Brendan’s Highly Prestigious Olympic Bronze Medal 2013

Brendan O’ Sullivan, son of Tom & Margaret, Rathduane in the parish of Millstreet, is a member of the Team & is pictured in the front row on the extreme right. Brendan scored his first International goal in a 3-0 victory over Korea. The picture was taken from the Special Olympics Ireland website. Sincere congratulations to Brendan on such a prestigious world award. We thank Ronan Galvin for sending us the picture and caption. (S.R.) more photos below …

Video above of Team Ireland at the 2013 Special Olympics World Winter Games from Ray McManus on Vimeo. It shows Brendan’s goal against Korea at 1:37, as well as his celebrations and wishes for those back at home

Gangnam Style (Why not, they’re in Korea!!!) photos from Sportsfile (thanks to Shane for the heads up)

 

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from the Mallow Star Newspaper (Jan 24th)

Brendan O’Sullivan, a service user at the Cope Foundation in Quartertown, Mallow, will travel to Pyeong Chang, South Korea tomorrow Friday to compete for Ireland in the Special Olympics Winter World Games. Brendan’s sport is floorball, which is like ice hockey except that it is played on an indoor court and he will be part of a 14 member Team Ireland squad to compete in the Winter World Games, which takes place from January 26th to February 6th. This is the first time that Ireland has competed in the sport of floorball at a World Games level. Last Friday Brendan was a recipient of a special reception at the COPE Foundation where manager Jerry Mullane and Deputy Mayor Richard Dempsey joined Brendan and Medical Co-ordinator Julie Dwyer in the canteen where he got a great reception from his many friends in COPE. He was also presented with a cake and was wished every success in South Korea next week.

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The Farmers Journal has a half page on Brendan in this week’s Country and Living section (page 8, Feb 2nd 2013). Here it is:

This is certainly going to be a year to remember for Corkman Brendan O’Sullivan. A member of the first Irish floorball team, he headed off to South Korea last Saturday, 26th January, with Team Ireland to take part in the 2013 Special Olympics World Winter Games.

A new sport to the Winter Games, floorball will feature as an exhibition sport in 2013 and Ireland will be one of the eight countries to take part. Similar to floor hockey, or uni-hoc, this four a side sport has become very popular in Ireland in recent years.

Upon meeting Brendan, I was told very quickly that, though he is from Munster, Brendan is a Corkman out and out. “My address is in Kerry, my father is from Kerry too, but not me, I’m definitely from Cork!”

Having grown up on a suckler farm in Ballydaly, Millstreet, Co. Cork, Brendan spent much of his time helping his father on the far,. As an athlete, however he has less time to spend feeding cows.

“We used to have dairy cows, but now we have about 20 sucklers. I help out whenever my dad needs help feeding them, or when they break out. When that happens he needs all the help he can get!

Joining the Olympic team has taken up a lot of his time. Brendan has started spending more time in the gym for his fitness and body building. “Circuits are easy now. I love the training, your body will feel sore after, but it’s great to know that all the different muscles are being used.”

A healthy lifestyle has been adopted by all the athletes in Team Ireland, and Brendan really feels that it has helped them for training and fitness. Team Ireland, which is made up of six athletes competing in skiing and eight members of the floorball team, received their kit before they took to the skies. “It’s going to be amazing. We’ll all be in the gear, representing our country. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do and I can’t believe it’s already here.”

The team has been looking forward to traveling to South Korea, and they are all determined a simple language barrier won’t detract from experiencing a different culture and meeting the other athletes.

The dream of course is Olympic success: “I hope we win a medal. It would be brilliant to have an Olympic medal for representing my country. I went to the opening ceremony in Dublin in 2003 and it took my breath away. I wanted to be a part of that, and now I am.