By Claire Corrigan
Mullingar family, the Thompsons, put their fitness to the absolute test on RTÉ One’s third series of ‘Ireland’s Fittest Family’ on Sunday night.
The team from Curraghmore, Mullingar, consisted of Conor, 23, Finbar, 22, Shane, 17 and mother of the three young men, Caroline O’ Connell.
The show sees families of four compete from June to September in a series of challenges designed to test speed, strength, agility and endurance in a battle to claim the title and €15,000 prize money. All teams must have at least one parent, one male and one female member and all contestants must be over the age of 14.
During last Sunday’s episode, the family had to hang from an iron bar suspended 20ft over the Irish Sea in Dunlaoghaire. Six families took part, each in two batches of three, and one family from each batch was be eliminated from the competition.
After that came the Eliminator, an obstacle course which sees one member of the family drag a large net filled with baggage to a huge height before running to release the rest of their family from a shipping container. They then must run, jump and climb over several obstacles before ascending a ramp to a podium.
The series will see two new coaches, Munster rugby legend Alan Quinlan and Cork Camogie champion Anna Geary join veteran coach Davy Fitzgerald and last year’s newbie Jason Sherlock.
Caroline O’Connell told Topic that her family had always been interested in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. “We would all be pretty fit and nvolved in different sporting acitivites and healthy pursuits. I do a lot of kayaking, and am a member of the triathlon club, so I do a lot of swimming. I also run, cycle and do hill-walking. The boys play hurling, football, are involved in martial arts and do lot of gym-work and they also swim.”
Caroline O’Connell told Topic that the family had watched the programme for the last couple of years, and last summer they happened to visit Killary Adventure Centre in Galway, where an episode of ‘Fittest Family’ was being filmed.
“My eldest son, Connor, decided to send in an application earlier this year. We certainly didn’t think we’d get called but we did and were invited to do a fitness test in Athlone. Again we didn’t expect anything to come of it but we got through to be one of the final twelve families. We were then called to take part in the first competition in Dunlaoghaire, which was broadcast on Sunday, within literally a couple of weeks of being selected.”
The families that made it through to the programme were filmed competing over two days, with six families to each day. “From that twelve, eight of the families got through to the next round. We were beaten in the programme by the Carney family from Wexford who were in the semi-finals in last year’s competition.”
Ms. O Connell revealed that the Westmeath family are to make a return to the show in two weeks time after a member of one of the eight finalists suffered an injury. “We are set to appear on the show in a fortnight. It was unfortunate that we didn’t know we were going to be coming back for a second round because while the other families that went through would have been training constantly for the programme, we only found out about it two days beforehand. It was just the luck of the draw, though, and it was a great experience and we were really happy to get as far as we did.”
Ms. O’ Connell said that the feedback from family and friends has been exraordinary. “I have to say that we have received a huge amount of support and everybody has been incredibly positive and encouraging. Even though we lost, everybody has been really great. It was good craic and not something you would do on a normal weekend in summer, and it was a great experience.” Ms. O’ Connell said with a laugh.
Series three will see 12 of the fittest, fastest and strongest families in the country put everything on the line to be the last family standing at the end of the gruelling competition.
