Saturday, February 15, 2025

Mullingar weightlifter calls for State funding ahead of World Championships

Olympic weightlifter Ailbhe Mulvihill from Shandonagh is calling on Sport Ireland to increase their funding of international athletes representing Ireland on the world stage.

Ailbhe will be flying out to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, 31 August, to compete at the World Weightlifting Championships but has been forced to fund the trip herself through an online fundraiser – raising €‎2,000 through donations.
She told Topic that Sport Ireland, the countries sport governing body, still classifies weightlifting as a “minority sport” despite being recognised by the Olympic Federation of Ireland.
“This year Sport Ireland gave Weightlifting Ireland the first high-performance grant they’ve ever gotten which was around €‎30,000 – they’re only just starting to look at us,” said Ailbhe.
“We have six weightlifters, including myself, competing at the World Championships. But the money was distributed to the four athletes who are on the Olympic pathway for 2024, and I am not one of those.
“It’s really unfortunate because it’s so expensive flying around to these international tournaments, especially this one in Saudi where there are no direct flights.”
backing
Ailbhe, who works as a full-time physio, said in an ideal world she would leave her job to focus on weightlifting, with the backing of Sport Ireland.
“It would be the dream to do weightlifting full-time, I think any sport that is recognised by the Olympic Council of Ireland should have money going towards athletes who are trying to qualify for the Olympics.
“There are other people in other sports in Ireland who have that opportunity. It helps so much because I work 35 hours a week, but I have done another 20 minimum in weight training.
“If I have extra time, I have to put it towards a full-time job otherwise I would have way more time to train, recover and improve, but we’re just not there yet in Ireland.”
The upcoming World Weightlifting Championships is a mandatory event to qualify for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Ailbhe (23) said she is not preparing to qualify for Paris and will hold out until the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles instead.
However, she has recently won her first international medal representing Ireland.
“I represented Ireland in France in June and in Austria in July where I won my first international medal, it was great! I came third in my weight class.
“It was the International Women’s Grand Prix and had entries from all over Europe. I came fourth overall out of 73 women.”
Ailbhe previously trained with Mullingar Weightlifting and is a former Irish under 23 weightlifting champion.

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