New Irish step up at Olympics
The London Olympics have just begun, with the British capital hosting athletes from around the globe competing in a wide range of events. Among them is Team Ireland, which this time out boast a contingent of athletes with an immigrant background from three continents.
Participating in the Road Race are cousins Nicolas Roche (28) and Dan Martin (25). Roche was born in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine in France and is son of Irish cycling legend and Tour de France winner Stephen Roche. Having a French mother enabled Roche to hold dual nationality but eventually he chose to compete in the Irish colours.
Martin, meanwhile, was born in Birmingham and is a son of British Olympic cyclist Neil Martin. Both have previously been Irish National Road Race Champions: Martin in 2008 and Roche a year later.
On the water, Ireland will have Sanita Puspure in rowing and Andrej Jezierski in Canoeing. Puspure – born in Riga, Latvia – will compete in the Single Scull while Jezierski from Poland will take part in the C1 200m canoeing event.
Prior to her move to Ireland in 2006, Puspure won bronze while competing for Latvia at the World under-23 Championships in 2003 and gold at the World Student Games in 2004. Both Jezierski (31) and Puspure (30) now live in Cork and train at the National Rowing Centre in Farran Wood.
In track and field, Alistair Cragg (32) will represent Ireland in the 5000m. Born and reared in South Africa, Cragg eventually attended the University of Arkansas in America where he won numerous collegiate events.
Being coached by Mayo native John McDonnell helped influence Cragg in his decision to declare for Ireland, thanks to a temporary law that enabled him to claim an Irish passport based on his ancestry: Cragg’s great-grandparents left from Dublin and Kerry more than a century ago to join the mines in South Africa in search of diamonds.
Meanwhile, 25-year-old Tori Peña will take part in the pole vault. Born in Los Alamitos in California, Peña’s father’s ancestors are from Mexico but it is her maternal grandmother who hails from Derry that makes her eligible to wear the green of Ireland. Peña declared for Ireland in June 2010 and is now part of the Finn Valley Athletic Club in Donegal.
In gymnastics, Kieran Behan (23) will perform for Team Ireland in the men’s artistic floor exercises. The 2011 World Cup Floor Champion, who was born in London to Irish parents and now lives in Surrey, is probably one of the fairytale stories for the London Olympics.
At the age of 10, complications arose when removing a non-cancerous tumour from his leg that confined him to a wheelchair. Fifteen months later, Behan was back in training only to hit his head while working on the high bar. The injury caused damage to his inner ear, which in turn caused the gymnast to black out with any sudden movement. The injury left him unable to train for three years while he learned to do the simple things in life again, like sitting up and turning his head.
Then in 2010, Behan suffered yet another blow when he damaged cruciate ligaments in both knees on separate occasions, but he persevered to make a full recovery by the end of the year.
Such a turbulent career in an agile sport makes it all the more remarkable that Behan went on to become the 2011 World Cup Floor Champion and is now a top competitor at the London Olympics.
