‘Work hard, and you could get a gold medal like me’ – Team Ireland Special Olympics athletes get heroes welcome at Dublin Airport

IT was a heroes welcome at Dublin Airport – as Team Ireland arrived home from the Special Olympics World Winter Games with medals aplenty.

A large crowd of supporters waved Irish flags and homemade signs eagerly watching the gate in anticipation of the athletes arriving back from Turin, Italy, bearing 11 medals in total.

The team took home five gold medals two silver and four bronze.

Antrim’s Caolan McConville, was one of the six skiers competing and won two gold medals.

He initially planned to compete at intermediate level but this changed on Monday 11 March when he was upgraded to advanced, making history as the first Team Ireland athlete skiing at that level.

He said, “I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved and what we have brought back home”.

While competing, the skiers overcame the difference between the artificial slopes in Kilteran in Dublin and Craigavon in the North and Turin’s snowy alps.

“It’s a whole different ball game you have to go up against conditions you didn’t think you would have to go up against. But the Irish have never done their country wrong and we’ve brought home what we’ve wanted to bring home”.

McConville added that he was incredibly proud of all the 14 athletes who competed in the games.

He said: “The floorballers came third overall, which is fantastic kudos to those guys. And the skiers, who competed at three different levels, intermediate brought back a lot of medals and so did novice. I am incredibly proud of us all”.

Skier Donal Brennan from Dublin waved a silver medal as he walked through the gate.

His father Vincent told the Irish Independent that while his son can be introverted the experience completely brought him out of his shell.

He said, “Donal doesn’t do eye contact and wouldn’t often chat to people but I have a great clip of him chatting to his coach after competing over the weekend. The experience changes them aside from the sporting side of it. It’s the first time he ever went abroad without us and he got on so well over there. For them it’s like being in Disneyland for the week”.

Lucy Best from Ballinderry was also among the skiers representing Ireland at the Games and came home with two gold medals and one bronze medal for competing at novice level.

She said, “I’m happy to be back home now but it went well and I enjoyed it. The training is quite tough and intense but I really enjoyed getting the gold. It was the best day of my life and now today is the best day of my life”.

“To any young athletes out there starting out, I’d say go for it, work hard, and you could get a gold medal like me.”

The Irish floorball team were also welcomed home by family and friends.

One of the captains, Gavin Bourke from Mallow, Cork told the Irish Independent that he is “delighted and incredibly proud of the team”.

“They put themselves through absolutely everything I asked of them. I got a bit agro at one point but I had to pull them aside and say ‘Look I know I may sound like a bit of a hot head but I just want to push you all as far as i can’ and we are grateful for what we ended up getting in the end”.

They usually compete in Ireland on a hardwood surface and had to adjust to a different surface in Turin.

“For the first day we had to adjust to the court but once we settled we were fine. There were a lot of physical games but we gritted our teeth and got through it and we are so grateful now.”

Fellow floorballer and Mallow teammate Joseph ‘Joe Joe’ Sheehan turned 22 the day the team travelled to Italy, and along with his bronze medal, won man of the match during the team’s final game against Switzerland.

Among those cheering the athletes on as they returned home were Kathleen and Eddie Sythes, champion skiers who coach at Kilternan Karvers, where Team Ireland trains.

Ms Sythes said, “We decided to introduce the Special Olympics to our club 25 years ago now, we took it on and we got a few instructors who were interested in teaching. It takes time and you have to have patience, it doesn’t happen overnight that they are ready for a Games but we love it and learn a lot from the athletes”.

Elena Brunton, of Special Olympics Ireland, added: “We are all ecstatic, everything that happened over in Turin is absolutely incredible. Their determination and their training over the years all came to fruition it was amazing to see”.

The team’s arrival coincided with another flight from Italy, the Irish rugby team returning from Rome after defeating Italy on Saturday, with both teams pictured together at the arrivals hall in Dublin.