Ireland at the 2012 Summer Olympics

Ireland at the
2012 Summer Olympics
IOC codeIRL
NOCOlympic Federation of Ireland
Websiteolympics.ie
in London
Competitors66 in 14 sports
Flag bearers Katie Taylor (opening)
Darren O'Neill (closing)
Medals
Ranked 41st
Gold
1
Silver
1
Bronze
4
Total
6
Summer Olympics appearances (overview)
Other related appearances
 Great Britain (1896–1920)

Ireland competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom, from July 27 to August 12, 2012. This was the nation's twentieth appearance at the Summer Olympics.

The Olympic Council of Ireland sent a total of 66 athletes to the Games, 36 men and 30 women, to compete in 14 sports. The International Olympic Committee allowed athletes from Northern Ireland the option to compete at the Olympic Games for either Great Britain or Ireland. Medallists Paddy Barnes and Michael Conlan were both born in Belfast, Northern Ireland and chose to compete for Team Ireland. Ireland had only a single competitor in the sprint canoeing, track cycling, equestrian dressage, judo, rowing and shooting events.

This was Ireland's most successful Olympics, winning a total of 5 medals (1 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze) after left London in three sports: boxing, athletics and equestrian show jumping. Boxer Katie Taylor, who was Ireland's flag bearer at the opening ceremony, won Ireland's first Olympic gold medal in 16 years. Light flyweight boxer Paddy Barnes defended his bronze medal from Beijing, becoming the second Irish athlete in 80 years to win medals at two consecutive Olympics.[1][2] For the first time since 1980, Ireland also won an Olympic medal in more than a single sport.

On 24 March 2016, race walker co-fourth placer Robert Heffernan was upgraded to bronze after the original gold medalist Sergey Kirdyapkin of Russia disqualified due to doping, that became a total of 6 medals.[3]

  1. ^ "Belfast's Olympic boxers in open-top bus welcome". BBC News. 14 August 2012. Retrieved 5 September 2012.
  2. ^ "Katie Taylor wins Olympic gold for Ireland". BBC News. 9 August 2012. Retrieved 5 September 2012.
  3. ^ "Olympic star Robert Heffernan finally receives bronze medal after doper is disqualified". Irish Independent. 11 June 2014. Retrieved 25 March 2016.