As the Head of Performance Analysis at the Sport Ireland Institute, my role is two-fold within the support team for Team Ireland at the Paris Games. First and foremost, my responsibility involves establishing the performance analysis suite in the Olympic Village of Paris for Team Ireland. This suite caters to seven different sports and serves as a workspace for analysts and coaches. Additionally, I also serve as the performance analyst for the boxing team. This comprises primarily of analysing tactical plans with the coaches, pouring over hours of footage of our opponents in preparation for each match.
The overall performance of athletes is inherently influenced by my role. Once we know our competitor, we delve into our collection of footage and share it with the coaches. I am then responsible for facilitating this analysis, preparing footage for brief feedback sessions, and review sessions on the match day. I am constantly working a day ahead, assessing the footages of potential futurists, and assisting the coaches with their analysis. The essence of this routine is to give the coaches the necessary time for competition preparation.
My entry into this field was driven by a lifelong passion for sports. About 15 years ago, I got involved in boxing and was part of the initiation of the high-performance system in Ireland. The privilege and pride of contributing to the team at the Games is immeasurable. The village serves as a remarkable platform to witness athletes from across the globe experiencing a kaleidoscope of emotions.
It might be surprising for many to realise the complexities and challenges faced by elite athletes.
The glamour of sporting success is not always as it seems, and is often about the capacity to endure monotonous tasks and persevere. An example that comes to mind is when Kellie Harrington claimed victory a few nights prior, and she had to undertake anti-doping test procedures while we joined the coaches for a late night meal at the food hall. Also present at the food hall happened to be Julien Alfred, the 100m sprint winner from St Lucia, who was simply sitting like any standard diner despite her silver medal win earlier that evening.
Most of my work, roughly 80-90%, involves closely collaborating with coaches to help athletes prepare for their matches. One method we employ, particularly with Grainne Walsh, involves analysing opponents, breaking down possibly 20 rounds of footage, selecting the crucial elements, and condensing that into 60-90 seconds of footage for the coaches to use as a pre-match review.
As for my role, I support and assist the coaches the morning before a match, or the night prior. At the games, I don’t get to interact with the athletes often – in the first week, I didn’t even get to visit the venue, remaining in the village to work a day ahead of the coaches. My work is supported by the Sport Ireland Institute, the Olympics Federation of Ireland’s official performance support delivery partner.