Offalyman Shane Lowry and Limerick’s Sarah Lavin will have the honour of carrying the Irish flag at the Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony on Friday evening.
Lowry is representing Ireland for the second time having joined fellow major winner Rory McIlroy in the squad that headed for Tokyo in 2021 [for the 2020 Games] while 100m hurdles competitor Lavin is also set for her second appearance.
Though the Opening Ceremony officially takes place on Friday evening along the Seine, Olympic action is already underway in a variety of sports, but golf doesn’t get underway until the following Thursday with the men’s strokeplay running Thursday through Sunday and the women’s strokeplay starting on the following Wednesday.
“Doing the last Olympics with Rory in Japan, we both realized what it meant to go out and try and win an Olympic medal for your country,” said Lowry earlier this year. “I think that’s something that excites me and excites both of us to go back to Paris this year and try and do that. For me personally, I know to go back to Ireland with an Olympic medal would be like a dream. Yeah, something that is high on my bucket list for this year.”
Being the national standard bearer is a huge honour, and one that most Olympians don’t get so that’s another one Lowry can tick off his bucket list.