The most successful team of the 1999 Special Olympics touched down in Dublin yesterday morning, laden with a haul of 85 medals. Ireland was one of more than 150 countries competing. Among the 77 athletes who represented Ireland at the North Carolina games was Patrick Quinlivan (17), of Donegal.
Winner of four golds and two silvers, he was also the overall top athlete at his level in gymnastics.
He was out playing frisbee when The Irish Times contacted the household, so it fell to his father, Mick, to tell us that Patrick has been involved in gymnastics since he was five.
Patrick, who has a mild form of cerebral palsy, keeps to a rigorous training regime, which has him swimming, lifting weights or otherwise training most nights.
"The whole experience of the Games was wonderful," said Mr Quinlivan. "The trouble that ordinary North Carolinans went to make us feel at home, the organisation and the facilities, it just had you in awe."
It will now be up to Ms Mary Davis, director of Special Olympics Ireland, to pull off a medal-winning performance in organising the Special Olympics here in 2003. But she is confident.
"It is going to be an enormous undertaking, but I'm sure we'll rise to the challenge," she said.
The Special Olympics will bring 7,000 athletes here and as up to 28,000 family members, coaches, team officials and voluntary helpers.