How Finbar Kirwan became the most influential Irish man in sport – The Irish Times

There’s someone I’d like you to meet. Let us meet him. Finbar Kirwan is the most influential Irish man in sport.

He will flinch when introduced. Ignore his evasions. His official title is Director of U.S. Olympic Sports, which means that the U.S. team’s performance in the Summer and Winter Olympics begins and ends at his desk. For everything that happens in between, plausible deniability is not a valid defense.

How did he get there? Can you give us a moment? Kirwan has navigated the gaps and thorns of Irish sporting politics. More than 20 years ago he was appointed the first High Performance Manager of what is now Sport Ireland.

In a real sense, it was a pioneering role. Ireland had no culture of high performance planning or the mindset to support it. Most federations had a systematic tolerance for failure and were set in their own ways. Few were willing to let an outsider step in and dictate how things should be done.

For the next decade, Kirwan’s mission was to change their minds. Part of the resistance was highly political: the group then called the Irish Olympic Council was one of the fiercest opponents of change. The fight was also for territory and influence.

Sport Ireland’s Paul McDermott and John Treacy were Kirwan’s strongest allies and ultimately won this argument. In the Athens Olympic cycle, before the launch of the High Performance Programme, Irish athletes won 54 medals in European and world competitions from junior to elite level. In the following Olympic cycle that figure rose to 70 and in the London cycle it reached 163.

At the London Olympics, Ireland won six medals, surpassing the previous record set in Melbourne in 1956. A limit had been crossed. For Irish sport, there was no turning back.

“I never would have been able to do this job in America without working in Ireland for 10 years,” Kirwan said.

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“So much of the job involves interpersonal relationships and problem-solving in stressful situations, so I never would have been able to do it without learning the skills.

“Is there a conflict here? [in America]? Yes, there are a lot of conflicts. Human dynamics are not that different. People are people. The key for me is that if someone has a little bit of curiosity towards them and leaves their ego outside the door, a lot of problems can be solved.?

Shortly after the London Olympics, Kirwan left Ireland. United States Olympic Committee [USOC] The team was looking for a high-performance manager to lead the team’s Summer Olympic program across five sports: track and field, swimming, golf, weight training and equestrian. The U.S. won 121 medals at the Rio Games, more than half of which came in Kirwan’s sports.

After Rio, he was promoted to senior director with responsibility for performance innovation. What does that mean?

“One of the things we realized going into Rio was that while a lot of other countries were doing a better job of finding an edge, we were relying heavily on the talent coming through the NCAA. [University] Systems. One of the things we realized was that we were lagging behind on technology, analytics, and so on. We couldn’t get government funding, so we had to raise donations. We were able to raise about $20 million.”

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His success led to further promotions. Before the Tokyo Games, he was the Summer Sports Director, and after the Tokyo Games, he was the Summer and Winter Olympic Sports Director. The air gets thinner as you go up in altitude. No one straps an oxygen tank to their back.

“There’s definitely a weight of expectation. There’s an expectation that we’ll win. That’s it. There’s no ambiguity on that point. I’m OK.” [with that]I enjoy the pressure that comes with being around people who have the best job in the world. If I came to this job with a big ego, I think I would be criticized very quickly.

“That’s what impressed me the most when I first got over. I thought there might be a lot of egos here, but that wasn’t the case at all. If there were egos, they would be quickly weeded out because people realize that their bullshit is basically going to be called out. Our job is to support the athletes behind the scenes and put them in a position to be successful.”

When Kirwan interviewed for his first job with the USOC, they were particularly interested in the changes in Irish boxing: while the U.S. had come home without a boxing medal at the London Olympics, Ireland had enjoyed great success in the Olympic ring for two consecutive tournaments.

Boxing’s High Performance Unit was the biggest battleground during Kirwan’s decade with Sport Ireland, and by the time he finished explaining what had happened and how he’d overcome the obstacles, they were fixated on Billy Walsh.

“We talked at length about Billy and they said, ‘OK, let’s get on a plane and try to bring him over.’ I had dinner with him at The Winding Stair in Dublin and we signed the deal. Billy’s still here. He’s done some great work with boxers. He’s changed the culture of the sport here in America. Billy’s been a great part of the story.”

Just before the Paris Games, the USOC announced a $25 million donation from a California family.Without government funding, the challenge of becoming self-sufficient on a scale that brings success is a never-ending task.

Summer and winter sports combined consume $100 million each year, and the USOC has a team dedicated to finding potential donors, at which point Kirwan will step into the process.

“My job is to tell the story of the performance and what their money is bringing to Team USA and how it impacts Team USA. Essentially, we eat what we catch.”

A delegation of 593 athletes has been sent to Paris. The medals are already rolling in. Performance targets are clear and unconditional.

“We have no regrets about the Olympics in Paris. We want to win the Olympics. The number of gold medals. The total number of medals. The number of medallists.”

Kirwan has lived in Colorado, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, with his wife Annabel and their two children for the past 11 years. It would have been easy for him to stay with Sport Ireland after the London Olympics – much of the hard work had already been done – but he jumped off the cliff.

“When I graduated from UCC, I had no idea what I was going to do. If you had told me that 30 years later I’d be competing as part of the U.S. Olympic team, I would have said, ‘You’re crazy.’ I took a risk. It was a risk. In our environment, you don’t get lifetime employment. You’re judged on your merit and your performance. At the time, I felt it was a risk worth taking. And it paid off.”

Every medal Ireland won in Paris has his name in tiny letters. Look closely.