Ireland at the 2008 Summer Olympics
IOC code	IRL
NOC	Olympic Federation of Ireland
Website	olympics.ie
inBeijing
Competitors	54 in12 sports
Flag bearers	Ciara Peelo[1][2] (opening) Kenny Egan (closing)
Medals Ranked 61st	Gold 0 Silver 1 Bronze 2 Total 3
Summer Olympics appearances (overview)
1924 1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024
Other related appearances
Great Britain (1896–1920)

Ireland competed in the2008 Summer Olympics, held inBeijing, China. It was the 19thSummer Games that Ireland contested as a nation under theOlympic Council of Ireland.

Medal	Name	Sport	Event
Silver	Kenny Egan	Boxing	Light heavyweight
Bronze	Darren Sutherland	Boxing	Middleweight
Bronze	Paddy Barnes	Boxing	Light flyweight

16 Irish athletes qualified for 17 different Olympic events in 2008.^[3]

Men

Track & road events

Women

Track & road events

Field events

Athlete	Event	Round of 64	Round of 32	Round of 16	Quarterfinal	Semifinal	Final /BM
		Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Rank
Scott Evans	Men's singles	Zwiebler (GER) L 18–21, 21–18, 19–21	Did not advance
Chloe Magee	Women's singles	Tolmoff (EST) W 18–21, 21–18, 21–19	Jun J-y (KOR) L 12–21, 13–21	Did not advance

Ireland qualified five boxers for the Olympic boxing tournament. Barnes became the first when he qualified at the World Championships.^[4] Nevin was the second, qualifying at the first European qualifying event.^[5] Joyce, Sutherland, and Egan brought the number to five at the 2nd European tournament.^[6]

Athlete	Event	Round of 32	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Paddy Barnes	Light flyweight	Bye	Meza (ECU) W 14–8	Maszczyk (POL) W 11–5	Zou (CHN) L 0–15	Did not advance
John Joe Nevin	Bantamweight	Ourradi (ALG) W 9–4	Badar-Uugan (MGL) L 2–9	Did not advance
John Joe Joyce	Light welterweight	Káté (HUN) W 9–5	Díaz (DOM) L 11–11+	Did not advance
Darren Sutherland	Middleweight	Bye	Kassel (ALG) WRSC	Blanco (VEN) W 11–1	DeGale (GBR) L 3–10	Did not advance
Kenny Egan	Light heavyweight	Jackson (ISV) W 22–2	Muzaffer (TUR) W 10–2	Silva (BRA) W 8–0	Jeffries (GBR) W 10–3	Zhang Xp (CHN) L 7–11

Ireland qualified one competitor in slalom canoeing. Eoin Rheinisch qualified an Irish boat in slalom kayak event after finishing seventeenth in the 2007 World Championships.^[7] Ireland did not have any competitors in the flatwater events.

Ireland qualified two places for the road race based on UCI rankings. Robin Seymour qualified for his third men's cross country race in the mountain biking. On 18 June 2008, the Olympic Council of Ireland announced that David O'Loughlin had secured a place for the men's individual pursuit in track cycling. Initially, the UCI released a list of qualifiers which did not include O'Loughlin.

Pursuit

Although Ireland did not qualify for the team event in the 2008 Olympics, as a result of having 5 individual riding spots qualify, they were automatically entered into the team event.

# – Indicates that points do not count in team total

As a result ofJessica Kürten's world ranking, Ireland earned one individual place in show jumping at the 2008 games. As Kürten opted not to ride in the Olympics, the place was awarded toDenis Lynch.

Lynch and his mount Lantinus progressed to the finals stage. However, along with riders and horses from four other finalists, Lynch was suspended from taking part in the final, following a positive test for a banned substance.^[8]

Ireland qualified one berth in sabre fencing. Siobhan Byrne secured her place in the Olympics by winning silver at the qualifying tournament in Istanbul in April.

Women

Athlete	Event	Round of 64	Round of 32	Round of 16	Quarterfinal	Semifinal	Final /BM
		Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Rank
Siobhan Byrne	Individual sabre	Więckowska (POL) L 8–15	Did not advance

Ireland qualified with two boats for the rowing events. The men's coxless four qualified for the Olympics by finishing tenth at the 2007 World Championships. The men's lightweight coxless four team also granted their berth by finishing second at the last Olympic qualifying regatta inPoznań in June 2008 to complete the team line-up.

Men

Qualification Legend:FA=Final A (medal);FB=Final B (non-medal);FC=Final C (non-medal);FD=Final D (non-medal);FE=Final E (non-medal);FF=Final F (non-medal);SA/B=Semifinals A/B;SC/D=Semifinals C/D;SE/F=Semifinals E/F;QF=Quarterfinals;R=Repechage

* In the non-medal final,Gearoid Towey had to withdraw due to illness, and was replaced by substituteRichard Coakley.^[10] (A spate of illness circulated in theregatta field during the heats and finals, to the extent Germany's lightweight men's four had to withdraw entirely from the semifinal after three crew-members were affected.)

Men

Women

Open

M = Medal race; EL = Eliminated – did not advance into the medal race; CAN = Race cancelled

Men

Men

Women

Qualifiers for the latter rounds of all events are decided on a time only basis, therefore positions shown are overall results versus competitors in all heats. There was controversy during the selection of Irish Athletes, when an Irish man from Derry named Patthew Movey qualified, but the Irish Olympic committee forbid him from competing. Citing potential embarrassment

Connor Farrell became Ireland's first ever Olympic qualifier for the Triathlon after finishing in fifteenth place at the 2008 World Championships, and thereby earning his enough ranking points.

• Ireland at the 2008 Summer Paralympics

• Nations at the 2008 Summer Olympics
• Ireland at the Summer Olympics by year
• 2008 in Irish sport

• Webarchive template wayback links
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles with hCards