Paul O'Donovan responds to becoming Ireland's greatest ever Olympian with typical modesty after stunning win

Paul O'Donovan, now Ireland's greatest-ever Olympian , has modestly described his record of winning medals at three different Olympic Games as "a fluke".

The 30-year-old rower, who clinched a second Olympic gold with Fintan McCarthy at Paris 2024, also won gold in Tokyo and silver in Rio in 2016 with his brother Gary.

Speaking to RTE after stepping out of the lightweight double sculls boat as an Olympic champion once again, he said: "I think that's a fluke, to be honest."

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Despite losing a World Cup II regatta to Italy, O'Donovan maintained that they were underdogs going into the final. He said: "It was always in doubt for everyone else," adding, "no-one else believed we could do it. And against all the odds we stuck with it, trained hard and Italy out there today were the number one seeds and really put it up there."

He also praised Greece, who like Ireland were considered underdogs but managed to secure a place on the medal podium.

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Unfortunately, Switzerland missed out despite strong performances earlier this year. However, O'Donovan was delighted to prove the doubters wrong, saying: "So it's a good day for the Irish.", reports the Irish Mirror .

Ireland triumphed over the Italians by 0.98 of a second, taking the lead from the bronze medal-winning Greeks just after the halfway mark.

McCarthy, now a double gold medallist, said: "Always the aim for sure. As we said earlier, we had a rocky season. Well, I did, Paul has obviously been consistent as hell for the whole year but just really nice to get a few races under our belt early in the whole regatta and we were trying to keep under warps the nerves and the doubts."

"But coming out for the final there were no nerves, we had some really good rounds and I really felt like we were back at our best for this race."

Expressing gratitude for the large Irish crowd that came to support them, McCarthy stated: "It feels like its been a crazy journey the last few years and it has just been a privilege of a lifetime to be rowing with Paul and under Dominic (Casey) for my whole rowing career, pretty much. It's amazing."

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