' horses don't represent Ireland per se; they represent the bank accounts and ego of the Ballydoyle owners.
 
gianni said:
Interesting opinion... what's your logic behind it ?
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butterfly, freestyle, breast-stroke. Why don't we have egg+spoon, three legged, blindfold etc. on track, all we have is freestyle.

If you are best at swimming, you have made a bit of a bags of it just to pick up only one gold medal.
 
You're obviously not a swimmer yourself Harchibald!

The four swimming strokes - Butterfly, Breaststroke, Backstroke & Front Crawl are very different disciplines. Michael Phelps is a phenomenon (as was Ian Thorpe & Mark Spitz), it's rare to have multiple winners of such a range of events in swimming.
 
Make that 5 swimming golds = 1 track gold.
 
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