From Croke Park dreams to Paris: Mia Griffin’s road to the Olympics

She played at minor and Intermediate level for the Cats before her sporting career took a totally different direction.

That alternative journey will climax this summer when she features on the first Irish women’s cycling track team to compete in the Olympic Games.

Her father PJ was into cycling and she occasionally sat down with him and watched the TV coverage of the Tour de France when she was growing up.

“I didn’t really know what was going on but I just kind of fascinated by the race, just what a spectacle it is and what a party is it as well. I was amazed by how the guys could be able to get through so many weeks of racing.”

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Her mother Maria was primarily responsible for getting her started on the road to the Paris Olympics.

Maria works in South East Technological University (formerly Waterford Institute of Technology) and a work colleague brought her attention to a recruitment notice from Cycling Ireland where they were testing athletes under a Talent Transfer programme.

Mia decided to do the tests; her numbers were good. So, she opted to hang up her sliotar and hurley and focus on cycling both on the track and on the road.

Given that Ireland does not yet have a velodrome it was a singularly unique achievement by the women’s track team to qualify for the Team Pursuit event in Paris which also guaranteed them places in the women’s Omnium and Madison events.

Qualification was confirmed last month which arguably makes April 2024 the most significant month in the history of Irish women’s track cycling.

“To now know that we are going to be fielding a team in the Olympics is quite special and I suppose why it is so significant is that this is the first time we qualified an Irish women’s team for the pursuit event.

The four member team as well as a reserve rider for the pursuit event has yet to be named but the Rubicon has been crossed with Ireland being the only country to have qualified a team without having a velodrome.

“We had a comparably small budget compared to other nations. We were a small number of people but we were able to put a lot of time and energy into a small group and from there create a high performance environment that was small but functioned quite well.

“I would say that not having a track has drawbacks but it also has some pros as well. The fact that we trained in Majorca is quite good for road (cycling). But I do think we need a track in in order to develop a pathway for up and coming riders to develop,” she said.

Growing up her Irish Olympic heroes included Sonia O’Sullivan, Katie Taylor, and the O’Donovan brothers.

“But obviously from playing camogie when I was young, an All-Ireland in Croke Park would have been on my priority list.

“So I never really thought about the Olympics, but always would have thought that going to the Olympics is pretty spectacular, and if an athlete goes to the Olympics, it’s a pretty big deal.”

Come July Mia will become part of that ‘big deal.’