Olympic Competition kicks off later today when the Men’s Rugby Sevens team compete in the pool rounds.
The opening ceremony will be held on Friday evening with four Galway Olympians flying the flag for their home county and for Ireland.
Galway will be represented in Rowing, Rugby Sevens and Swimming.
Fiona Murtagh and Aifric Keogh, Bronze Medalists in Tokyo, will once again representing Ireland, this time in the Women's Pairs.
Bebhinn Parsons is part of the Women's Rugby Sevens and Tom Fannon, whose Grandfather hails from Castleblakney, will represent Ireland in the 50m Freestyle.
Athletes Profiles
Rowing
Rugby Sevens
Swimming
The 2024 edition of Team Ireland is a 133-person team, across 14 sports. The Olympic Games in Paris 2024 boast a 50/50 gender balance, and the Irish team almost replicates this with 64 female athletes and 69 male athletes – a 48/52 balance.
In terms of geographical breakdown, the counties with the largest representation are Dublin (34 athletes), Cork (16 athletes), and Co. Down (14 athletes). Only two counties are missing from the ‘home county’ list – Westmeath and Leitrim, although both countries have tight connections with Team Ireland athletes.
History will be made, this year, by marathon runner Fionnuala McCormack when she becomes Ireland’s first female athlete to compete in five Olympic Games. Equestrian athletes Cian O’Connor and Austin O’Connor will become four-time Olympians.
There will be seven three-time Olympians including Olympic Champion Paul O’Donovan. Thomas Barr, Ciara Mageean Mark English (all athletics), Leona Maguire, Stephanie Meadow (both golfers) and Shane Ryan (swimming) complete the list.
The youngest team member is Grace Davison (swimming), at 16 years old, while the oldest is soon-to-be four-time Olympian Austin O’Connor (eventing).
There are plenty of family connections within the team – Sophie O’Sullivan (athletics), is the daughter of Olympic medallist Sonia O’Sullivan. Rachael Darragh (badminton) is the niece of three-time Olympian Chloe Magee, and Leona Maguire is the cousin of Ross Corrigan (rowing). Siblings Aidan and Michaela Walsh (boxing) are both competing once more, and track athletes Jodie and Luke McCann.
A significant number of ‘twins’ are on the team, with canoe slalom athletes Madison and Michaela Corcoran both competing – the daughters of 1992/1996 Olympian Mike Corcoran. Athlete Brian Fay is Ireland’s first quadruplet, and seven athletes on the team have a twin; Noel Hendrick (whose twin narrowly missed qualification), Fintan McCarthy (whose twin Jake is also on the Irish rowing team), Daniel Wiffen (whose twin Nathan narrowly missed qualification), Leona Maguire (whose twin was her caddy previously), and David Harte (whose twin Conor competed in Rio 2016). Fiona Murtagh (rowing) and Clare Boles (rugby) also have a twin.
