Rhys McClenaghan’s gold medal-winning routine on the pommel horse in Paris. The arena was knotted with a ridiculous tension, but McClenaghan returned to the scene of his only major disappointment of his career so far with an even more difficult routine. When he returned to ground and burst into tears, we all knew he had achieved what he set out to do. One of the most audacious sporting acts in Irish history.
And what was your biggest disappointment?
Rory McIlroy missing out on the US Open. Having fumbled previous majors by becoming too conservative down the stretch, this time he stayed aggressive and started making birdies when it mattered. Alas, that three-footer on 15 will haunt him until he finally wins another major. And to lose it to Bryson DeChambeau? Eesh. Makes it a thousand times worse.
Who is your Irish sports star of the year?
What an insanely difficult decision, so I am going to make my decision in the most reductive means possible: put your medals on the table, ladies and gentlemen. And thus we congratulate Daniel Wiffen.
Who is your international sports star of the year?
The podium spots go to Lamine Yamal and Armand Duplantis, but I’m going to stick with swimming and crown Leon Marchand, who won four gold medals in Paris while kicking up one of the noisiest atmospheres I’ve ever experienced.
Lamine Yamal celebrates after the Euro 2024 final. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
What sporting event are you most looking forward to in 2025?
The Ryder Cup. With Rhasidat Adeleke’s second tilt at the World Athletics Championships a close second.
*****
David Sneyd
What was your sporting highlight of the year?
Watched it again this morning – 16 December in case you’re wondering – and the sense of pride remained as intense. Watching Sharlene Mawdsley round the final bend of the mixed 4×400 relay final at the European Championships in Rome was glorious. “She is strength, she is power,” was Greg Allen’s verdict to tee up one last burst. He told us she was faster than Helena Ponette, and she was. “Just hold your nerve.” She did, and we all rejoiced with Mawdsley, Rhasidat Adeleke, Thomas Barr and Christopher O’Donnell.
Ireland’s Chris O’Donnell, Rhasidat Adeleke, Sharlene Mawdsley and Tom Barr celebrate winning a gold medal. Morgan Treacy / INPHO
Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO
And what was your biggest disappointment?
Ciara Mageean – after winning gold in the 1500 metres at those European Championships – being forced to withdraw on the eve of her Olympics was as cruel as it was heartbreaking.
Who is your Irish sports star of the year?
Hard to separate any of the Olympians, so much easier to – respectfully – simply ignore and go with Shelbourne defender Paddy Barrett. Epitomises the resilience and dedication of the League of Ireland champions.
Who is your international sports star of the year?
Lamine Yamal just about pips Axel Sjoberg. But only just.
What sporting event are you most looking forward to in 2025?
Stephen Bradley’s Shamrock Rovers will be playing knockout European football in the Conference League in the new year and Damien Duff will take Shelbourne into Champions League qualifiers. Stephen Kenny somehow qualified for Europe with St Patrick’s Athletic and Kevin Doherty did the same with Drogheda United. The 2025 Premier Division season cannot come quick enough. Oh, and Ireland will also have World Cup qualifiers from September to November. Bring it on.
Damien Duff celebrates winning the league title with Shelbourne. Dan Sheridan / INPHO
Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
*****
Emma Duffy
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What was your sporting highlight of the year?
For me, it has to be the Paralympic Games. You could take your pick from an unforgettable 2024, but 3 September in Paris sits above the rest. Ireland won two bronze medals in just over five minutes – first Róisín Ní Riain in the pool at La Défense Arena, then Orla Comerford on the track at Stade de France. It was a stunning medal rush, the Games sparking to life as I sat in position at Stade de France trying to cover both. Magic.
And what was your biggest disappointment?
Ireland WNT’s failure to qualify for Euro 2025. The play-off defeat to Wales was sickening, and a real missed opportunity. A first Euros appearance and reaching a second successive major tournament would have been a 2025 highlight, but missing out on Switzerland leaves the Nations League as the only remaining focus.
Who is your Irish sports star of the year?
Take your pick. Daniel Wiffen, Kellie Harrington, Paul O’Donovan… but I’ll go with Katie-George Dunlevy.
The Para cycling legend won three more Paralympic medals to bring her tally to eight – gold and silver on the road with Linda Kelly, silver on the track with Eve McCrystal. Two World Championship golds followed soon afterwards. Dunlevy overcame injury and illness to turn a horrendous year into another glittering one, and the 43-year-old is undoubtedly one of our greatest ever athletes.
Not only were her exploits on the bike sensational, Dunlevy spoke brilliantly on inspiring the next generation, representing vision-impaired women and the LGBTQ+ community throughout.
Ireland’s Katie-George Dunlevy displays the gold medal to her father John. Tom Maher / INPHO
Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO
Who is your international sports star of the year?
A toss up between Simone Biles and Caitlin Clark. Biles’ Olympics comeback was sensational: three golds and a silver, as she continued her remarkable run at the Games. Her Netflix documentary, Rising, was a fascinating insight and whetted the appetite for what would follow, Biles joining Leon Marchand and Mondo Duplantis as the 2024 Olympics’ biggest names.
Clark, meanwhile, rose to superstardom this year. She took the WNBA, and basketball, to new levels as she made her impact felt on and off the court. And the best part is, it’s early days for the 22-year-old.
What sporting event are you most looking forward to in 2025?
Along with all of the usuals, I think the 2025 Rugby World Cup will be great. I’m looking forward to seeing the Irish women’s rugby team on the world stage again, their recent upsurge has been hugely impressive. Players like Aoife Wafer, Erin King and Dannah O’Brien should light up the tournament, and the fact that it is nearby in England, is a welcome boost.
Euro 2025, once we get over the pain of Ireland’s absence, should be brilliant too.
*****
Declan Bogue
What was your sporting highlight of the year?
The Wiffen. What a man. Happily, I got the chance to interview him before the Olympics and he was fantastic company even over a Zoom and he related his progress.
His likeability was immediate and immense.
“I can only speak for myself. I am not going to the Games to sit back and relax. I am going to win,” followed soon after by, “I’m confident that I am the best swimmer in the world.”
I thought of how much the sporting self-esteem of the nation has changed from our bashful boxers of ’92 and before. I watched his Gold Medal in the 800m Freestyle on my phone in a Donegal hotel lobby on holidays with my sons and after a while it became apparent so too was everybody else, with a spontaneous round of applause when he touched the tiles.
Daniel Wiffen. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
And what was your biggest disappointment?
The grotesque spectacle of Jake Paul and Mike Tyson becoming the biggest draw in, ahem, ‘boxing’. One complete flump against a practical pensioner, trying his best not to actually hurt Paul shows that we are at the end game of boxing now, as if we hadn’t reached it with the concentration of bouts in the sportswashing states.
To keep it hyper-local, our local Gaelic football club Aghaloo O’Neill’s had a Tyrone junior final in October against Killeeshil, the club from the next parish over.
The stakes were high and the fanfare was something else around the parish for a fortnight. We painted the children’s faces, made banners and headed up to Omagh full of the joys.
Aghaloo were three points ahead with time pretty much up, then Killeeshil hit a goal and a free clipped over from an angle where Maurice Fitzgerald would have been looking to recycle out the field.
Cue, and I mean this, utter devastation, makeshift counselling sessions and a fog that hung over everyone until a few weeks later when the team eventually won promotion through the league play-offs to show their character.
Who is your Irish sports star of the year?
A number of candidates. Naturally, Daniel Wiffen and Rhys McClenaghan for their cocksure excellence.
Damien Duff elevated the profile of the League of Ireland, compelling in his grouchiness and belief that his Shelbourne team would just find a way.
Tony Kelly for his majesty as Clare won an unlikely hurling All-Ireland, and Niall Grimley for his personal resilience as he dealt with the death of his brother and shone as Armagh won an even more unlikely football All-Ireland.
But the award has to be shared between a few; the Ireland 400 metre relay team for showing that falling just short doesn’t make anyone a loser.
And Jody Gormley, the former Tyrone footballer who informed his Trillick clubmates that he had terminal cancer the night they lost a county final to Errigal Ciaran. Nobody has ever faced their death with more grace, bravery and humour.
Jody Gormley. Andrew Paton / INPHO
Andrew Paton / INPHO / INPHO
Who is your international sports star of the year?
Femke Bol. How to pad out a tribute to someone who runs faster than everyone else over a chosen distance?
Without progressing my own running career beyond a wheezing few half-marathons, you can say without contradiction to watch her shift, especially when she kicks for home, is utterly thrilling.
What sporting event are you most looking forward to in 2025?
Same as any January, the Dr McKenna Cup.
There’s something entirely bracing and nothing that strips back the gluttony of December than standing on a cold bank and running the eye over some local hopefuls as they take their first faltering steps in the intercounty game.
Add in the new rules and there are a number of layers of fascination. Thank God we have the pre-season tournaments to see them in action and allow players and management a chance to suss it all out before the cut-throat stuff starts in the league.
Wait, what?
*****
Ronan Early
What was your sporting highlight of the year?
Cork v Limerick, last May’s Munster championship meeting. Reasons include but are not limited to: Declan Dalton with the best pass of the year (around 10 minutes in, flat and long), Declan Dalton pulling on a ball first time and taking a teammate out, incredible scoring, the wresting back and forth of momentum, the thrilling denouement, the pitch invasion and reaction from the crowd – disproportionate to the achievement in one sense, entirely rational by others.
A stumbling giant had finally stood tall, while tens of thousands of people felt emotions they’d forgotten existed.
Rory McIlroy at the US Open. I saw he won or shared in €10m in crypto for winning some LIV v PGA exhibition recently. All of the encrypted currency in all of the servers in China couldn’t ease the human misery of what transpired at Pinehurst. It was just so sad.
Who is your Irish sports star of the year?
Hard to separate the gold medal winners but will go with Kellie Harrington. Thought she was so disciplined and methodical in how she went about the Olympic Games, and then the emotional reaction perhaps showed the pressure she had been under the past couple of years.
Who is your international sports star of the year?
Lamine Yamal for the poise and menace he showed at the Euros. You are never too young or too old if you have it and Yamal has it. A proper footballer.
What sporting event are you most looking forward to in 2025?
The Munster hurling championship. Every civilisation has its glorious distractions. I don’t know what we’ve done to deserve one as glorious as this.
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Highlight, star, disappointment: Our writers review the 2024 sporting year
Gavin Cooney
What was your sporting highlight of the year?
Rhys McClenaghan’s gold medal-winning routine on the pommel horse in Paris. The arena was knotted with a ridiculous tension, but McClenaghan returned to the scene of his only major disappointment of his career so far with an even more difficult routine. When he returned to ground and burst into tears, we all knew he had achieved what he set out to do. One of the most audacious sporting acts in Irish history.
And what was your biggest disappointment?
Rory McIlroy missing out on the US Open. Having fumbled previous majors by becoming too conservative down the stretch, this time he stayed aggressive and started making birdies when it mattered. Alas, that three-footer on 15 will haunt him until he finally wins another major. And to lose it to Bryson DeChambeau? Eesh. Makes it a thousand times worse.
Who is your Irish sports star of the year?
What an insanely difficult decision, so I am going to make my decision in the most reductive means possible: put your medals on the table, ladies and gentlemen. And thus we congratulate Daniel Wiffen.
Who is your international sports star of the year?
The podium spots go to Lamine Yamal and Armand Duplantis, but I’m going to stick with swimming and crown Leon Marchand, who won four gold medals in Paris while kicking up one of the noisiest atmospheres I’ve ever experienced.
What sporting event are you most looking forward to in 2025?
The Ryder Cup. With Rhasidat Adeleke’s second tilt at the World Athletics Championships a close second.
*****
David Sneyd
What was your sporting highlight of the year?
Watched it again this morning – 16 December in case you’re wondering – and the sense of pride remained as intense. Watching Sharlene Mawdsley round the final bend of the mixed 4×400 relay final at the European Championships in Rome was glorious. “She is strength, she is power,” was Greg Allen’s verdict to tee up one last burst. He told us she was faster than Helena Ponette, and she was. “Just hold your nerve.” She did, and we all rejoiced with Mawdsley, Rhasidat Adeleke, Thomas Barr and Christopher O’Donnell.
And what was your biggest disappointment?
Ciara Mageean – after winning gold in the 1500 metres at those European Championships – being forced to withdraw on the eve of her Olympics was as cruel as it was heartbreaking.
Who is your Irish sports star of the year?
Hard to separate any of the Olympians, so much easier to – respectfully – simply ignore and go with Shelbourne defender Paddy Barrett. Epitomises the resilience and dedication of the League of Ireland champions.
Who is your international sports star of the year?
Lamine Yamal just about pips Axel Sjoberg. But only just.
What sporting event are you most looking forward to in 2025?
Stephen Bradley’s Shamrock Rovers will be playing knockout European football in the Conference League in the new year and Damien Duff will take Shelbourne into Champions League qualifiers. Stephen Kenny somehow qualified for Europe with St Patrick’s Athletic and Kevin Doherty did the same with Drogheda United. The 2025 Premier Division season cannot come quick enough. Oh, and Ireland will also have World Cup qualifiers from September to November. Bring it on.
*****
Emma Duffy
What was your sporting highlight of the year?
For me, it has to be the Paralympic Games. You could take your pick from an unforgettable 2024, but 3 September in Paris sits above the rest. Ireland won two bronze medals in just over five minutes – first Róisín Ní Riain in the pool at La Défense Arena, then Orla Comerford on the track at Stade de France. It was a stunning medal rush, the Games sparking to life as I sat in position at Stade de France trying to cover both. Magic.
And what was your biggest disappointment?
Ireland WNT’s failure to qualify for Euro 2025. The play-off defeat to Wales was sickening, and a real missed opportunity. A first Euros appearance and reaching a second successive major tournament would have been a 2025 highlight, but missing out on Switzerland leaves the Nations League as the only remaining focus.
Who is your Irish sports star of the year?
Take your pick. Daniel Wiffen, Kellie Harrington, Paul O’Donovan… but I’ll go with Katie-George Dunlevy.
The Para cycling legend won three more Paralympic medals to bring her tally to eight – gold and silver on the road with Linda Kelly, silver on the track with Eve McCrystal. Two World Championship golds followed soon afterwards. Dunlevy overcame injury and illness to turn a horrendous year into another glittering one, and the 43-year-old is undoubtedly one of our greatest ever athletes.
Not only were her exploits on the bike sensational, Dunlevy spoke brilliantly on inspiring the next generation, representing vision-impaired women and the LGBTQ+ community throughout.
Who is your international sports star of the year?
A toss up between Simone Biles and Caitlin Clark. Biles’ Olympics comeback was sensational: three golds and a silver, as she continued her remarkable run at the Games. Her Netflix documentary, Rising, was a fascinating insight and whetted the appetite for what would follow, Biles joining Leon Marchand and Mondo Duplantis as the 2024 Olympics’ biggest names.
Clark, meanwhile, rose to superstardom this year. She took the WNBA, and basketball, to new levels as she made her impact felt on and off the court. And the best part is, it’s early days for the 22-year-old.
What sporting event are you most looking forward to in 2025?
Along with all of the usuals, I think the 2025 Rugby World Cup will be great. I’m looking forward to seeing the Irish women’s rugby team on the world stage again, their recent upsurge has been hugely impressive. Players like Aoife Wafer, Erin King and Dannah O’Brien should light up the tournament, and the fact that it is nearby in England, is a welcome boost.
Euro 2025, once we get over the pain of Ireland’s absence, should be brilliant too.
*****
Declan Bogue
What was your sporting highlight of the year?
The Wiffen. What a man. Happily, I got the chance to interview him before the Olympics and he was fantastic company even over a Zoom and he related his progress.
His likeability was immediate and immense.
“I can only speak for myself. I am not going to the Games to sit back and relax. I am going to win,” followed soon after by, “I’m confident that I am the best swimmer in the world.”
I thought of how much the sporting self-esteem of the nation has changed from our bashful boxers of ’92 and before. I watched his Gold Medal in the 800m Freestyle on my phone in a Donegal hotel lobby on holidays with my sons and after a while it became apparent so too was everybody else, with a spontaneous round of applause when he touched the tiles.
And what was your biggest disappointment?
The grotesque spectacle of Jake Paul and Mike Tyson becoming the biggest draw in, ahem, ‘boxing’. One complete flump against a practical pensioner, trying his best not to actually hurt Paul shows that we are at the end game of boxing now, as if we hadn’t reached it with the concentration of bouts in the sportswashing states.
To keep it hyper-local, our local Gaelic football club Aghaloo O’Neill’s had a Tyrone junior final in October against Killeeshil, the club from the next parish over.
The stakes were high and the fanfare was something else around the parish for a fortnight. We painted the children’s faces, made banners and headed up to Omagh full of the joys.
Aghaloo were three points ahead with time pretty much up, then Killeeshil hit a goal and a free clipped over from an angle where Maurice Fitzgerald would have been looking to recycle out the field.
Cue, and I mean this, utter devastation, makeshift counselling sessions and a fog that hung over everyone until a few weeks later when the team eventually won promotion through the league play-offs to show their character.
Who is your Irish sports star of the year?
A number of candidates. Naturally, Daniel Wiffen and Rhys McClenaghan for their cocksure excellence.
Damien Duff elevated the profile of the League of Ireland, compelling in his grouchiness and belief that his Shelbourne team would just find a way.
Tony Kelly for his majesty as Clare won an unlikely hurling All-Ireland, and Niall Grimley for his personal resilience as he dealt with the death of his brother and shone as Armagh won an even more unlikely football All-Ireland.
But the award has to be shared between a few; the Ireland 400 metre relay team for showing that falling just short doesn’t make anyone a loser.
And Jody Gormley, the former Tyrone footballer who informed his Trillick clubmates that he had terminal cancer the night they lost a county final to Errigal Ciaran. Nobody has ever faced their death with more grace, bravery and humour.
Who is your international sports star of the year?
Femke Bol. How to pad out a tribute to someone who runs faster than everyone else over a chosen distance?
Without progressing my own running career beyond a wheezing few half-marathons, you can say without contradiction to watch her shift, especially when she kicks for home, is utterly thrilling.
What sporting event are you most looking forward to in 2025?
Same as any January, the Dr McKenna Cup.
There’s something entirely bracing and nothing that strips back the gluttony of December than standing on a cold bank and running the eye over some local hopefuls as they take their first faltering steps in the intercounty game.
Add in the new rules and there are a number of layers of fascination. Thank God we have the pre-season tournaments to see them in action and allow players and management a chance to suss it all out before the cut-throat stuff starts in the league.
Wait, what?
*****
Ronan Early
What was your sporting highlight of the year?
Cork v Limerick, last May’s Munster championship meeting. Reasons include but are not limited to: Declan Dalton with the best pass of the year (around 10 minutes in, flat and long), Declan Dalton pulling on a ball first time and taking a teammate out, incredible scoring, the wresting back and forth of momentum, the thrilling denouement, the pitch invasion and reaction from the crowd – disproportionate to the achievement in one sense, entirely rational by others.
A stumbling giant had finally stood tall, while tens of thousands of people felt emotions they’d forgotten existed.
And what was your biggest disappointment?
Rory McIlroy at the US Open. I saw he won or shared in €10m in crypto for winning some LIV v PGA exhibition recently. All of the encrypted currency in all of the servers in China couldn’t ease the human misery of what transpired at Pinehurst. It was just so sad.
Who is your Irish sports star of the year?
Hard to separate the gold medal winners but will go with Kellie Harrington. Thought she was so disciplined and methodical in how she went about the Olympic Games, and then the emotional reaction perhaps showed the pressure she had been under the past couple of years.
Who is your international sports star of the year?
Lamine Yamal for the poise and menace he showed at the Euros. You are never too young or too old if you have it and Yamal has it. A proper footballer.
What sporting event are you most looking forward to in 2025?
The Munster hurling championship. Every civilisation has its glorious distractions. I don’t know what we’ve done to deserve one as glorious as this.
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A year in review Sport