With the Paris 2024 Olympic Games just 22 days away, Irish ILCA Class Chairman Sean Craig recognises the dedication, resilience, and outstanding performances of sailors Finn Lynch and Eve McMahon, Ireland's ILCA Olympic representatives in Marseille.
What an amazing class we have. All ILCA sailors can sail in the same boat and equipment as our Olympic heroes. Sometimes, we even get to line up with them on the same start line! They cut their teeth on our circuit. They are us, we are them - and how proud we are as we wait to cheer them on when they launch from the Marseille Marina on Thursday, August 1st, in the ILCA 7 and ILCA 6. Whether Finn, Eve or both launch again on August 7th for the final Medal races or not, we truly hope they enjoy the incredible experience.
Finn Lynch - Steely resolve
Finn has always had a special, steely resolve. After big results in Toppers, I remember watching him nail the last few days at the ISAF (as it was then) Youth Worlds in Dun Laoghaire in 2012 to win a silver medal in the Radial. Already, he had that knack of stepping up a gear in the last third of a series. Is it taking less risk in the early races? Is it coming good when others feel the pressure? Don’t believe anybody who tells you that top placing in the opening race of a series is equivalent to the same top placing during the last or closing races. It is, mathematically, but psychologically, they’re worlds apart !
The following year, Ireland was hosting the 2013 Laser Europeans when Annalise put the disappointment of London 2012 firmly behind her with an incredible gold medal on home waters. Just before that, there was a memorable Irish Radial Nationals in RCYC, where dozens of the top international guys came early to do our Nationals as a warm-up. Many were Senior males and females in their 20s and 30s, and the depth of the 79-boat fleet was awesome.
Annalise Murphy - Rio Silver in 2016
Anyway, 17 year-old Finn was quite well placed going into the last day, having recorded plenty of results in the top 10 or 15. I was out racing that day myself in the Full rig and it was puffy and shifty, not straightforward tactically, at all. But Finn simply blitzed the fleet away, with two firsts to take the overall win. We were witnessing Greatness in the making.
Eve was more of a slow-burner, who then exploded! Like Annalise (who would say this about herself) she was not dominant at Junior level. Maybe that’s an interesting footnote for those who love their sailing but don’t get the top results early on. She also had an injury setback when she first started in the Radial/6. But very quickly, and still very young, she assumed a serious campaigner's look, focus and demeanour. Her results were solid as she set out in the ILCA 6 but then she took everybody by surprise with that hat-trick of international wins in 2022, a year she had to contend with her Leaving Cert.
Eve McMahon - exploded onto the scene
Eve has graduated to the Senior level and is performing with flying colours against the top athletes, comfortably qualifying Ireland for the Games. I did some Masters training in Lanzarote last November and was awe-struck watching her on the water with her top-level Scandinavian training partners. I would be exhausted after an hour (sailing with other auld fellahs), but those girls were out there for hour after hour, either taking lumps out of each other on a very short course a few hundred yards from the Harbour or they’d be these tiny white triangles miles offshore, pounding away in 25 knots of breeze and big seas.
They sure are two very special people who are also very nice individuals. They even make themselves available to give their time back to ILCA Ireland in the form of interviews and webinars.
Ewan McMahon - rise up the world rankings
Finally, I would like to pay tribute to Eve’s brother, Ewan. He’s been unlucky to have Finn around at the same time but we should all applaud his fantastic rise up the ILCA 7 World rankings, where he is now just a few places behind Finn in the no. 13 position. In the past we have had sailors ranking in the 30s and 40s making the Olympics, so what a standard Ewan has also reached. He is the 2nd best ranked sailor not going to the Games and that is simply awesome when you remember teams like GBR and AUS often have 3 or 4 sailors in the top 20 of the World rankings. He’s still very young and, to his credit, he has also tucked an Engineering degree under his belt during this period. We wish him well with everything, whether that involves campaigning for the next Quadrennial or not (a little birdie told me it might!).
