DUBLIN — Katie Taylor introduced elite boxing again to Ireland. The ladies’s nationwide soccer crew certified for its first World Cup.
Women are on a roll in Ireland – and have been for some time now.
Taylor has been chosen because the “most-admired” athlete in Ireland for six straight years, and ladies have been three of the highest 4 in back-to-back years.
Trailblazing jockey Rachael Blackmore and Olympic boxing champion Kellie Harrington have adopted Taylor on the Teneo Sport and Sponsorship Index, and the ladies’s soccer squad earned “team of the year” honors for 2022 after qualifying for the upcoming Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
Rugby participant Jonathan Sexton was tied for third the previous two years, however no male athlete has topped Taylor since combined martial artist Conor McGregor edged her in 2016.
“When we were growing up there were no real opportunities for women to participate that much in sport,” boxing fan Aoife Thompson mentioned on the weigh-in for Taylor’s bout in opposition to Chantelle Cameron.
“Now we have the likes of Katie Taylor, Kellie Harrington, we have loads of (Gaelic Athletic Association) stars you’d recognize all over the country now which you wouldn’t have gotten a few years ago,” she added. “In terms of (women’s) sport growing in Ireland it’s really recent over the last few years and it’s just brilliant to see.”
Taylor’s huge homecoming resulted in defeat, however the 2012 Olympic gold medalist stays revered in her residence nation.
National satisfaction appears to be as a lot an element as assist of particular sports. Boxing, for instance, doesn’t make the Teneo checklist of favourite sports – with soccer, rugby and Gaelic Games frequently taking the highest three spots. The males’s soccer crew is in rebuilding mode, however the males’s rugby crew is likely one of the favorites heading into the Rugby World Cup in September after profitable the Six Nations match.
While fierce within the ring, the 36-year-old Taylor is soft-spoken and humble outdoors it. She’s by no means in a headline about yachts, barroom dustups or site visitors offenses. She’s additionally deeply spiritual, which nonetheless resonates notably amongst older Irish.
Taylor and nationwide soccer crew captain Katie McCabe led this yr’s checklist of most marketable personalities in Ireland, in line with a survey by Onside consultancy group.
“There’s a space that’s been created now,” mentioned Sinead Thompson, who had joined her sister on the Taylor weigh-in. “The media has opened up to (cover) matches. You’ll see on a panel, there’s a lot of women. It’s just going to expand and expand.”
Public service broadcaster TG4 started airing Irish ladies’s soccer league video games in 2021, and Britain’s prime league – the place McCabe performs for Arsenal – is offered in Ireland.
“You never had that before,” Sinead Thompson mentioned of prime-time ladies’s video games. “Women are being acknowledged for their pure talent.”
The ladies’s soccer crew will play at Ireland’s nationwide stadium for the primary time when it hosts Northern Ireland in a UEFA Women’s Nations League recreation in September.
Fans had wished Aviva Stadium to host the World Cup-sendoff recreation – a pleasant in opposition to powerhouse France on July 6 – however the Landsdowne Road discipline is slated for renovations.
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