We're all champions of the world

Maybe it passed you by but America's self proclaimed greatest basketball players in the world suffered an epic double humiliation when the USA not only didn't win the FIBA World Championships in Manila, they didn't even get a medal.

You may wonder what this topic that has little to do with Leitrim but in an era of slick marketing and selling the product, both for sports and countries, the mighty US were humbled by winners Germany in the semi-finals and north American neighbours Canada in the bronze medal playoff in what many view as  hubris and arrogance coming home to roost.

As an athletics nut, the news that the US lost both games brought a smile as we're only a couple of weeks on from an actual double World Championship gold medalist Noah Lyles, from the US no less, getting roasted by his NBA countrymen for his temerity in suggesting that calling the NBA winners the “World Champions” was both arrogant and illogical.

Looking for lessons from America's NFL

THE LAST POINT

Lyles won the 100m & 200m  in Budapest and anchored the Yanks to the 4 x 100m relay yet all that was forgotten as a host of NBA stars lined up to take potshots at the new world champion for his cheek in proclaiming that crowning the NBA winners “world champions” was disrespectful not only to the rest of the world but to someone like himself who faces the best athletes of over 200 nations.

Imagine the reaction on Sky Sports if someone opined that the Premier League wasn't the best League in the world and then multiply it by a hundred. US media and NBA stars  piled on and piled on hard and  came up with the notion that the World champions tag was justified because the best players from all around the world all ply their trade in the  NBA!

It'd be like proclaiming the Dubs “World Champions” after winning Sam this year or bestowing the same title on Limerick hurlers. Wait, does that mean Zach Tuohy and Mark O'Connor were World Champions when they won the Aussie Rules title last year?

So when a team of NBA stars is humbled (albeit  not their very best), it was hard not to feel that the actual “world class” Lyles was vindicated - although watching the start of the NFL season and hearing the Kansas City Chief called World Champions” turned the stomach - but maybe that says more about the self obsessed nature of US sport!

We're not immune from the hyperbole ourselves - David Clifford scored an outrageous point for Fossa last weekend with the commentators proclaiming that nobody else could have done what the Kerry genius did! Except of course for Conor McManus of Monaghan, Tyrone's Stephen O'Neill, Mayo's Ciaran McDonald, Dublin's King Con or even the Kingdom's own Maurice Fitz. Even locally, Ryan O'Rourke and Keith Beirne regularly produce such 'worldlies’ on the Leitrim stage.

What marks Clifford out is not the wonder of one score but rather the continuous and almost routine nature of his scoring exploits that rightly sees him as some almost freak of sporting nature.

Right now, the Rugby World Cup is front and centre but how does one  rank it against Soccer or even athletics? How does Ireland hammering Romania 82-8 compare with  Ciara Mageean finishing fourth in the 1,500m in the World Championships or Ireland losing to France and Holland in the Euro Qualifiers?

Grounds for congratulations!

THE LAST POINT

 World Athletics has 214 affiliated nations, FIFA 211 and World Rugby 130 members and affiliated nations but the reality of Rugby Union is that there are 10  “Tier 1 Nations” so far ahead of the rest that they rarely play anyone else in a virtual closed shop. That's not a crack at rugby - it is a major sport in these islands because we're among the world's best but for most of the planet, rugby is a niche sport in the same way athletics is.

Would we proclaim Ireland as world champions if they lifted the William Webb Ellis Cup next month? Of course we would and rightly so and hopefully that will come to pass but  the challenge facing Andy Farrell's men is, in all honesty, not as deep as what Stephen Kenny's Republic of Ireland team have to face or what Vera Pauw's women's team took on in Australia or what Ireland's newly crowned World Rowing  champions from last weekend beat.

Pair Paul O’Donovan & Fintan McCarthy and Siobhán McCrohan struck gold in Belgrade last weekend in the World Rowing Championships while Enniskillen pair  Ross Corrigan & Nathan Timoney and double sculls Philip Doyle and Daire Lynch won bronze medals, incredible feats that won praise but hardly the wall to wall coverage of events in France - for the record, FISA (the World Rowing body) had 157 affiliated nations.

So as the hype train gathers steam across so many sports, not just rugby union or the NFL or the Premiership, perhaps we should dial down the hyperbole just a little and spread the love to our less celebrated sporting heroes  - at least until we're crowned champions of the entire Universe!

SCHOOLS TEAM A GAME CHANGER FOR LEITRIM FOOTBALL

Can't let this column go without mentioning the news that Leitrim will be entering a combined schools team in the Connacht Post Primary Senior A championship, a potential game changer for football in the county.

It has been an idea long mooted but the news that a “Leitrim” team will be taking on the big beasts of schools football in Connacht this coming season is one of the best developments for Leitrim football in years.

It's easy to criticise what goes on at County Board level and I've been a critic myself over structural reform but credit where credit is due. The reforms of underage football over the past five or six years has very much resulted in better performances from our county teams, culminating in the Leitrim U15 team winning the Humphrey Kelleher Cup and the U16 team reaching the Fr Manning Cup Final.

It'd also be churlish not to note that the Minor and U20 sides have also been much more competitive in recent years but this new combined schools team has the potential to help Leitrim teams bridge the gap from promising performances to victories.

Time to finally see the light

By John Connolly

Crucially, Connacht GAA have agreed that the Leitrim team is confined to Leitrim players - this might be harsh on the Roscommon, Sligo and Cavan players attending various schools around the county but the main aim of this project is to develop and improve Leitrim football and that is to be welcomed.

There will be tough days, of course there will be, but in exposing the county's young footballers to a higher standard of football on a consistent basis, it can only benefit the county's teams in the long run.

Congratulations to all those who got this project across the line and hopefully, the young footballers of Leitrim will be inspired to meet the challenge!