Survey shows Kellie Harrington and Katie Taylor are Ireland's favourite sporting heroes
Heavy Kellie And Hitters: Katie Taylor Harrington
Ireland's two most admired sports stars are boxers, Kellie Harrington joining Katie Taylor on top of a national poll of the country's sporting interests.
It also signposts a landmark year for women's sport, with the achievements of Ireland's world champion lightweights and horse racing trailblazer Rachael Blackmore dominating many categories of the Teneo Sport and Sponsorship Index.
Blackmore, winner of RTÉ and BBC awards at the weekend, was voted joint third in the admiration stakes, with 9% of those surveyed choosing the Aintree Grand National winner and Cheltenham champion jockey.
Harrington and Taylor topped the poll on 16% each, with Harrington's Olympic gold medal chosen as the greatest sporting achievement of the year with a fifth of the vote. Blackmore's Aintree and Cheltenham achievements saw her into third on 11% and Katie Taylor’s successful world title defences put her into fifth on 9%.
Separating them were the Irish rugby team’s memorable November win over New Zealand at the Aviva Stadium (in second place on 19%) and rowers Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy taking gold in Tokyo (fourth on 10%).
Ireland rugby captain Johnny Sexton came joint third with Blackmore in the most admired sports star poll, with O’Donovan, Paralympic gold medallist Ellen Keane, rugby player Tadhg Furlong, and Ireland soccer captain Katie McCabe sharing fifth spot on 4%.
Soccer is back on top as Ireland’s favourite sport, sharing top spot with Gaelic Games, having last headed the voting in 2017. Soccer had topped the poll for the first eight years of the survey before being dislodged by Gaelic Games in 2018.
Both received an 18% share of the vote, ahead of rugby (14%) and tennis 6%. On 3% each were athletics, basketball, golf, horse racing, and triathlon, while cycling dropped out of the top five.
At the end of an Olympic year, Team Ireland were voted Team of the Year after taking home two gold and two bronze medals from the delayed Tokyo Games. Medals in boxing and rowing were celebrated across the country, with medallists from all four provinces, and helped Team Ireland earn nearly a quarter of the vote (24%), succeeding the Dublin footballers.
The Irish men’s rugby team took another second on 22% after turning a corner with statement wins over England and New Zealand.
More Tokyo achievements were recognised with the Irish Paralympic team third on 15% after earning seven medals, four gold, two silver, and one bronze. Rounding out the top five are Ireland’s women’s soccer team, who beat Olympic semi-finalists Australia and Finland this autumn as they bid to qualify for a first-ever World Cup, and Limerick’s two-in-a-row-winning senior hurlers (both 12%).
The Six Nations is the sporting event the Irish public are most looking forward to in 2022, with 29% of the vote. Next is the World Cup in Qatar on 26%, even without an Irish interest this time around.
The GAA’s senior hurling and football championships are next on the list at 12% and 9% respectively. If all four Gaelic Games All-Ireland championships are gathered together, men’s and women’s football, hurling, and camogie, they get 30% combined (with camogie at 6% and ladies football at 3%).
Other strong performers in this category were the Cheltenham Festival at 7% and golf’s Irish Open at Mount Juliet with 6%.
“I think in years to come we will look back on 2021 as the year women’s sport in Ireland finally made the big breakthrough after so long knocking on the door,” said Teneo Ireland managing director Kelli O’Keefe.
“There is still some way to go to ensure parity of esteem for women’s sport but elite performers such as Katie, Kellie, and Rachael are leading the way to ensure that we’re not far from the day this is finally achieved. The fact that the Irish public voted them as their three most admired sports stars, and that they dominated other categories, shows the appetite, understanding, and appreciation of women’s sport that’s out there.”
The survey, in its 12th year, says it presents the view of the general public, rather than a survey of sports fans. The research was carried out between November 25 and December 9, with 1,000 people surveyed and quotas imposed across gender, region, age, and social class.