Shane Lowry's latest 'gold' comments shows how locked he in is at Olympics

Shane Lowry was at the airport collecting his luggage when he witnessed Mona McSharry securing Ireland's first Olympic medal , an event that has only increased his own hunger for success .

After proudly carrying the flag alongside Sarah Lavin in the Opening Ceremony last Friday and enjoying various events before jetting back for Sunday's All-Ireland final, McSharry's triumph has boosted his desire to win.

Following a few heated incidents at The Open where he ended up sixth , despite leading at the halfway point, the Portrush champion is eager to bring an Olympic gold back to Clara from Le Golf National.

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The 37-year-old landed there yesterday evening and joined forces with Rory McIlroy , creating a strong Olympic duo. They nearly clinched bronze in Tokyo through McIlroy, who narrowly missed out in a play-off. Their competition begins on Thursday.

Lowry shared, "I was picking up my bags at the airport and I watched it on my phone," adding, "It was pretty cool. I watched the race in the heat, yeah, the semi-finals. It's great. It's great to get the medal tally off and running and hopefully another one tonight with Daniel and hopefully one of us can add one or two between us. That's the plan. That's why we're here."

Shane Lowry joked about the prospect of winning at the games: "It would be better than silver! Yeah, look, I felt I had a good chance to win The Open a couple weeks ago and I was really disappointed to not give it a better go on Saturday and Sunday. Straightaway after that, I sort of felt like I have a chance to redeem myself here in a couple of weeks."

He added, excited about bringing glory home: "For me, look, if you look at the media and what it was like back home yesterday when Mona won that bronze medal, I think if I was to win a gold medal and bring it back to Ireland, yeah, it would be pretty cool."

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After their warm-up round, Shane Lowry and his group were planning some leisure activities for the afternoon, mentioning that his wife Wendy, who is also in Paris, might join them in supporting some Irish athletes competing today. They considered possibly attending La Defense Arena for Wiffen's 800m freestyle race.

Discussing potential plans, Lowry shared: "Maybe today or tomorrow afternoon, we might do something," He then compared his current experience to the previous games in Tokyo: "It's certainly a different experience than it was in Tokyo. In Tokyo, remember, we had that room in the hotel - we were only allowed to go to that room for dinner, and it was just the four or five of us all week."

Reflecting on the Opening Ceremony, Lowry recalled how even getting drenched did not spoil the excitement of the evening, particularly for the duo who had the honour of bearing the national flags.

"It was amazing," he exclaimed, recalling his unforgettable journey. "It was an amazing experience and something that I'll remember forever. Yeah, it was a big honour and when I got there and got to experience the whole thing, yeah, memories for a lifetime and just even being there and being around the other athletes, it was pretty cool."

Reflecting on the unique opportunity, he shared, "You know, to see the Olympics from there, it's something that when I was growing up, as a golfer, you didn't really think was going to be achievable. So yeah, it was an amazing experience."

The weather 's impact was significant, he noted: "Obviously the weather played a big part in the whole thing. We tried to stay a bit dry at the start of those but it was one of those, 'well, we're wet now, might as well enjoy it'. As the boat ride went down the crowds got bigger and bigger and honestly was just soaking it all in, enjoying the atmosphere, and like trying to spot the Irish people in the crowd."

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He concluded with vivid memories of support, "There's a lot of Irish flags. Obviously when you get down past all the sites in Paris and then towards the Eiffel Tower, it's kind of a bit of a surreal experience. Other athletes outside of the Irish, I didn't see those or mix with any of those. But it was nice to kind of be in the Village for a day and hang out with some people."

"I spent the whole day with Sarah Lavin. I got to know her pretty well that day and the story and what she's been through is nothing short of incredible. She gained a huge new fan that day and I hope to see her go on and do great things next week. You just see what people do and what other athletes go through is a pretty cool thing."

The last time the Ryder Cup team-mates played together as a team was at the Zurich Classic in April, and they snatched a thrilling victory at the prestigious PGA Tour event. Now facing an individual stroke play event, Lowry expressed his feelings: "I'm just disappointed I'm not going to be hitting off Rory's drives this week, playing as a team," he said with a smile, recalling his 22nd place finish on his Tokyo debut.

"I'd like to think we are good for each other when we are around each other. I'd like to think we are both going to perform pretty well this week."

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