Ballinasloe athlete receives grant for Paris Olympics
Ballinasloe's Sive Brassil is one of 15 athletes who has received a grant as part of the Paris Scholarships, as the Olympic Federation of Ireland prepares for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.
Each athlete will receive $15,000 (funding is received from the International Olympic Committee in US dollars).
A former student at Our Lady's Bower in Athlone, Sive came to the sport of modern pentathlon through the ‘pony club’ route.
She is the reigning Irish champion in modern pentathlon and has competed for Ireland since 2008. Brassil achieved a handful of top 15 finishes on the World Cup circuit and qualified for the prestigious World Cup finals three times in-a-row (2017-2019).
In 2018, Sive was part of the Irish women’s relay team that won silver at the European Championships and narrowly missed qualifying for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (ranked 40th, just outside the top 36 who qualified).
"I'm heartbroken at not achieving a lifelong dream," said Sive when she missed out on qualification for Tokyo.
Sive has a degree in Spanish and French from UCD and is based in Ireland, training full-time. She finished 13th at the Budapest World Cup in May in pentathlon’s ultra-competitive new ‘elimination’ format and her current world ranking is no. 28.
The scholarships aim to support the athletes in their preparation for the Paris Olympics in 2024, and to assist on the qualification journey. Athletes were nominated by the national federations and are representative of a mix of Olympians targeting a second Games, and athletes targeting an Olympic debut.
In addition to the individual grants, the Ireland women’s hockey team was awarded the team grant of $100,000 to assist with their preparations towards Paris 2024.
The funding for the grants is primarily provided through a combination of the International Olympic Committee’s Olympic Solidarity programme funding and OFI funding.
Making the announcement, Team Ireland Chef de Mission for the Paris Olympic Games, Gavin Noble, said: “Thirty-five individual nominations were received from nineteen member sports for the Paris Scholarship fund, and today we are delighted to formally announce our Paris scholars and of course our support of the women’s hockey team. In the Tokyo cycle, twelve scholarships were awarded, and from those nine athletes qualified for the Games, with two finalists at the Tokyo Olympics. Naturally, we are aiming to build on those results.
"Through the support of the International Olympic Committee Solidarity Fund, and with the additional backing of Permanent TSB, Allianz and Deloitte, we are able to fund more athletes, to a higher level than ever before, and it is very much part of our performance and commercial strategy that we continue to move in this direction.”
Individual grant recipients ($15,000 per person)
Rhasidat Adeleke (Athletics), Dublin
Nhat Nguyen (Badminton), Dublin
Adam Hession (Boxing), Galway
Daina Moorhouse (Boxing), Wicklow
Noel Hendrick (Canoeing), Kildare
Lara Gillespie (Cycling), Wicklow
Ciara McGing (Diving), London/Donegal/Mayo
Olivia Mehaffey (Golf), Armagh
Sive Brassil (Modern Pentathlon), Galway
Alison Bergin (Rowing), Cork
Jake McCarthy (Rowing), Cork
Aoife Hopkins (Sailing), Dublin
Eve McMahon (Sailing), Dublin
Paddy Johnston (Swimming), Down
Jack Woolley (Taekwondo), Dublin.