While it was a record-setting Olympics for Team Ireland in Paris, there were a few agonising fourth-place finishes. In the Paris Olympics, Rhasidat Adeleke, the women's 400m relay team and the Ireland 49er crew of Sean Waddilove and Robert Dickson became members of a very exclusive club of Irish athletes – a club none of them wanted to join – it’s the fourth-placed finishers group.
Irish sailing duo of Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove 'proud' after finishing fourth in the Men's Skiff, agonisingly missing out on medal following a false start#RTESport #Paris2024
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Here are some of the Irish Olympians who just missed a place on the rostrum.
1924 - Paddy Dwyer - Boxing, welterweight
The Garda from Tipperary would have been Ireland’s first-ever Olympic sporting medallist if the current rules – each beaten semi-finalist receives a bronze medal – were in place. However, Dwyer lost a box-off for Bronze against Douglas Lewis of Canada and left empty-handed.
1928 - Frank Traynor - Boxing, bantamweight
Traynor lost in the semifinal to the eventual champion Tamagnini of Italy before losing a box-off for bronze against Harry Issacs of South Africa.
1932 - Jim Murphy - Boxing, light heavyweight
In 1932 we still awaited our first boxing medal and Jim Murphy can consider himself very unfortunate. He won his opponent bout against Johnny Miller of the USA but it took its toll on the Irishman who was unable to fight either the semifinal or the box-off for bronze.
1932 - Eamon Fitzgerald - Athletics, triple jump
Ireland won 2 gold in athletics and the 1932 Games and we nearly had a third medal. Fitzgerald’s jump of 15.01 was 11cm off bronze.
1948 - Mick McKeon - Boxing, middleweight
In the last Games before the awarded two bronze medals, McKeon won 3 fights before losing his semifinal. Unable to contest the box-off, it was awarded to his opponent from Italy. We don’t know if he took any comfort from situations like this forcing the IOC to change the rules for following Olympics.
1956 - Gerry Martina - Wrestling, freestyle, light heavy
Ireland and wrestling aren’t really synonymous but in 1956, Gerry Martini won his opening bout Spyros Defteraios of Greece, and received a bye in round two. He then lost to Kevin Coote of Australia, and in the medal round to Boris Kulayev of the Soviet Union finishing 4th in the ranking table
1960 - John Lawler - Athletics, hammer throw
Plenty of Irishmen have won medals in the hammer throw at the Olympics but prior to independence, they represented other nations. The closest we’ve come in our own right was Lawler’s 4th place in Rome. His throw of 64.95 was 69cm off bronze.
1964 - A Cameron/T Brennan/J Harty - Equestrian, Team Eventing
The eventing team of Tony Cameron, Tommy Brennan and John Harty weren’t far off the bronze medal won by the combined Germany team that competed in Tokyo. Cameron was 5th individually too.
1976 - Sean Drea - Rowing, single sculls
A world medal winner from 1975, Drea was close to winning Ireland’s only medal in Montreal. In third was Joachim Dreifke of the now infamous East Germany rowing team. Drea had won the semifinal, with the eventual gold medalist from Finland finishing 3rd in that semi.
1976 - Eamonn Coghlan - Athletics, 1,500m
Winner of his heat and his semi, Coghlan was agonisingly close to a medal in Montreal with only 0.34 of second covering the first four home. The Irishman had to settle for that lonely fourth place finish as New Zealand’s John Walker took gold.
1980 - Eamonn Coghlan - Athletics, 5,000m
After moving up in distance for Moscow, Coghlan again finished 4th in an Olympic final. The 3rd placed finisher Kaarlo Maaninka from Finland later admitted to using blood transfusions during the Games. Although not illegal at the time, the process was quickly banned.
1992 - Sonia O'Sullivan - Athletics, 3,000m
A youngster in the field, Sonia injected pace into the field and there were soon only 4 medal contenders but alas she was overtaken by two former Soviet runners (representing the “Unified Team”) and Angela Chalmers of Canada. Silver medal winner Tetyana Dorovskikh was found guilty of doping in 1993. Sonia would go on to win silver in the 5,000m in 2000 and become the first member of the 4th-placed club to win a medal.
1996 - S Lynch, N Maxwell, D Holland, T O'Connor - Rowing, Lightweight Coxless Fours
The men’s lightweight coxless fours hadn’t featured in medals at the global level before 1996 and finished 4th to match Sean Drea’s then-best Olympic result. They’d all go on to win medals at the world championships and went into the 2000 games as a contender but struggled to an 11th place finish. 20 years later we finally got a rowing medal, and it was the lightweights too.
2002 - Clifton Wrottersley - Skeleton, Men's
Our only Winter Games adventure involves Clifton Hugh Lancelot de Verdon Wrottesley, 6th Baron Wrottesley. Born in Dublin to a British aristocratic family, he opted to compete for Ireland in the late 1990s in the sport of Skeleton. As it made its return to the Games in 2002, Clifton was in second place after run 1 in the final but a slower run 2 allowed Gregor Stähli of Switzerland to snatch bronze away from him.
2004 - Kevin Babington - Equestrian, Individual Show Jumping (tied with 5 others)
A strange one as Babbington was only elevated after Cian O’Connor’s disqualification. The American-based rider was among 6 who tied in fourth on his mount “Carling King”.
2008 - Eoin Rheinisch - Canoeing, slalom, K1
Rheinisch nearly won one of Ireland’s most unlikely medals in 2008. 15th of the 15 qualifiers from the heat, 10th of 10 from the semifinal, the Kildare paddler went faultless in the final but missed a medal by just over 3 seconds to Togo’s Benjamin Boukpeti. The French-born paddler won Togo’s first-ever Olympic medal (and remains their only medal).
2012 - Annalise Murphy - Sailing, laser radial
A heartbreaking final medal race saw Murphy slip out of the medals into fourth. After winning the opening 4 races, she was in the top 3 throughout until finishing 5th in the final race, combined with Belgium’s Evi Van Acker finishing 3rd, allowed the Belgian to grab the bronze. The Dubliner bounced back to win silver in the 2016 games in Rio thankfully.
2016 - Tom Barr - Athletics, 400m hurdles
A golden summer for Barr culminated in him running the two fastest times of his life to win the semifinal, but just missed out in 4th place by 0.05s to Turkey’s Yasmine Capello. Injuries have hampered him ever since, but he's in Paris with the mixed relay squad.
2020/2021 – Rory McIlroy – Golf
After missing a putt to go into 3rd on his own, McIlroy was part of a 7 man playoff for bronze that was eventually won by Chinese Taipei’s Pan Cheng-tsung. Mcilroy and the other 6 were all credited with a 4th place finish.
2024 - Sean Waddilove & Robert Dickson - Sailing, 49er
The crew from Dublin started the regatta brilliantly but a disqualification in race 6 seemed to knock their confidence. However, a fine 2nd place finish in the last regular race of the series left them in 2nd pace heading into the medal race. After two abandoned attempts, the race finally took place a day late. A false start by the Irish saw them immediately in trouble and with the USA finishing 4th in the medal race, the Americans grabbed the bronze 3 points ahead of the Irish in 4th.
2024 - Rhasidat Adeleke - 400m
The Tallaght runner made history by being the first Irishwoman to reach a sprint final at the Olympics. She nearly had a medal but faded on the 50m and just beat out a British runner for fourth.
2024 - Sophie Becker, Rhasidat Adeleke, Phil Healy, Sharlene Mawdsley - 4x400m relay
Not only did Adeleke become the first Irish athlete to finish 4th in two different events in the same Olympics, but the agonising relay finish came just 24 hours after her solo run to 4th in the 400m.
A brilliant national record was not enough for the Irish quartet to take bronze, with Team GB just pipping the Girls in Green to the medal positions by 0.18 seconds.
Rob Heffernan is the only man so far to leave the 4th place club for good as he was initially 4th in the 50km walk in London in 2012 but was upgraded to a bronze medal-winning performance after Russia’s Sergey Kirdyapkin was convicted of doping some years later.
We haven’t included fighters who’ve lost a quarter-final in boxing that would have ensured them a medal, and others have been very, very close to winning medals. A 4th place finish in the Olympics is a massive achievement in any sport, but the athletes themselves will tell you how bittersweet it feels
SEE ALSO: McCarthy Medal Moment Sums Up Humility Of Irish Heroes At Olympic Homecoming
