Mary Peters hails ‘extraordinary’ Olympic medal haul for island of Ireland

The last Northern Ireland athlete to win an individual Olympic gold medal has hailed an “extraordinary” Paris 2024 medal haul.

Daniel Wiffen, 23, won a swimming gold medal for Team Ireland in the men’s 800m freestyle on Tuesday night, and within an hour Jack McMillan, 24, took gold as part of Team GB’s 4x200m freestyle relay team.

On Wednesday, rower Hannah Scott, 25, won gold as part of Team GB’s women’s quadruple sculls final.

Northern Ireland had previously won just three gold medals in the Olympics.

Lady Mary Peters won gold in the pentathlon in the 1972 Games in Munich , while Stephen Martin and Jimmy Kirkwood earned gold with the Team GB hockey team in Seoul in 1988.

Lady Mary told the BBC: “It’s just great at the start of the Games to have this inspiration because we have so many more people coming: gymnast Rhys McClenaghan, runner Ciara Mageean, boxer Michaela Walsh, the world is open for them all.

“We’ve only 1.8 million people to choose from and yet we are having all these successes.

“I welcome them (the new Northern Ireland gold medallists) all in because it made my life exceptional and it will for them too.

“I think that it would be very helpful if the powers that be would give more money to sport because we get so much joy out of success, and we have got the stars.”

Lady Mary’s trust has supported 27 Olympians from Northern Ireland, including Scott.

“We get so much pleasure out of seeing so many of them do well, not only at the Olympic level, but world, European and Commonwealth,” she said.

She added that winning an Olympic gold changes an athlete’s life forever.

“I just wonder, if I had been second, where I would be now. It changes your life forever. Once you’ve won, you’re always an Olympic champion,” she said.