SAILING: Just 18 months after the Athens Olympic Review sent shockwaves throughout the Irish sporting world, the sailing squad are reshaping into a leaner operation bearing little resemblance to the team that dominated activities at the Irish Sailing Association (ISA) until very recently.
Significant changes have been introduced, and a lower-key approach aimed at generating realistic prospects for the next two Olympiads is apparent.
The biggest single change to affect Ireland's elite sailors is that the link between funding and the world rankings has had a safeguard added.
After the first year of funding based on the rankings, Irish Sports Council money will be based strictly on results from World and European Championships that better reflect likely performance to be expected at Olympic regattas, thus ending the days when certain "soft" events might be used to enhance standings.
The second significant element that affects the final sailing squad is the national selection process that ends with nomination to the Olympic Council of Ireland. From now on, any first, second or third placing at World Championship level will result in automatic nomination. Apart from that, once a given class or discipline has been qualified by nation for the Games, the new ISA Olympic Group have retained control over selection.
The restructuring is a clear shift in emphasis from quantity to quality. According to ISA management, if a campaign is going longer than four years without significant improvement in results, then hard questions will be asked.
Other changes include greater management control of the squad, though it is now "athlete centred". For example, in Athens 2004, individual sailors arranged their own accommodation and coaching. The new structure involves greater group planning and a sponsorship deal with Slam, announced this week, will replace individual smaller packages that some crews arranged in the past with a variety of gear producers.
"It's very unlikely that we'd veto a coach selection by one of the crews - we have six different disciplines so we wouldn't have the necessary expertise in each," said James O'Callaghan, ISA Olympic coach citing one example of management control. "The funding comes from the Sports Council, so money does have to be approved, but we'll be involved from the outset in coach selection."
Further realism is apparent from a Sports Council directive that targets London 2012. This means more younger sailors are being sought and a smaller squad for Beijing is likely.
At present, Maurice O'Connell and Ed Peel hold a top-10 Star class ranking, while Ciara Peelo and Debbie Hanna in the single-handed Laser Radial are both level, but with some distance to go to reach the higher competitive level.
The McGovern brothers have been training in Cadiz full-time for the 49er class, while Finn single-hander Aaron O'Grady has been training with the Canadian and US teams in Miami full time.
ISA OLYMPIC SQUAD: Ger Owens (470) Dublin; Sam Hunt (470) Cork; Matthew McGovern (49er) Down; Russell McGovern (49er) Down; Aaron O'Grady (Finn) Dublin; Timothy Goodbody (Finn) Dublin; Roger Craig (Laser) Dublin; Ciara Peelo (Laser Radial) Dublin; Deborah Hanna (Laser Radial) Antrim; Edmund Peel (Star) London; Maurice O'Connell (Star) Cork.
