SPORTING PASSIONS MICHAEL CARRUTH:Olympic gold medallist Michael Carruth talks to Mark Rodden about his love of Dublin football and his hopes for the Irish boxers in Beijing
DUBLIN FOOTBALL is my first love, apart from boxing. I was at the 1983 final against Galway with my two brothers and a couple of mates. That game, when three Dublin players were sent off, was amazing.
They called them the dirty dozen but we call them the Twelve Apostles. I was on Hill 16 for it and it was one of the first times we'd gone to see the Dubs.
I remember the goal Barney Rock scored in that match and I still wonder if it was the best goal ever scored. Obviously people from other counties might question that, but it was an unbelievable goal and to see it live was even more special.
It's been far too long since Dublin won the All-Ireland. There was 1983 and 1995 but we haven't really come close in the last 10 years. We've been getting to semi-finals and unfortunately against Kerry last year we had a late charge but it wasn't to be.
It's getting better, without question. Paul Caffrey's doing a marvellous job. I'd love Dublin to perform the way they did against Wexford in a semi-final. If they do that they'll win against anybody. I'd love to see a Dublin-Kerry final again but I'd love to see a final with Dublin in it again, no matter who they're playing.
I play a bit of golf. The lowest I was down to was a handicap of nine. I've slipped back out to 11 - I'm not getting out enough to hold the handicap. I can beat Bernard Dunne any time though.
I love the sport. You look at Pádraig Harrington in the British Open and how he can perform when there's such pressure around him is phenomenal.
Winning gold at the Barcelona Olympics was the biggest sporting occasion of my life. But we've five fighters in Beijing now that have every chance of reproducing what I did 16 years ago. I'm privileged to be the first Irish boxer to win an Olympic gold medal but I don't want to be the last.
When I was 17, Philip Sutcliffe, who was a member of our boxing club in Drimnagh, was representing Ireland in the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. I was doing very well at that stage and I made a promise to myself that I was going to be the next representative of Drimnagh to go to the Olympic Games.
I pushed myself for four years to get there and fortunately I got selected to go to Seoul in 1988. It didn't go the way I wanted and it was another four years of trying to rectify the mistakes, but I'd like to think I did that.
The hurt of losing in Seoul was a great learning curve. It's amazing that the two boxing representatives from Seoul, myself and Wayne McCullough, were the two medal winners in 1992. The experience of having one Olympics under our belts stood to us the second time around and not only that, but we were four years older. You look at the team now and Kenneth Egan and Darren Sutherland are 26 years old. So there's a mature team there as well. I know there are young lads like John Joe Nevin, John Joe Joyce and Paddy Barnes but there's a good mixture between the five of them.
Apart from the boxing, I hope the rowers are successful. I know Gearóid Towey very well so I'd love to see the lads in the lightweight four do well.
After boxing, track and field is where Ireland's second biggest haul of medals comes from so hopefully they can do well too. They didn't pull me out of the bag 16 years ago and say "Carruth will win a gold medal", so anybody can win medals. But it's not easy.
