Love of sport and sport of love

Sport and politics don't mix, or so it's said. But what about sport and romance? Can a couple share their lives and the same Olympic dream?

Back in the 1952 Games in Helsinki, the affable Czech hero Emil Zatopek had just completed a 5,000-10,000 metre double when he heard that his wife, Dana, had also won a gold medal in the javelin.

"At present, the score of the contest in the Zatopek family is 2-1," smiled Emil. "This result is too close. To restore some prestige I will try to improve my score, and win the marathon."

Although he did win the treble, the rivalry was, of course, in total jest. Both Emil and Dana admitted to being the inspiration for each other. And it's something similar with Brendan and Sarah Reilly - both Sydney-bound and the first married couple to represent Ireland at the Olympics.

Not surprisingly, sport drew Brendan and Sarah together. Both were born and raised in England and first "spotted" each other at the schools' championships. Born in Yorkshire, Brendan's father hails from Belmullet and his mother from Portlaoise. At 15, he cleared 2.11 metres at the high jump - a world best for his age - when winning the Irish junior title in Tullamore, and, a year later, in 1989, cleared 2.12 for a new national senior record.

He was immediately selected in the Irish team for the European Cup, but, in the same week, he was also selected in the British team. He chose the latter.

"Well, being young and all that, I jumped for Britain there without giving it much thought," he says. "And then I went on to university at Loughborough and sort of got caught up in the scheme of things jumping for Britain. My coach at the time was the Great Britain national coach and he advised me to stay with England, so time just moved without me giving the matter much attention.

"But I started thinking about going back and jumping for Ireland in 1992 because my grandfather died just before I got to the Barcelona Olympics and I know it meant so much to him that I was going. Then I had a major Achilles tendon injury in early 1996 and started thinking about it some more, but it was at the Commonwealth Games two years ago that I finally decided to go for it. "There was a good friend of mine whose mother died while competing, so that got me thinking again about my parents and the memories for them, so as soon as I arrived home I started the process of applying to jump for Ireland."

The Irish federation certainly welcomed the decision and, after he completed his switch of allegiance in March of last year, he made his senior debut for Ireland at the European Cup in Finland last summer.

He's now amongst the most experienced Irish athletes in Sydney. At 17, he made his senior championship debut at the European Championships of 1990 and then, in 1992, was part of the British Olympic team in Barcelona.

The same year he won a bronze medal at the World Cup in Cuba and since then has been to three World Championships. His best of 2.32 back in 1994 ranked him eighth in the world that year and, at 27, he's now in his prime.

"It's the best decision I've ever made and I'm so happy with it. Jumping for the first time at the European Cup last year was just fantastic. My dad was there watching and the feeling of pride was brilliant.

"It's such a different atmosphere and the whole team enjoys the sport so much more. I've been looking forward to these Olympics for a long while now."

Last summer he proposed to his longterm girlfriend Sarah Oxley. Their relationship had continued to strengthen since they first eyed each other as teenagers.

But, before they got married, Brendan had a date with the World Championships in Seville.

His first major appearance for Ireland turned out to be one of the stories of the championships. He broke his own national record with a leap of 2.29 metres to reach the 12-man final - the first time an Irish man had ever reached a high jump final - and afterwards recalled with all honesty how the Irish vest had inspired him.

Before the year was out, he married Sarah and, now entitled to an Irish passport, she also decided to switch her allegiance to the green vest. Born in Leeds, she too was a promising schoolgirl athlete, running 25.2 seconds for 200 metres as a 15-year-old. A series of injuries hindered her later teenage years, but, ironically enough, she made her first major breakthrough at the Cork City Sports in 1997 when she set personal bests of 11.51 and 23.20 for the 100 and 200 metres respectively.

There were further setbacks in store, however, when she suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome in 1998. "I just trained far too hard over the winter," she says.

"I could hardly do anything around the house, not to mention on the track. Fortunately, I was able to put that behind me this year. And I want to break 23 seconds in Sydney. That's my target and that's my goal."

Twice this summer she has lowered the Irish record - firstly taking it to 23.23 and then 23.12 in Budapest in late July. And the warm reception when she won the sprint double at the Irish championships last month is just one indication of her popularity in the Irish team.

Just before departing for Sydney, however, the Reilly dream almost turned sour when the British Olympic Committee objected to her participation on the basis that she hadn't yet received her Irish passport. The offices of the Taoiseach intervened to speed up the process and the matter was ironed out in a couple of days.

"I certainly didn't want to finish my career feeling that I should have jumped for Ireland," says Brendan, "and wondering what I could have done for Irish athletics. People are saying it's an easy option but it's not that at all.

"I'm very typical second generation anyway, born in England but very Irish in a lot of things so I always had this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that, someday, I would jump for Ireland at the Olympics."