Irish Olympian forced to return medal just weeks after making history in Paris

He won bronze in the men's double sculls final earlier this month, but has no medal to show for it.

Daire Lynch, from Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, made history in Paris earlier this month when both him and teammate Philip Doyle won bronze in the men's heavyweight double sculls competition.

Now, in an interview with Ireland AM, Daire has disclosed that he had to return his medal to the IOC because the metal it was made from had begun to fall apart.

"Mine is gone wrecked. It’s nearly gone the next layer down,’ Philip explained, with Daire adding: "I wanted to keep mine but they wanted to take it away for research. They want to see what is wrong with the medals.

"Some of the gold [deteriorates] but not too many, but the bronze seems to be a chronic issue."

According to Lynch, the same has happened to a few of the other bronze medal winners from the games, and he hopes a new version will make its way to him soon.

The rowing pair were members of the most successful Ireland team ever at an Olympic Games.

Team Ireland took home a total of seven medals at this summer's games, four gold and three bronze.

The lads told Ireland AM hosts Ray Foley and Muireann O'Connell about the nerves they felt in the lead up to their race.

"The night before was perfect and I felt great and went to sleep the whole way," Philip said.

"We do a bit of training together on the morning of the race to get the body warmed up and I said I felt good and the mind felt good, and then I tried to eat the breakfast and it was like eating sick… I was looking across to [Daire] and I was taking little bites and he was like 'I can’t eat this'.

"That was real nerves."

Swimmers Daniel Wiffen and Mona McSharry were Ireland's other bronze medal winners, and neither have revealed the condition of their medals.

While most of Team Ireland were present for the homecoming ceremony in Dublin last week, gold-winner Wiffen missed out after being ‘rushed to hospital’ to receive medical attention for a stomach bug.

Wiffen was due to be a flag bearer for Ireland at the closing ceremony, alongside Mona McSharry.

Rowing gold medalist Fintan McCarthy stepped in to replace Wiffen at the ceremony.

Thanks everyone who reached out, I’m incredibly disappointed to miss out on the opportunity to be flag bearer last night.

Yesterday I rushed to hospital as I was very unwell with a bug that I am being treated for, and am feeling better now. I hope everyone enjoys the evening…

— Daniel Wiffen (@WiffenDaniel) August 12, 2024