Rowing and swimming to be best-funded sports in build-up to 2028 Olympic Games

Paul McDermott, Sport Ireland’s Director of High Performance and National Governing Bodies, said it was “very comfortable” that the promises made by politicians in the wake of last year’s Paris Olympics about increased investment have been backed up. 

“We’re on a progressive, increasing trend,” he said. “Is there headroom? Yes, but we had extra money last year for Paris and there’s extra money now. There’s a lot of work making sure all that is well spent.” 

All 16 sports classified in the High Performance Programme will receive increased funding, with €27 million invested in total, an increase of €2m on last year. Funding will now be allocated for a four-year cycle (instead of three), though Rowing Ireland, the IABA and Paralympics Ireland will be funded solely for this year.

For both rowing and boxing, the reason is they currently don’t have performance directors in place for the LA cycle, with McDermott stating they were “not punishment reasons, just practicalities,” adding he was “confident” both would be granted multi-annual funding again next year.

Paralympics Ireland’s athletics and swimming programmes will soon assimilate into the high-performance arms of the national governing bodies in each sport, with McDermott stating there will be “quite a bit of transition involved” before they can be granted multi-annual funding.

Judo, pentathlon and taekwondo are among the sports to be reclassified into a newly established Performance Development Programme, with all receiving reductions in funding.

“We’re not cliff-edging people,” said McDermott. “They have the potential to produce a medal in the future so we’re not walking away from them, but we’re not creating a pressurised situation where funding is dependent on those performances. We’ve got 15 or 16 programmes which are genuinely producing world medal performances but we can certainly look at four or five other programmes to see if we can incubate them and move them along on the value chain.” 

Investment in high-performance coaching will increase from €1.2m in 2024 to €1.5m this year. Under the International Carding Scheme, 29 athletes will receive the highest ‘podium’ level of funding, €40,000 for the year, among them Olympic champions Rhys McClenaghan, Daniel Wiffen and Paul O’Donovan.

A curious inclusion in that bracket is Kellie Harrington, who announced her retirement after winning Olympic gold in Paris, but McDermott stated her appearance is purely provisional, with Harrington yet to complete all the procedures required to make her retirement official. 

“People retired in the past and came back,” he said. “It’s a paper exercise and (her inclusion is) respectful of Kellie until it’s formally done.” 

Phil Healy is a notable omission on the athletics funding list despite helping the Irish women’s 4x400m team to fourth place in the Olympic final, with teammates Rhasidat Adeleke, Sharlene Mawdsley and Sophie Becker – who all qualified for the individual 400m – receiving €40,000 each. Healy can still receive a share of two €60,000 pools for the women’s and mixed 4x400m squads, with McDermott “confident she’d be looked after”.