Katie Taylor

If you live in Ireland, you know all about her by now.

In case you don't know, she is the sole gold-medal winner for Ireland - women's boxing.  It's very impressive that she won, given the immense pressure on her.  She carried the Irish flag in the opening ceremony.

The country basically shut down around 4:45pm on Thursday during her gold-medal bout.  I never thought that I would be watching her fight and rooting for her in the lobby of the UCD sports center, waiting to pick up FABJ from sports camp.  FABJ was very excited as well when she found out that Katie won the gold.  It makes up for her disappointment from Ireland's disastrous Euro 2012 campaign.

The interview with the state television station RTE Thursday night was hilarious.  The various announcers were gushing with praise for her and her coach.  In fact, the whole country was.  For example, the Taoiseach said:

"She has won the hearts and minds of the Irish people who admire her greatly and love her to bits."

See here for the full quote.

Other officials had equally gushing praise.  In fairness, Ireland won more medals (5) in London since 1956, and it was the first gold since 1992 or 1996 (controversy in 1996 because Michelle Smith was "discredited" but not stripped of her medals - do we count them or not?).

The future is bright  for Katie.  She is expected to make up to a million Euros in endorsements.  And, according to today's Irish Times, "Taylor's football career showed she was destined for greatness."  She was 14 at that time, about the same age when Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team.

Getting back to RTE announcers, they've been pretty humorous with their off-the-cuff comments.  I wish I could remember the quote from one of the boxing matches other than "the little boy from Belfast."  Admittedly, Paddy Barnes weighs something like 108 pounds.