Editorial: Northern Ireland has been one of the most high achieving regions anywhere in the Olympics

The Olympics closed last night with a glittering ceremony in Paris, and glimpses of the host for the next games – Los Angeles in 2028.

The competition has only lasted a fortnight but it seemed longer, having been so packed with drama.

One of the most remarkable stories of this year’s Olympics has in fact been little told: that of medal winners from Northern Ireland.

This has been by far our best ever medal haul: seven (won by six athletes), including four golds.

No matter what way you crunch the numbers, that is more pro rata than the UK achieved as a whole with Team GB and NI, or than the Republic of Ireland achieved with Team Ireland.

Some people will say that Team Ireland is not synonymous with the Republic and that is true in that NI athletes can compete for either Team GB or for Ireland. But even so, we can draw rough comparisons between NI’s success and that of the rest of these islands.

NI has about 3% of the population of the British Isles yet we got 10% of the total medals won by Team GB and Team Ireland (72).

We had not in fact had an individual gold winner, for example, since Mary Peters in 1972. Now we have another two, Daniel Wiffen and Rhys McClenaghan.

Congratulations also to Jack McMillan, Hannah Schott, Rebecca Shorten and Philip Doyle.

The successes were shared across Team GB and Team Ireland for various reasons, including the different ways in which different sports are organised when it comes to the border.

But the athletes have their NI background in common. They must have a homecoming celebration.

This is one of the biggest sporting triumphs in the history of Northern Ireland.

Stunning sporting talent, skill and effort by these six stars has put NI among the highest achieving regions in the world.