Last week Wednesday, 26 July, marked one year until the start of the Olympic Games in Paris - a year which will also mark one hundred years since Team Ireland took part in their first Olympics in Paris in 1924.
In 1 year,
Dans 1 an, #1YearToGo #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/RcLEW2eF0T— Paris 2024 (@Paris2024) July 26, 2023
For many sports, the Olympic qualification for Paris is well underway. Ireland has successfully secured Olympic qualification in Equestrian, Rugby, Boxing, Athletics, and Swimming - accounting for a total of 43 athletes.
Here are the female Irish athletes who have qualified for the 2024 Paris Games so far:
Athletics
Sarah Lavin - 100m hurdles
Rhasidat Adeleke - 200m & 400m
Ciara Maegeen - 1500m
Boxing
Kellie Harrington - light welterweight division
Aoife O'Rourke - middleweight
Michaela Walsh - featherweight
Rugby 7s
The women's team finished 5th in the World Series and with France being ahead of them, that was enough to qualify.
Swimming
Ellen Walshe - 200 metres individual medley
Mona McSharry - 100m breaststroke
Equestrian
The Eventing team (Sam Watson, Padraig McCarthy, Susie Berry and Austin O’Connor), secured Olympic qualification for the Irish team at the FEI Eventing World Championships in Pratoni, Italy last year.
Athletes in the running to qualify
Athletics
The following athletes have qualified to compete at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest in August: Adeleke (200m, 400m), Louise Shanahan (800m), Ciara Mageean (800m, 1,500m), Sarah Healy (1,500m) and the mixed and women's 4x400m relay squads. The athletes that are currently in qualifying spots; Sharlene Mawdsley (400m), Sophie O'Sullivan (1,500m) and Kate O'Connor (heptathlon).
Ciara Mageean’s collection of Irish records makes for very impressive reading 👀
✨ 1.59.27 - 800m NR - May 2023
✨ 2.31.06 - 1000m NR - August 2020
✨ 3.56.63 - 1500m NR - September 2022
✨ 4.14.58 - Mile NR - July 2023
SENSATIONAL 🤩🔥#IrishAthletics pic.twitter.com/oAVMWJwUTC— Athletics Ireland (@irishathletics) July 22, 2023
Cycling
Irish women are achieving unprecedented success in road racing, with Mia Griffin competing at the World Tour level and Megan Armitage securing victories for her Arkea team. Additionally, the women's track pursuit team is making remarkable progress in qualifying - they achieved top 5 finishes at the European Championships and the first two World Cup events this year. Qualifying for the team pursuit also enables Ireland to compete in the Madison and Omnium events.
Golf
Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow are in the running to represent Ireland in Paris.
Gymnastics
Emma Slevin and Halle Hilton have qualified to represent Ireland at the 2023 World Championships and will be looking to qualify for the all-round gymnastics events.
#Gymnastics Medal Alert🥇
Congratulations to 🇮🇪 gymnast Halle Hilton who has won GOLD on beam @ 2022 Northern Europeans Women's Apparatus finals with a score of 13.066 👏🏻 Floor final still underway, stay tuned! #TeamIreland #GymnasticsIreland pic.twitter.com/TYg6fj8yqK— Gymnastics Ireland (@GymnasticsIre) November 20, 2022
Hockey
Only 12 teams can still qualify for Paris (with the host taking one spot). The qualifying tournaments will be held in early 2024, assuming that the Irish women don't win the upcoming European championships in August.
Judo
Rachel Greene is currently ranked 35th in the world and may get a continental quota that may be allocated to European nations without any qualifiers.
Modern Pentathlon
Sive Brassil is Ireland's sole representative on the World Cup stage this year. She made the semi finals at the European Games and considerable improvement will be required for her to secure a spot in Paris.
Sailing
Eve McMahon is in the running to qualify for Paris, which will be primarily through the 2023 World Championships with further spots available throughout 2023 and early 2024 at European and global levels.
Shooting
Aoife Gormally is ranked 27th in the World and will have several events at which to qualify in 2023 and 2024. With 28 spots available though, Aoife's qualification seems promising.
🔫 | SHOOTING
Aoife Gormally has scored a 23 in her fourth series⚡️
She’s up again at 10:30am for the final series where she’ll be shooting for a place in the final 💪#TeamIreland | #EG2023 pic.twitter.com/TXDzefRbBb— Team Ireland (@TeamIreland) June 30, 2023
Weightlifting
Thammy Nguyen made history with a bronze medal performance at the European Championships in April this year and she is firmly in the running for Olympic qualification (also considering her 20th placed finish at the World Championships in 2022). She will be competing at the World Championships in Saudi Arabia in September.
Over the coming weeks, all eyes will be on Irish athletes who will be chasing Paris spots in the following events:
3 – 13 August: UCI Cycling World Championships (Glasgow)
8 – 20 August: Allianz World Sailing Championships (The Hague)
18 – 26 August: EuroHockey Championship (Mönchengladbach, Germany)
19 – 27 August: 2023 World Athletics Championships (Budapest),
21 – 27 August: World Badminton Championships (Copenhagen)
23 – 27 August: Canoe Sprint World Championships (Duisberg, Germany)
