THE IRELAND WOMEN’S football team have been named Team of the Year, with Katie Taylor voted the country’s most admired athlete in 2022.
The Teneo Sport and Sponsorship Index [TSSI] also found the Ireland men’s rugby team’s series win in New Zealand was voted this year’s greatest sporting achievement, with the Rugby World Cup the event people are most looking forward to in 2023.
Gaelic Games came out on top as Ireland’s favourite sport.
Following another remarkable year for women’s sport, Pauw’s history-making Irish side took 26% of the vote for Team of the Year, having qualified for their first-ever major tournament in the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
Andy Farrell’s charges were next with 24%, followed by the Irish women’s boxing team (15%), the Limerick hurlers (8%), the Irish men’s rowing team (7%), the Kerry senior footballers (5%) and Meath’s back-to-back All-Ireland winning ladies footballers (4%).
In terms of Ireland’s most admired athlete, Taylor took the title for a sixth year running with a massive 21%. Rachael Blackmore was second on 7%, with Kellie Harrington, Jonathan Sexton and Shane Lowry making up the top-five.
Ireland’s historic series victory over the All Blacks landed 22% of the vote in the greatest sporting achievement category, with Pauw’s charges qualifying for the World Cup second with 13% and Taylor’s win over Amanda Serrano third with 9%.
Gaelic Games took top spot as Ireland’s favourite sport on 20% ahead of soccer (17%) and rugby (13%), with the 2023 Rugby World Cup the sporting event the country is most looking forward to — ahead of the All-Ireland SFC, the Six Nations, the All-Ireland SHC and the Women’s World Cup respectively.
Taylor’s triumph over Serrano and Ireland’s victory in their third Test against the All Blacks were the joint most memorable sporting moments of the year on 23%. Shane Lowry’s emotional interview after winning the BMW PGA Championship and Amber Barrett’s poignant play-off goal were joint third on 9%, with Rhys McClenaghan’s historic gold-medal winning performance at World Gymnastics Championships was fifth on 7%.
As per Teneo’s release, “The TSSI is a comprehensive 1,000 person nationally representative survey with quotas imposed across gender, region, age, and social class.
“The research was carried out by Teneo’s Sports Advisory team and examines the Irish general public’s attitudes towards sport and their sporting heroes. This is the view of the general public and not a survey of sports fans. It is the 13th year of the TSSI and the research was carried out between 17 and 25 November 2022.”
