Sonia O’Sullivan: Fewer records will be broken on the track in Rio

The problem with trying to watch as much of the Olympics as possible is that you quickly realise there aren't enough hours in the day. It doesn't help when you have to travel across a few continents in between, still trying to keep an eye on all the action.

For me, that meant watching the opening few days in Melbourne, before flying back to Ireland this week, ahead of doing the RTÉ analysis on the athletics, which get underway in Rio on Friday morning.

There’s been so much to take in already, and for the first few days in Melbourne, there was near non-stop coverage on Australian TV, which meant lots of time spent on the coach trying keep track of it all, and trying to get some sleep as well.

As I was doing my gym routine on Saturday morning I caught up with the Opening Ceremony, which was enjoyable, and I certainly felt it set the scene for the Olympics; after all the negative headlines leading in to the Games, the spirit of the Olympics began to shine through, and with that, the anticipation of some great sporting competitions to come.

I am a good armchair fan of most sports, especially the Olympics, and I particularly enjoy getting a chance to sit down and see a new sport for me flashes up on the screen. One of the advantages of watching those first few days from Australia is that they have an interest and involvement in so many sports, so you get a detailed description and end up learning some new facts. And with almost all Olympians, there is a great back story to how each individual made it to the big stage.

Few countries are more obsessed about the medal count than Australia, and they did get off to quite a good start. It’s interesting that the news headlines each day lead with Australia’s position on the medal table, and it certainly helps when you are near the top after day one.

Surprise medals

Traditionally, Australia do very well in the first week, collecting medals in the swimming pool, but there have been a few more surprise medals this week in shooting, archery and diving – again, an impressive and diverse array of sports.

By Wednesday morning, there were 40 countries already with a spot on the medal table – and that is likely to be doubled by the times the Games finish. How soon before Ireland might get a place among them?

Of course, life goes on around the Olympics as well, especially when you are watching from a distance. Last weekend, before heading back to Ireland, I was out at a schools’ cross-country event, in Melbourne, where many Olympic dreams begin.

I actually timed the drive out, so that we could watch the first few swimming finals in the Harvey Norman store on the way back, before racing around the supermarket to get the food shopping in, before racing home again to catch the latest from Rio.

Part of the fun of the first few days in Australia is not just learning new things about the different sports, but also catching on to the nicknames given to the various Australian teams.

So far we’ve seen the ‘Dolphins’, the ‘Opals’, the ‘Boomers’, the ‘Matildas’, the ‘Hockeyroos’, the ‘Kookaburras’ and the ‘Olyroos’ – and I’ll let you guess what they refer to.

I can recall paying close attention to the swimming during the Sydney Olympics, even though I was focused on my own preparations for the track. For me, the swimming also provides the best highlights from the first week of the Olympics, and so far Rio is the same.

Still, the Olympics for me will not really begin until the athletics starts tomorrow, inside the Olympic Stadium, when the days will revolve around events that I really want to watch.

Personal interest

This has changed over the years, and now I find that I am really only interested in events that I have a personal interest in, either through athletes I know or athletes from Ireland. They will always raise the heart rate a bit as you urge and will them on to return a performance that reflects the work and commitment that you know they have put in over the past four years.

There are no shortcuts to the Olympics, and I rather focus on the athletes that I can trust and believe in, and measure their performances against what they have done previously, and hope that they will find that window of opportunity to make a breakthrough performance and shine on the Olympic stage.

The Olympic stage is still the one where so many athletes raise their game, and produce results that they have only ever dreamed of achieving.

We’ve seen plenty of that already in the swimming pool, where world records have been broken so regularly that it makes you wonder what makes a swimming pool so fast – or is it simply better training methods?

There may be one or two world records in the athletics over the next week, but definitely not with the frequency that they have been set in the swimming pool. Still, nobody seems to be that surprised when swimming world records are broken: sometimes you feel that the swimmers just latch on to that yellow ‘WR’ line moving up the pool and get dragged along at extra speed.

It would be interesting to see a similar line on the track for the athletes to chase. Maybe then we would get a real sense of which world records are achievable, and which are so far out of reach they may never be broken.

There is still a sense of detachment when watching the Olympics in a different time zone and climate, and on TV. You do have to be there to be there to get a real sense of the place and the conditions that the athletes are faced with.

It's hard to predict exactly how well the Irish athletes will fare. It definitely won't be easy to get to the finals, especially in the events whittled down to eight for the final, such as Mark English in the 800m and Thomas Barr in the 400m hurdles.

In the women's 1,500m, Ciara Mageean will certainly be aiming for a final, and has a slightly better chance with 12 athletes qualifying for it – although this doesn't always make things any easier, as tactics can determine which heats will give the greater chance of qualification as much as anything else.

Slower heat

A place in the final, as we saw in some rowing events earlier this week, is not always determined by time or tactics, but rather ensuring you don’t miss out in a slower heat or semi-final.

The 10,000m events, marathons and race walks are all straight finals and, with that, present just once chance to do the best you can, and deliver a result you can be satisfied with.

Fionnuala McCormack will run the marathon only and should be competitive, certainly amongst the Europeans. And we know Rob Heffernan will be doing all he can to deliver the podium moment that was so cruelly taken away from him four years ago in London.

Plenty to look forward to then as the real Games begin.