A Nation Once Again

Back in 2004, I fretted about the the fact that the Irish hadn't won a medal at the Athens Olympics, when showjumper Cian O'Connor then won a gold medal in showjumping.  I mentioned that in my earlier post about the Irish medal drought in London. Well - I have since found out that Cian O'Connor, the winner of that 2004 medal, had to return it because of a failed drug test.  His horse failed it!

O'Connor got some redemption, having won a showjumping bronze medal at the 2012 Games, with riders from Switzerland and the Netherlands taking the gold and silver medals, respectively.  But - and here's the point - he not only won a medal, he won it for Ireland on British soil.  And he won it after the British showjumpers choked.  (Let's just hope O'Connor's horse was drug-free this time!) 

And we may yet get to hear "A Soldier's Song" played on British soil yet, because boxer Katie Taylor is in a position to win a gold medal. Taylor, who carried the Irish flag at the opening ceremony, is scheduled to fight against Russia's Sofya Ochigava for the first women's Olympic boxing gold today, meaning she can at least get a silver.  

I first got to hear "A Soldier's Song" anywhere when swimmer Michelle Smith won three gold medals at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.  Seeing her win three races was like St. Patrick's Day coming eight months early. When the Americans - you know, the Americans, who are supposed to be number one in everything - accused her of steroid use, I was disgusted.  I particularly was mad with my fellow Americans of the Irish diaspora for not defending Smith.  Seeing, say, swimmer Tom Dolan, one of the first Americans to win a medal at Atlanta, defend her would have been nice.  Very disappointing.  Anyway, she passed all her drug tests then, and her victories are still part of the official Olympic record.  But she failed a drug test in August 1998, resulting in a four-year suspension.  She maintained her innocence, though I have no idea how she could explain away those test results, and they left me with a lingering doubt about 1996.  But then, I've already talked about that here.  

Elation followed by deflation . . . the defining characteristic of a nation.  I hope Katie Taylor wins in the ring.  But I can't help but recall the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan's pearl of wisdom after the Kennedy assassination: "I don't think there's any point in being Irish if you know the world is going to break your heart eventually."