THE LAST POINT: Paris Olympic heroes already fading from sight

Paris seems like a lifetime ago doesn't it? The all encompassing focus on Ireland's heroes for two weeks that saw the national mood rise and fall with the performances of our Olympic heroes in Green in France seems like a distant memory yet it just over two and a half weeks since the five ringed circus came to an end and those heroes have already been consigned to a distant memory.

Sounds harsh doesn't it? Maybe that's the nature of modern life - fleeting moments flash across our consciousness or on social media before we inevitably move onto the next event, the next big thing - just witness the whole hullabaloo over the Oasis reunion and concerts in Ireland next year, and I say this as a fan who attended  gigs during their heyday, a group more famous now for their bust ups and well past their hey-day.

The media write on how the Oasis gigs in Croker next year means no prospect of a later finish to the All-Ireland Championships (a bugbear of the national media right now) but over the weekend, Ireland's greatest ever Olympian conquered the world once more and there was damn all about it, bar the odd snippet on RTE or a small article at the bottom of a page in a national newspaper.

Maybe it is because Paul O'Donovan eschews the traditional image of our sporting heroes - a bit of an introvert who ploughs his own path through water and life, quite happy to reject the trappings of fame in pursuit of his own sporting excellence and indeed happiness - the very qualities that make him such a superlative performer on the world stage.

Calling O'Donovan's Ireland's greatest ever Olympian is not hyperbole, far from it  - even with the litany of Irish stars lined up against him. Kellie Harrington and Pat O'Callaghan both have two gold medals  and that's before we get to Katie Taylor, Ronnie Delaney, Daniel Wiffen  or Michael Carruth - as an aside, O'Callaghan was a nailed on certainty for a third gold medal in 1936 but the traditional split in Irish athletics meant he never got to go to Berlin.

THE LAST POINT: PATIENT WORK STARTING TO BEAR FRUIT

O'Donovan gets the nod above O’Callaghan & Harrington because of his silver with his brother Gary from Rio in 2016 and while  some will point out that he is part of a ‘double’ so how can he be judged as Ireland's greatest ever Olympian? That doesn’t stop the same people proclaim David Clifford as Gaelic Football’s greatest or Roy Keane as Ireland’s greatest and both those absolutely rely on their teammates.

Rowing experts, of which I'm not one, consider him the finest rower pound for pound on the planet. As others recovered from the exertions of Paris, O'Donovan ignored the celebrations and threw himself right back into training and boy did it pay off as he torched new and  fresh opposition in the lightweight men's single sculls final at the World Rowing Championships at Royal Canadian Henley Rowing Course over the weekend.

That took his tally of World Championship gold medals to an incredible eight over the last eight years - five as part of the double sculls and three individual titles. Best add in the three European golds and two silvers and just to complete the picture, there was a bronze as a 19 year old in the World U23 championships in 2013!

To add to all the craziness, O'Donovan achieved all this while studying to be a doctor - that's an Olympic sized effort in itself but he has bestrode the sport of rowing like a colossus, qualified as a doctor and throws in a bit of cross-country running during the off-season, nobody's  idea of light recreation! 

Whatever about Ireland's greatest Olympian, there is a good case O'Donovan might just be Ireland's greatest ever sportsperson and that's why the coverage of his frankly absurd feat last weekend in Canada left me a little bit bemused.

I checked out the Irish Indo on Monday - there was a bit of coverage about but nothing compared to what the big six of the Premier League  received. There was more coverage of a Gaelic football game that took place in 2011 than O'Donovan's Canadian feats - the clash of Dublin and Donegal in the All Ireland Semi-Final 13 years ago changed the game utterly but it is hardly new news, is it?

THE LAST POINT: THE DAWNING OF A NEW AGE

It is not  just O'Donovan who languishes in media coverage - Rhasidat Adeleke was back on the track on Sunday taking on the three women who beat her in the Olympic 400m, finishing in the same fourth position. It got the same amount of column inches that David Clifford's exploits for Fossa in the Kerry Intermediate Club Semi-Final received, less than Erik Ten Hag's struggles at Man Utd and far, far less than coverage afford to Arne Slot and Liverpool.

Rowing and athletics are never going to outperform soccer, GAA or rugby in the public consciousness or the national media, particularly in these days of almost industrial commodification of sport - the big three sports are big business and the symbiotic nature of TV coverage and column inches means that genuine world class Irish sportspeople are being short changed and that's not right.

You write for the audience and here in Leitrim, that's GAA first and foremost but Paul O'Donovan or Rhasidat Adeleke or Daniel Wiffen need to be celebrated much more than they are. We're barely three weeks past the Olympics and they're already fading from view, obscured by the behemoths of the big three - it is as inevitable as it is truly depressing.