Image Credit: World Rowing
How do you define greatness? A mind-bending feat that surpasses expectation and rationality? A moment of authentic surprise that inverts the weight of pressing odds? Or perhaps an incision in the linear unfurling of your heart?
In sport, we are quick to anoint greatness upon each other. A performance that impresses us is often bestowed the virtue of greatness before it can even truly be understood. It is easy to attach brilliance onto bravery and boldness but sometimes the two should not be conflated. True greatness should combine mastery, magnanimity and more than a hint of magic.
The Olympic Games is our ultimate magic show. A procession of truly elite talent, operating at the pinnacle of their sport and thrust forward into a limelight fostered by four years of relative translucency. These two weeks are stitched into the very fabric of competition, dating back to the lore of Ancient Greece, and have transcended the politics of modern society to become the ultimate marker in sporting excellence. To win Olympic Gold gives you immortality of a rare and timeless specification – your story will be perpetuated forevermore, carried forward by the whispers of generations to come, who too aim to climb those sacred steps and join this club of champions. Emerging over the horizon, this time in the blue and red hue of palatial Paris, we are ready for the very fastest in rowing to be crowned.
Step forward, my friends – The Olympic Games have come.
The Stats
Country
Ireland
Crew Names
Aifric Keogh (B)
Fiona Murtagh (S)
Average Age
31 years
Olympic Record
Third in the W4- at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Games (Keogh and Murtagh)
2024 Competitive Record
World Rowing Cup 1: 2nd (W2-)
World Rowing Cup 2: 3rd (W2-)
World Rowing Cup 3: 2nd (W2-)
European Championships: N/A
The Profile
This duo were the stern pair of the coxless four that won an historic bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics, Ireland’s first ever women’s Olympic rowing medal. Keogh made her debut on the senior Irish team back in 2014 and raced in the four that year and the season after. She took a break from international racing after that, returning in 2017 when rowing the pair with Aileen Crowley and then Emily Hegarty in 2018. Murtagh made her international debut at the 2020 Europeans, racing in the coxless four with Keogh, winning a bronze medal which they upgraded to silver in 2021. Post Tokyo, the W4- didn’t quite deliver the medal results expected and in 2023 Keogh and Murtagh moved into the pair, just missing out on a podium place in 2023. This season they have been amongst the most consistent performers, taking medals at all three 2024 World Rowing Cups.
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