WinVgi o cs f tory From running in track sandals to steering the Olympic Federation of Ireland, Peter Sherrard ’s, BA (1998), chats to Luke Sheehan, BA (2005), about how his journey has reshaped Irish Olympic sport, driving unity, reform, and historic triumphs on the global stage T here were plenty of sporting opportunities around when Peter Sherrard was growing up in Newcastle, County Down: an active household, a running club nearby, a sandy coastline and rugged hills to practice on. Coming from a ‘traditional household’, he first turned up at the local running club aged eight, in a pair of track sandals. ‘When I finally got a pair of proper running shoes, I placed them by my bed every night, as they were such a precious possession.’ In 1984, when he was nine, his ‘first Olympics’ enthralled him. The women’s middle-distance 3,000-metre race saw Zola Budd, the barefooted South African, face o against American Mary Decker in Los Angeles. Decker, trailing behind Budd, collided with the latter, tumbled to the ground and had to be carried o . That kinetic incident and the ensuing controversy bewitched him. The same Olympics saw Waterford marathoner John Treacy win silver. Peter would represent school teams in cross-country competitions. He had an eye for the iconic in sports: ‘The Black Power protest (Tommie Smith’s and John Carlos’ black-gloved salute in 1968) is another striking image. Usually, the Olympic movement is a bit di erent – it tries to unite the whole world. But that protest does stick out.’ He went on exchanges in his teens to stay with a family in Brittany – he became their ‘second son’ and fell in love with France and went on to study Italian and French at Trinity. ‘It was an easy choice to come to Dublin and I loved it. It was 1993 and Ireland was throwing o the theological shackles, becoming more progressive.’ Sherrard wrapped his studies into work as a tour guide, and travelled whenever he could, around Ireland and abroad: to his Erasmus in Italy, he added a whole year o books in France, commingling with the foreign students on campus. He went on to work in spaces with an international flavour - Tourism Ireland and Bord Bía in Milan. For the tourism body, he was responsible for enticing Italians to come to Ireland. The lack of options for flights was an obstacle. His eagerness to solve that led him to Ryanair: ‘We were trying to disrupt things. The Open Skies concept changed the previous model, introduced a free market and competition, and everything in travel has been di erent since. Ireland, when it does things properly, can compete at the highest level.’ Success stories are a staple of sports work, as are occasional meltdowns: he le the FAI before the John Delaney controversy. However, he gained knowledge within that body, learning the demanding performance, commercial and administration needs of the athletic world. ‘My Italian was an asset when it came to working with Giovanni Trapattoni and Marco Tardelli, and when they moved on, I got on equally well with Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane. Which was lucky, that doesn’t always happen.’ Someone with languages, with growth-hacking skills and diplomatic nous? A non-shocking choice for leading Team Ireland. His first games were Tokyo 2020 – hardly an easy start. Even minus the pandemic impediments, things were tricky. The Irish ‘Olympic Movement’ (as he calls it) was in a bad state, a ‘ground zero’ when he started in late 2017 following the Rio ticketing controversy. ‘I had the advantage of a very good, reform minded board who had been there for about a year previous, putting in place some of the structures around governance and setting up an organisation in the right way. This allowed me to come in – and the only way is up from the bottom.’ The ‘athlete first’ approach that he and his team members introduced had begun to transform things as Paris 2024 loomed. A historical background also made this an extraordinarily resonant date and place for the games. ‘The Olympics in Paris in 1924 was the first games that Ireland competed in as an independent nation. Leaning back on those 100 years was important.’ With many of the athletes having endured the vagaries of Tokyo 2020, bringing intimacy and unity to the field
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