IRISH ATHLETES WINNING medals at the Olympic Games is as wonderful as it is rare.

On the all-time list of medal-winning countries we come in about 60th place, depending on what exactly you’re counting.

As a small country it’s clearly very hard for Ireland to compete with the big nations but one of the suggestions that’s been put forward is only funding the sports where we have the best chance of winning.

It’s a model adopted by the similarly-sized New Zealand that has proved very successful in recent years.

In the latest episode of our Ireland 2029 podcast series, we take a look at whether Ireland could go down that route and what advantages and disadvantages there are to it.

But are the Olympics all about winning, or is taking part important too?

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