Fintan McCarthy and Paul O'Donovan produced one of the all-time great Irish Olympic performances this morning, blowing the opposition away to retain their men's lightweight double sculls crown in Paris.
The Cork duo entered this race as big favourites for gold, despite what O'Donovan would have had you believe. Once the race got underway, they more than justified that tag.
While the first half of the event was relatively close at the top of the field, it wasn't long before the Irishmen took control of proceedings. They would steadily open up a significant advantage over the other crews, eventually opening up a clear water lead.
By the time they entered the final 200 metres or so, they knew that gold would be returning to Skibbereen.
Paris 2024: Gold glory for Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy as the Irish rowers defend the lightweight double sculls title they won in Tokyo.#RTESport #Paris2024
📺 Watch https://t.co/XnOP6grnB7
📱Updates https://t.co/18WgncFAEe pic.twitter.com/nVEBkutkPg— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) August 2, 2024
What a performance.
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Paul O'Donovan Had Hilarious Response To Olympic Gold With Fintan McCarthy
With this gold medal, Paul O'Donovan broke a few records. He is now the most successful Irish Olympian of all-time, as well as our only athlete to medal in three separate games.
Of course, it his own typical style, he was keen to downplay those achievements.
Speaking on RTÉ, only did he go back to that underdog tag that he has been discussing throughout the Olympics, but he also labelled his own success in the last three editions of the games as a 'fluke'.
The full interview with our history-making rowers
Two and a half minutes well spent#RTESport #Paris2024 #rowing
📺 Watch https://t.co/b2OI4OoWVJ
📱Updates https://t.co/18WgncFAEe pic.twitter.com/2IpyyyeqPt— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) August 2, 2024
O'Donovan: Oh I think it was always in doubt for everyone else. I mean, no one believed we could do it coming into this competition. Against all the odds, we stuck with it and trained hard.
Italy out there today were the no.1 seeds, they really put it up to us. Greece were the underdogs like ourselves, also put in a big dig and got up onto the medal podium. Unfortunately, Switzerland missed out after some early performances this year.
We are very happy to have proved the doubters wrong, so it's a good day for the Irish...
McCarthy: It was always the aim for sure. We had a rocky enough season. Well, I did, Paul has obviously been as consistent as hell throughout the whole year.
It's just really nice to get a few good races under our belt earlier in the regatta. I was trying to keep under wraps the nerves, but coming out for the final there were no nerves. We had some really good rounds and I really felt like we were back to our best for this race.
It's really amazing to be back in front of all our family and everyone supporting us, especially everyone from the club. I feel like it's just been a crazy journey for the last few years and the privilege of a lifetime to be able to row with Paul and under Dominic for pretty much my whole rowing career. It's amazing...
O'Donovan: Oh I think that's a fluke to be honest (becoming Ireland's best every Olympian). If I can repeat the feat, it's definitely going down as a fluke in my eyes. That's about it...
Brilliant support. The grandstands are green and there are tricolours everywhere, the French were drowned out. That was really great to see, they were all over from Skibbereen and Ireland everywhere.
The French volunteers in the boat park and the other countries that had boats in this event as well were really cheering us on this morning and all week.
We really appreciate the support, it's fantastic.
Yeah, we're not exactly convinced that Paul O'Donovan's dominance in this event is a 'fluke'. In Fintan McCarthy he found the ideal partner, with the pair providing us with countless memorable moments in recent years.
This might well have been the best of the lot of them.
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