The 2024 Olympics in Paris were the most successful in history for athletes from Northern Ireland
Who are the Olympic medallists from Northern Ireland?
Daniel Wiffen
Gold: Men’s 800m freestyle Bronze: Men’s 1500m freestyle
Hails From: Armagh via Leeds
Daniel Wiffen (born 14 July 2001) is an Irish swimmer who competes at the Olympic Games, world championships and European championships for Ireland and at the Commonwealth Games for Northern Ireland. He is the Olympic and world champion at 800 metres.
Wiffen won gold at the men’s 800 metre freestyle final at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, setting an Olympic record time of 7:38.19
] He won the 800 and 1500 metres freestyle at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha, the first time a male Irish swimmer had become world champion. He won the 400, 800 and 1500 metre freestyle at the 2023 European Swimming Championships (25m) in Otopeni, and the inaugural European Under-23 title in 2023 in Dublin.
Wiffen holds the 800 metres freestyle short-course world record with a time of 7:20.46.
Personal life
Wiffen was born in Leeds, England, and moved to Magheralin at the age of two. He has three siblings, twin brother Nathan, sister Elizabeth and another brother, Ben.. The family home is close to the border of County Down but is in County Armagh.
Daniel’s twin brother Nathan is also a swimmer who finished fourth in the 1500m at the 2024 European Championship and narrowly missed out on the qualifying time for that event for the 2024 Olympics.
Daniel and his twin brother have a YouTube Channel. They both had minor roles in The Frankenstein Chronicles (season 1, episode 2) and Games of Thrones (season 3, episode 9); in the latter, their sister Elizabeth also appeared as Neyela Frey.
Wiffen attends Loughborough University.
Main source : Wiki Daniel Wiffen
Jack McMillan
Gold: Men’s 4x200m freestyle relay
Hails From: Belfast
Jack McMillan (born 14 January 2000) is a swimmer from Belfast, Northern Ireland, who competed for Ireland in the men’s 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay at the 2020 Summer Olympics and for Great Britain at the 2024 Summer Olympics. He swam in the heats of the 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay and was awarded a gold medal when the British team won the final.
Personal life
“I was about four years old when I started swimming,” he said.
“My dad worked at the local leisure centre, so that’s how I got into swimming lessons.
“I started competing around eight years old and definitely had a natural feel for it compared to the other kids.
“It was that natural love at the start and knowing that I was quite a bit better than the other kids which spurred me on as well.
“I was always the best from an early age, and I wanted to continue that.”
Main Source : Wiki Jack McMillan
Main Source: Belfast Telegraph
Belfast Telegraph: Belfast swimmer Jack McMillan pays tribute to late mother as he shares first photograph of Olympic gold medal
Hannah Scott
Gold: Women’s quadruple sculls
Hails From: Coleraine
Hannah Scott (born 18 June 1999) is a rower from Coleraine, Northern Ireland. She has won Olympic and world championship gold medals representing Great Britain
At the 2023 World Rowing Championships in Belgrade, she won the World Championship gold medal in the Quadruple sculls with Lauren Henry, Georgina Brayshaw and Lola Anderson. The team went on to win the gold medal in the quadruple sculls at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics
Personal life
Who is Hannah Scott?
Team GB rower from Coleraine wins gold in Women’s Quadruple Sculls
Originally from Coleraine, Hannah’s Olympic journey began in the River Bann.
She started rowing at 13 at the Bann Rowing Club in Coleraine, one of the oldest and most successful rowing clubs in Ireland.
The historic club boat house has stood since 1864 in those years it has been the beginning of the road for many Olympic medals over the years.
Brothers Peter and Richard Chambers, who won silver together in the lightweight four at London 2012, and bronze-medal winning sculler Alan Campbell all started off at the Bann Rowing Club.
Having the opportunity to attend this club and be mentored by its accomplished coaches set Hannah up for success, and it was not long before she started to excel in the sport.
She went on to win five national titles and eight silver medals over several years of competition at the Irish Rowing Championships.
One of the biggest milestones in her rowing career was attending Princeton University in America, where she was able to take part in the university’s rowing programme.
While at the Ivy League university she went on to become a two-time Ivy League Champion in the Varsity Eight and she led the Princeton Women’s Crew as captain.
She also snagged two silver medals at the U23 World Championships.
The road to Paris
Her final years at university were disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, which opened up an opportunity for Hannah to return to the UK and earn a spot on the British Rowing Team at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The 25-year-old made her Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020 while still studying for her sociology degree at Princeton. Paris will be her second Olympics and she will be heading in as a reigning world and European champion in the women’s quadruple sculls.
Main Source: The Irish News
Main Source : Wiki Hannah Scott
Rhys McClenaghan
Gold: Men’s pommel horse
Hails From: Newtownards
Rhys Joshua McClenaghan BEM OLY (born 21 July 1999) is an artistic gymnast from Northern Ireland who competes internationally both for Ireland and Northern Ireland. He is recognised as one of the best pommel horse workers of his generation. He is the 2024 Olympic champion, the first gymnast ever to win an Olympic medal for Ireland. McClenaghan is also a double world champion on the pommel horse, having won gold in 2022 and 2023, the first Irish artistic gymnast ever to win world championship gold. In 2019, he became the first Irish gymnast to qualify to a world championships final and to also win a medal, taking bronze on pommel horse.
He is a three-time European champion and a Commonwealth Games champion on the same apparatus. McClenaghan is the first Irish gymnast to compete in a European final and also the first to win a European medal.
He also competed for Northern Ireland at the 2018 Commonwealth Games,[8] winning the gold medal on the pommel horse. He followed this by winning the 2018 European Championships, pipping the reigning Olympic and two-time world champion, Max Whitlock on both occasions. In 2023, McClenaghan won a second European title and retained the world title. His third European crown came in Rimini in 2024.
He is the first gymnast to become Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth champion on one apparatus.
He was named RTÉ’s Sportsperson of the Year for 2023.
Personal life
McClenaghan was born in Newtownards, County Down, to Tracy and Danny McClenaghan. Aged six, and already displaying a precocious aptitude for gymnastics, he started training at Rathgael Gymnastics Club in Bangor. McClenaghan later attended Regent House School in Newtownards. He has been coached by close friend Luke Carson for many years.
The family of Co Down gymnast Rhys McClenaghan have told of how they “knew this day would come” after he won gold at the Paris Olympics.
The Newtownards athlete completed on Saturday what is considered a gymnastics’ Grand Slam – World, European, Commonwealth and Olympic golds.
Speaking after her son stood on the winner’s podium to collect his gold medal, his mother Tracy said it was “the only one that was missing from his medal collection”.
The 25-year-old gymnast clinched gold for Team Ireland with his outstanding routine in the pommel horse final at the Bercy Arena. It came three years after he fell from the apparatus, when he was favoured to win gold at the Tokyo Olympics.
He said he had slept with the medal on his bedside table.
“It’s so heavy and so sharp I was scared I was going to wake up with injuries,” he said on Sunday.
“I started gymnastics at six years old, that gap between there, that is all my parents, that is them driving me to and from the gym, paying my gymnastics fees, everything they supported and wanted me to pursue that dream that I had.
“This medal is just as much theirs as it is mine.”
Main Source : Irish Time Rhys McClenaghan
Main Source : Wiki Rhys McClenaghan
Rebecca Shorten
Silver medal: Women’s four
Hails From: Belfast
Rebecca Shorten (born 25 November 1993) is a Northern Irish rower from Belfast. She is a world and European gold medallist and Olympic silver medallist for Great Britain.
She attended Methodist College Belfast and Roehampton University.
Personal life
‘I always knew Rebecca had right chemistry to be top rower at Olympics. Science teacher who coached Team GB silver medal star recalls conversation that set Belfast woman on course for glory
It was a conversation that changed Rebecca Shorten’s life and set her on the path to sporting stardom that culminated in a silver medal at the Paris Olympics.
The Belfast rower was part of the Team GB four that finished second in the final.
The team, also comprising Helen Glover, Esme Booth and Sam Redgrave, lost out on the line to the Netherlands by just an 18th of a second.
While their gold dream was dashed, there was a silver lining, boosting Northern Ireland’s medal tally on a day when Banbridge rower Philip Doyle and his partner Daire Lynch claimed double sculls bronze for Team Ireland.
Shorten’s story is remarkable, with her former mentor pinpointing a conversation 16 years ago that set her on a new course.
Enda Marron, her teacher and rowing coach when she was at Methodist College in Belfast, said her journey to the podium in Paris began after a science lesson in 2008.
“I was her chemistry teacher and she wasn’t the best chemist,” he told the Belfast Telegraph.
“She had handed in some chemistry work that wasn’t the best.
“It was okay, it just wasn’t the best, and she was a bit embarrassed by it and a bit shy about it.”
Mr Marron said he knew Rebecca wasn’t going to excel in a science career, but saw her potential as a rower.
He said: “I remember saying to her: ‘Who cares about chemistry? Let’s get you into a boat and down to the river’.
“After that she just went from strength to strength and the rest is history.”
At the time Shorten was only 14.
Sixteen years later, and she is the proud owner of an Olympic silver.
Mian Source : Jessica Rice Belfast Telegraph
Philip Doyle
Bronze medal: Men’s double sculls
Hails From: Banbridge
Philip Doyle (born 17 September 1992) is an Irish representative rower. He is an Olympian and won a medal at the 2019 World Rowing Championships. He raced in the men’s double sculls with Ronan Byrne at Tokyo 2020. He won a bronze medal in the men’s double sculls at the 2024 Summer Olympics with Daire Lynch.
Doyle went to St. Mary’s Primary School in Banbridge from 1996 to 2004. He then attended Banbridge Academy 2004-2011 where he played hockey winning the Bannister Bowl 2006, Richardson Cup 2007 & 2008, the McCullough Cup 2010 and Burney Cup 2010 & 2011. He played in a side which won the All Ireland Schools Cup 2011 and made the semi-finals of the European Schools Cup in 2011.
Doyle played for Ulster U16 at centre back when they were runners-up in an inter-provincial tournament. He represented Ireland U16 in the European championships coming 6th in Holland. Philip also played for Banbridge club up to first XI standard playing centre forward for the 2010/11 season.
Personal life
Doyle went on to study Medicine at Queen’s University in 2012. Philip did an intercalated degree in Medical Sciences in 2015/16 also graduating with a first class honours BSc. Philip got his senior debut for Ireland rowing in Lucerne, Switzerland in the men’s singles coming 15th. He and his partner Ronan Byrne went on to come 9th in Plovdiv, Bulgaria in the men’s double September 2018 delaying stating his Job as a doctor in Belfast city Hospital after Graduating from Queen’s University in July 2018.
Philip worked as a foundation 1 doctor in Belfast City Hospital December 2018 – April 2019 before returning to Rowing full time and competing at the European Championships in Lucerne, Switzerland with partner Ronan Byrne coming 9th
Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph last month Philip said: “So I train 18 times a week, anything from four to seven hours a day depending on the session structure and what competitions are coming up – and depending on my work.
“My training is always a mix of sessions in the boat, on the rowing machine or in the gym. The Elite Athlete Programme at Queen’s has certainly been a great support to me.
“At the beginning of the year I sit down with my coach and set out my goals and we then figure out how they can be achieved.
“My coach Mick Desmond worked tirelessly with me and with Queen’s Sport to facilitate my achievements and helped me work towards my senior international debut, in Lucerne last month, where I came 15th out of 27.”
In March, Philip was recognised for his heroic bravery following an incident on the Lagan last year. Alongside QUBBC teammates Chris Beck and Tiernan Oliver, Philip helped save the life of Terry Bell who had fallen into the river while they were taking part in a Lagan Scullers Club river race, on the morning of Saturday 25 November.
Philip was awarded the Students’ Union President’s Award for Student Achievement which recognises a student or group of students who have demonstrated excellence in leadership or have made a positive impact on society.
Main source : wiki Philip Doyle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Doyle_(rower)
Main source : Queen University Belfast
Dont forget to subscribe and follow me on Twitter 😉
- A singed copy of my book for Xmas ?
- I need some help folks 😜
- Ireland’s Bloody History – Rathlin Island Massacre July 1575
- Ireland’s Bloody History – Portadown massacre November 1641
- Here’s a complete chapter of my book…
- Norn Iron Olympic Winners 2024 👏👏👏
- Should I Stay or Should I Go – Back to Belfast ?
- (no title)
- (no title)
- Belfast Child The Movie ?
- Life was hard in the mean streets of Loyalist Belfast during the Troubles. Still is for many .
- Belfast Mods – In the 80s we give Peace a chance !
- Is it Time to Panic ?
- Testing something
- Tipperary Tim – astounding 1928 Grand National winner at 100/1 & a proud resident of Glencairn !
- Golden Brown – The Stranglers: Iconic Songs & the story behind them
- fifty skinheads appeared from nowhere, many of them wearing Chelsea and Rangers football scarves and covered in Loyalist and swastika tattoos. These psychos were obviously baying for blood – Mod blood, to be exact.
- The Shankill Butchers…
- Killing Rage – The life and death of Eamon Collins
- Belfast Books – Thanks for promoting my book mate.
- Ann Ogilby’s brutal murder: ” Forgotten ” victims of the Troubles
- My ‘time’ in the Crum Prison – mid 80s
- Joe McCann – Life & Death
- Kriss Donald – The Brutal Racist Killing of an Innocent Schoolboy
- Lola – The Kinks : Iconic Songs & the story behind them
- Tarred and Feathered: Street Justice Belfast Style.
- The Andy Rowe Show – My Interview
- Máire Drumm: Life & Death
belfastchildis.com 