Leitrim's proud Olympic tradition

We talk about Leitrim punching above its weight when it comes to sport and while the recent struggles of the county senior football team is tough, there is no doubt when it comes to the Olympics that Leitrim really have put in an Olympic effort down through the years.

Starting with Jimmy Duffy who represented Canada in the marathon at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, eight Leitrim people have competed and officiated in the Olympic arena with Gerard O’Donnell from Carrick-on-Shannon the latest in an illustrious list.

To put it into context, our neighbours in Sligo are celebrating their first ever Olympian in the sport of athletics with Grange’s Chris O’Donnell competing in the Mixed 4 x 400m in Tokyo yet five Leitrim people have competed in sports biggest stage.

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Jimmy Duffy

Leitrim had to wait 60 years for the county’s next involvement in the Olympic Games but when it arrived, it did so on the double as Eddie Leddy and coach Padraig Griffin, both of Ballinamore AC, flew the Irish flag at the 1972 Games in Munich.

Those Games were marred by the awful terrorist incident involving the Israeli team but Drumreilly’s Eddie competed in the steeplechase before going on to compete at the 1976 Games in Montreal in the 5,000m and 10,000m events.

Eddie Leddy

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1980 remains the high point for Leitrim and the Olympics as it was the year that saw Carrick-on-Shannon’s Frances Cryan finishing seventh overall in the women’s sculls in the rowing. Her coach Aiden Nangle was also an accredited official to extend Leitrim’s representation at the Games.

Frances Cryan

Moscow must also have felt like a Leitrim reunion as Drumshanbo’s Paschal Mooney was in the Russian city to cover the Games for RTE while Tom Clancy of Glenfarne supplied the boat that David Wilkins and James Wilkinson used to win silver in sailing's Flying Dutchman class.

Joe Doonan was next to join the Leitrim list of Olympians - the Carrigallen school teacher and Ballinamore AC member gained worldwide fame as coach to European Cross-country champion, Irish marathon record holder and four time World Cross-country silver medalist and Olympian Catherina McKiernan, he served as the Irish Athletics team coach in Barcelona in 1992.

Colin Griffin

Kinlough’s Breege Connolly provided one of the most inspirational stories of the 2016 Games in Rio De Janeiro when she qualified for the Olympic Marathon, having only taken up the sport as a way of keeping fit and making new friends in Belfast when she moved back there from Australia.