‘Ireland’s Olympians’, a new series from RTE Sport that follows the highs and lows of Ireland’s Olympic hopefuls, begins next Monday 30th June 2008 at 7.30pm on RTE Two.
The 5 x 30min series, produced and directed by Niall O’Flynn (OB Sport), has filmed over the last year in locations including Ireland, USA, UK, Poland, Portugal and Spain. The series follows over 30 Irish athletes as they attend training camps and qualifying tournaments around the world in the run up to the Beijing games.
Narrated by broadcaster Miles Dungan, the series features interviews by Niall O’Flynn and Kathryn Davis with top Irish athletes including sprinters Derval O’Rourke and Joanne Cuddihy; track athletes David Gillick and Alistair Cragg; hammer thrower Eileen O’Keeffe and sprinter Paul Hession. Main cameraman on the series was Cormac Downes, with editing by Declan Lynch.
“We really wanted to get inside the heads of these athletes,” O’Flynn told IFTN. “The series show the athletes at their best and their worst. The athletes talk about their successes and disappointments, the challenges they face and how they feel about their international competition and world ranking.”
“Some of the athletes have overcome great obstacles in order to enter this year’s games - race walker Jamie Costin broke his back in a car crash just nine days before the Athens Olympics and canoeist Eoin Rheinisch almost drowned during a training session.”
Collins Press and RTE have also published a full colour hard back book, written by O'Flynn, to accompany the series, available in all good bookshops.
‘Ireland’s Olympians’ begins on RTE Two on Monday 30th June at 7.30pm.
