Team Ireland wins first medal at Special Olympics in Berlin

Team Ireland has secured its first medal at the Special Olympics World Games in Berlin on Monday – a gold medal in athletics for Timothy Morahan from south Dublin.

The 34-year-old from Rathmines won his second Olympic medal, his first at the LA games in 2015, in the 5,000 metres men’s race this morning with a time of 17.35 minutes.

“I feel brilliant, I’m very happy…I have just won a gold medal in the 5,000 metres,” Timothy said, as he threw his arms up in joy afterwards at the Berlin Olympic Park.

And how does he plan to celebrate later? “A party,” Timothy said, though “no soft drinks, because they are very unhealthy, with the sugar”.

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Paddy Slattery, assistant coach with the athletics team, was unable to hold back tears as he congratulated Timothy, and said “it’s a fantastic feeling, unbelievable”.

“I’m so proud,” Mr Slattery said. “Timothy has been training for this moment for an awful long time and it’s something that’s very well deserved for him.”

Timothy’s parents Emmy and John and younger brother Christopher said they were “over the moon” at his medal win.

“I was more nervous than he was…I’m just shaking,” said Ms Morahan. “I’m more than delighted, I am so happy for Timothy. He has trained so hard, he deserves it.

“We are very proud but he did all he could to win this race, it’s unbelievable.” Mr Morahan added “this was no fluke”.

“He trained very hard, he’s very talented, but to do it on this stage, you have to really be good and we were just amazed.”

Una May, chief executive of Sport Ireland, was on hand to congratulate Timothy and said he had run “a brilliant race”.

“The support for the Irish teams is phenomenal,” she said. “There is a sea of green that follows the athletes everywhere which is brilliant. It’s lovely to see and hear. It’s a really fantastic atmosphere.”

Ms May said it was important “this kind of inclusivity” was seen across a wide range of sports. She also commended Special Olympics Ireland’s high level of female board members and that it showed “the influence that having strong powerful women at the top makes”.

“They are an organisation which is progressive and when inclusion is at the core of your values, it happens across the board without any specific effort,” she said.

“Inclusion is across gender, ethnic background, ability, disability, everybody has to be part of it and when that’s part of your core values, then that sort of thing does emerge and in a successful governance structure.”

Ms May said Special Olympics Ireland, along with the wider sports sector, were continuing to experience difficulties recruiting volunteers following the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We are slowly but surely returning to pre pandemic levels [of sporting activity],” she said. “But the volunteers is one area that everybody is struggling with, people sort of re-evaluated their time and their commitments in their lives…in other ways it’s an opportunity to bring in a new generation of volunteers.

“It’s something we have to pay very close attention to as the whole population demographic is changing. The age group where most of our volunteers come from will experience a dip in the next 10 years so it’s an opportunity for us to really pay attention to how we recruit volunteers and how we retain them, look after them and give them the best experience so they want to keep coming back.”

Eoin O’Connell also secured a bronze medal for Team Ireland in the open water swimming category.