FIH Olympic qualifiers: End of Ireland's Paris dream 'heartbreaking'
- Published
2024 Paris Olympics: Watch GB's women beat Ireland to qualify for Games
There were tears everywhere you looked after the final whistle.
The senior members of the Irish team, especially, knew this was probably their last opportunity to make an Olympic Games. They were inconsolable. Dreams shattered.
That is the reality of sport at the highest level. Unbelievable highs and crushing lows.
In the midst of the gut-wrenching disappointment, as their hopes of making the Paris Games ended with a 2-1 defeat by Great Britain, captain Katie Mullan, struggling to hold back her emotions of the moment, tried to put the squad's feelings into words.
"It's absolutely heartbreaking," she said.
"The commitment that we give, the team environment that we have, the camaraderie, the friendships, the strength. It's just such a cruel, cruel thing to experience. I'm just so proud of our fight.
"We fought so hard, we fought to the last minute. I think in the second half we came out all guns blazing and we put them under an awful lot of pressure.
"It's so disappointing because I think the game was there for the taking. I'm so proud of the girls and I'm so grateful to all of our friends and family for all of their support. They've been amazing. It's just devastating."
'Cruel end to impressive week'
The cruel ending came after a week of impressive performances. They held world number four Belgium to a scoreless draw and then beat Ukraine and higher ranked Korea to make the semi-finals.
Even more than the final game against Great Britain, the Irish women will look back at the semi-final defeat to Spain as their biggest chance wasted to make Paris.
They outplayed the hosts but couldn't find the one goal that would have won the game. Ireland's history has been peppered with shootouts, some won and some lost and this one, painstakingly, was the latter.
Spain had hardly troubled the scorers but they celebrated a place at the Olympics.
How this week has finished will take a long time to get over. Ireland were so close but yet agonisingly so far away.
Compliments about their performances will mean very little at the moment.
"I think it's a very long time since we've gone through the tournament and been consistent in every game," Mullan added.
"We were consistent in how we performed. We'd be disappointed not to get on the right side of the result at the end of those performances. But I think that's a huge positive for the group moving forward.
"We started this journey with the dream of going to Paris. It's heartbreaking that that's not going to be our reality and not going to be our ending.
"This has been an incredibly special journey and it's been such a privilege to be on this journey with such a special group of women.
"To have come out and shown up and presented ourselves the way we have. It's one of the privileges of high performance sport and it's one of the privileges of team sport and representing your country. It's just devastating that it has ended this way."
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