IF YOU’RE NOT in the mood for the Olympics after that, we don’t know what you need.
The six-part Road to Rio documentary kicked off on RTÉ tonight and we were quite impressed.
Following Michael Conlan, Jack Woolley and Fiona Doyle in their Olympic qualification campaigns, here are just a handful of the moments that grabbed our attention.
1) “Do your best; whatever happens, happens”
Michael Conlan was told by his coaches that London 2012 was pretty much just a warm up for Rio.
2) Taekwondo training is pretty intense
3) Jack Wooley went from unranked to the verge of Olympic qualification and European number one in his first year senior
4) He’s also a talented artist
5) “I know for a fact I will be an Olympic champion and that’s the end of it really”
The 17-year-old is already looking towards Tokyo 2020.
6) Swimmer Fiona Doyle lives, trains and studies in Calgary, Canada
“Home in Calgary is routine; home in Ireland is family,” she says.
7) Her drive and hunger is astounding
“She’s tough and she can train. She gets in the pool and she just goes. She’s hungry- she goes, ‘That’s better — now what?’” Calgary coach Mike Blondal said on the show.
8) “Maybe that’s why I’m so good at moving, because it’s small and you don’t have much space to move”
Conlan speaks of the ring in his old boxing club Clonard.
9) He thinks the world of his daughter Luishne
“Everything I do now isn’t for me. It’s for her”
10) Taekwondo fighters are searched before they compete
11) And they’re also ridiculously flexible
12) Conlan was a bit of a wild teenager, and thanks sport for positively impacting his life
“From the age of, I’d say 13 to 16, I was following the wrong paths with the wrong crowds, doing things I shouldn’t have been doing, doing things my parents still don’t know I was doing.”
13) He’s a good character and has a great accent
We particularly enjoyed him saying “Lights oooout!” as he left the gym.
14) The people of Berlin are brutally honest
Let us know what you thought.
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