Paul McNamara: ‘What’s happening in Irish athletics with the public is just phenomenal’
Athletics Ireland director Paul McNamara praised the recent performance of Irish athletes at the European Championships, highlighting both medal success and growing public interest. He noted that while coaching support in Ireland has improved, the organization continues to refine its high-performance strategy.
Why it matters
The professionalization of national sports programs is a key indicator of a country's investment in high-performance athletics and cultural soft power.
In the now 20 years that Paul McNamara has held various coaching and management roles within Athletics Ireland there has never been a better European Championships . This has both raised the bar on where the sport is at and where McNamara believes it can go next.
Irish athletes returned home from Birmingham with four medals, including two gold, and recorded a dozen top eight finishes overall. After first joining Athletics Ireland as a regional development officer in 2006, McNamara has been director of high performance for the last 10 years, and during that time funding, support staff, and the championship medal return have all increased around threefold.
“We knew it was going to be a good champs coming in,” says McNamara. “And it’s absolutely delivered. The athletes were superb, start to finish. And if you look beyond the medals, it’s the depth that’s really pleasing.
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