Irish cyclist Mark Downey has ripped it up again and again on track and road for Ireland. And now he's one a small group of athletes across Olympic sports to secure a valuable scholarship fund towards Tokyo 2020.
Mark Downey awarded Tokyo Olympics scholarship
Having lit up the UCI World Cup season and also taken a top 10 in the World Road Championships, Mark Downey has been granted an Olympic Council of Ireland scholarship;
Downey is one of 12 athletes, across a range of Olympic sports, to be granted a Tokyo 2020 scholarship.
Each of the athletes has been nominated by their national sporting body.
The fund for each is worth €17,780 between now and the Tokyo Games. It means each athlete will receive €523 every month.
As well as the allowances, a further €4,000 is available to each of the twelve towards travel expenses.
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They will help offset the expense of going to train and compete in different places around the world.
As well as Downey,
Swimmer Mona McSharry is the youngest recipient under the scheme; aged just 17 years.
Also selected are: Denise Walsh (rowing), Cathal Daniels (equestrian), Ian O’Sullivan (clay pigeon shooting), Nhat Nguyen (badminton), Rhys McClenaghan (gymnastics), Jack Wooley (taekwondo), Megan Fletcher (judo) and Siofra Cleirigh Buttler (athletics).
Hockey Ireland also received a €48,000 granted to assist towards Tokyo.
President of the OCI Sarah Keane said she was delighted to announce the scholarships.
“Funding is crucial to performance sport which, by its nature given the international competition not to mention travel, expert coaching, equipment and sport science and medicine involved is resource intensive,” she said.
“We are delighted that we have secured funding from the IOC’s Olympic Solidarity Fund to support some of Ireland’s Olympic hopefuls and also that the OCI are in a position to invest some additional funds to bring the total number of athletes benefiting from the scholarship programme to twelve.
“It is a testament to the work by the athletes themselves and those involved in Ireland’s sport performance programmes that we have such an exciting group of talented athletes across a range of different sports determined to represent Ireland at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
“It is fantastic to be able to provide some level of financial support to assist them in their quest to secure Olympic qualification.”
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