[Cork-born European Indoor 3,000m Bronze medallist Ciaran Ó Lionáird, 25, from Cork]

Ciaran Ó Lionáird writes:

“On my layover in JFK [to a training camp in Florida], I got a bit busy on Twitter in response to a feature article on fellow Irish athlete Colin Griffin in the Irish Examiner [on Saturday]. Let me preface this by saying I have a lot of respect for Colin. Anybody who knows him will agree he’s a guy who has the intellect and reasoning ability to form thoughtful and coherent dialogue relative to his sport and also think on a relative scale about the career of an athlete and what comes afterward.

I spoke out in response to the article as I felt the presence of a recurring theme in features on Irish athletes recently. Granted, there have been positive news stories too and in my haste in getting a message into 140 characters, I perhaps over-generalised in my criticism of the media for bringing a negative agenda into Irish athlete interviews. Now, with the space of this medium, I can hopefully expand a little on my thoughts and explain why I feel the way I do on this.

I am totally in favor of athletes speaking out against what they perceive as unjust. Funding and grants have always been a contentious issue as they form the backbone of an athletes preparation. Cuts to funding can leave an athlete scrambling to re-budget and the year-to-year changes make it difficult to follow-through on the 3-4 year plans necessary to build the continuity and consistency necessary to perform at a World level.

I feel that journalists sometimes play on the emotions of the athletes in order to get a quick and easy jab in at Irish Athletics. Such an act in isolation may not really do a whole deal but when it occurs again and again, it portrays the athletes as moaners and presents them as fighting not just against the system but against each other too. That certainly isn’t the case in real life but the general non-athletics fan can pick up a paper and take a glance and think “ok here we go again”.

“For the journos, it’s an easy sell. For athletes, I feel that it weakens our position in the long term as it prevents us from coming together and forming a consistent message to bring to AAI [Athletics Association of Ireland] with our concerns. Isolated attacks and digs on Twitter do not help our cause I believe.Continue reading →