Ben Lowry: A remarkable success by Northern Ireland athletes at the 2024 Olympic Games in France

Rhys McClenaghan from Newtownards, seen competing in the Men's Pommel Horse Final at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, won gold, one of seven medals won by Northern Ireland athletes. Photo: Peter Byrne/PA WireRhys McClenaghan from Newtownards, seen competing in the Men's Pommel Horse Final at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, won gold, one of seven medals won by Northern Ireland athletes. Photo: Peter Byrne/PA Wire
Rhys McClenaghan from Newtownards, seen competing in the Men's Pommel Horse Final at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, won gold, one of seven medals won by Northern Ireland athletes. Photo: Peter Byrne/PA Wire
​The Northern Ireland Olympic medal tally has been extraordinary, and far better proportionate to our population than either the whole UK or Republic of Ireland.

​Some people dismiss the idea of Northern Ireland medals given that there is no NI team. But there is a country within the UK, Northern Ireland, so it is of course appropriate to celebrate the successes of people from it, just as medal-winners from Wales and Scotland are celebrated at home.

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The situation in NI is complicated in that our competitors can only be part of the Ireland team or the Great Britain/Northern Ireland team. More choose the former, because many sports here are organised on an all island basis. In some sports it is easier to qualify for Ireland because the UK has far more people trying to get a Team GB slot (the UK population is 12 times the Republic’s, yet Team GB sent only three times the number of athletes to Paris).

Soon we will run an essay by the ex Labour MP Kate Hoey on how hard it is for anyone from NI to represent Team GB.

Meanwhile, the NI athlete tally was stunning: seven medals. Even though some medals were shared with team members from elsewhere in UK it was massively disproportionate to Team GB’s 57 medals (UK population 68 million) and Ireland’s 7 (Republic population 5 million) given NI’s 2 million population.

Ben Lowry (@BenLowry2) is News Letter editor

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