BY MICHAEL O’LEARY
Four weeks from today (Friday July 26th), the opening ceremony will take place in Paris to officially mark the start of The Olympics.
Team Ireland could potentially have their best Medal haul at an Olympics with so many prospects across a wide range of sports.
Flying the flag from Kilkenny for Team Ireland are Jeremy Duncan who is part of the Mens Hockey squad, and also Mia Griffin from Glenmore who will be part of the Ireland Squad for The Team Pursuit in Track Cycling. She was part of The Ireland Squad that secured qualification in April, and having secured qualification in the Team Pursuit, they are also guaranteed places in both the Womens Omnium and Madison events. It’s a remarkable acheivement for an Irish Team to have qualified for an Olympics in Track Cycling, as they are the only country to have qualified without a Velodrome.
Mia had already booked her ticket to Paris back in the Autumn with a 3rd place finish in the Road Race at the Tour of Guangxi, but having qualified in her specialist pursuit event she has decided to skip the road and give all her attention to the track.
Coming from a Village steeped in GAA, Mia was a very talented Camogie player at underage level, and in 2015 she was part of the Kilkenny Panel that won the Minor All-Ireland. A year later in 2016, Mia was part of the Glenmore Team that won the Intermediate County Final, while the following year in 2017 she had the honour of captaining the Kilkenny Intermediates.
Mia’s introduction to the sport came about as a result of a work colleague of her Mum spotting an ad on Cycling Ireland, and she put her Camogie career on hold to concentrate on Cycling.
The Glenmore native made history by becoming the first female Irish cyclist to compete on The World Tour, and riding in her first European Championship in 2018 as part of The Ireland Team in The Pursuit Event, they secured a top ten finishing in 10th place, while further top ten places were produced in 2019 as they finished 9th in the Europeans and 10th in The World Championships.
In 2021, as she was part of the Irish Team that won a Bronze Medal in The Team Pursuit at The European Track Championships in Switzerland, while she was also part of the Irish Team that won Gold in The Team Pursuit at The World Cup in Saint Petersburg in Russia.
Mia returned to Kilkenny last year to compete in the Ras Na Mban where she secured stage victories in both Callan and Tramore in glorious Summer conditions, while she also won Gold at The National Criterium Championships.
Last January she was part of the Ireland Team that finished 4th in The Team Pursuit at The European Track Championship in the Netherlands, while also in January she signed for a new British UCI Continental team for road races.
From playing Camogie with Glenmore and Kilkenny to Cycling around the World and on the verge of becoming an Olympian, it’s been an incredible journey and adventure. Just a month to go before she is part of the biggest sporting event on the planet.
