01/10/00: The performances of the Irish athletes at the Sydney Olympics can be reflected on in two contrasting ways. Sonia O’Sullivan timed her season to perfection, ran one of the races of her life, and claimed that Olympic medal that she so coveted.

With only one or two exceptions, however, the rest of the Irish performances were something of a disaster. One by one they dropped out of the competition in the first round heats, either well short of their personal bests or, even worse, their season’s bests. Mark Carroll was the only one to get close to a final, but even that fell below his expectations.

Looking back through the Irish reports of these Games has been nothing short of depressing. Words like disappointing and falling short provide the main theme. Without O’Sullivan, this would have been the worst couple of weeks in the history of Irish sport.

Of course people will say that the taking part is the most important thing but not one of these Irish athletes would agree with that. This was the highlight of their sporting careers and of course they wanted to make it memorable. Most of them had put years of training into this and to come away with a bad result or a poor race is devastating for them. Sure, it was great to take part, but they would have wanted to compete at their best.

With the exception of Gillian O’Sullivan in the 20km walk, Sarah Reilly in the sprints, and the men’s and women’s relay teams, every one of the Irish athletes will be asking themselves what went wrong. Of course they gave it their best on the day, but it was well short of what they are capable of and as a result casts major doubts about whether they should have been there in the first place.

But no one can blame the athletes for being there. They had all achieved the relevant qualifying standards laid down by the IAAF and had earned their ticket to the Games. There were no sympathy selections here and with very few exceptions, each one of them had reached Sydney in the best shape of the lives. In fact, 110m hurdler Peter Coghlan was the only one who had been seriously injured this summer.

So want went wrong? Each of the athletes will have their own "excuse" as to why they didn’t get near their best, let alone surpass it – which is usually what you expect in an arena such as an Olympic Games. In other words, this was the time when they should have been at their best and when the crowds, facilities and excitement should have spurred them to greater heights.

What emerges from the athletes in the weeks ahead will reveal more about whatever problems they did endure out in Sydney but for the time being, certain points can be made which, in my opinion, may explain the series of poor results.

Firstly, the vast majority of the Irish team travelled out to Sydney the day after the national championships. That was something like five weeks before the Games began. And that was too early.

They may have been given the best training facilities at the Irish camp in Newcastle, just north of Sydney, but it appears that they actually got stale. That was a long time to be in Australia thinking about nothing else but the Games when in fact it may have been better to arrive a lot closer to the event and avoid all that build-up. Interestingly, Sonia O’Sullivan was one of the last of the Irish to arrive in Australia.

Questions also have to be asked about their preparations in the months before the Games. There were athletes on the Irish team that peaked too soon. Everyone knew that Sydney was very late in the season but it’s clear that a number of the Irish athletes were performing a lot better at the start of the season. No one in Sydney cared about how well you were running indoors back in February and March but for certain members of this Irish team that was the case.

A lot of the other reasons were out of the hands of the athlete. Proper funding, coaching, and facilities need to be made available on a more consistent basis to produce a more consistent athlete. There is no lack of talent in this country but until a proper structure is put in place in terms of how the sport is run, then the athletes will continue to perform on a once-off basis and not with the sort of consistency that could have produced a lot more positive results in Sydney.

Lessons will be learnt from these Olympics and changes will be made. Whether they are strong and sweeping enough to improve our performances in Athens 2004 remains to be seen.