A busy summer's viewing ahead

EURO 2012. Ireland Vs New Zealand. The Olympics. Wimbledon. The British Open. This is quite a summer for sports fans.

What am I most looking forward to? It has to be The Olympics.  The idea of all of the above events though, is that Irish athletes and sports people will compete valiantly and nobly but more than likely in defeat. And many will be told they have failed.

Other though are truly world-class. They can and do compete with the best, and some of the above were Olympic sports, Ireland would be very much competing for medals.  Brian O'Driscoll, Paul O'Connell and Rory McIlroy all fight well above their weight in their sports.

In the run up to previous Olympics the weight of a nation rested on Sonia O'Sullivan's shoulders. And now this weight has been transferred to the small shoulders of Katie Taylor, which until lately she may have thought she would have to take care of on her own. But the emergence of triathlete Aileen Morrison has shown that Taylor will not be our only female medal hope in London.

Morrison has recently brought the profile of triathlon nearer the surface of mainstream sport coverage, and the reporting of her recent 2^nd place in Spain by all media can only be looked at as very positive. But how likely is it that the sport can remain there is another question. Two things will largely stand against it happening. Female sports, to a great extent, don't get mainstream coverage, and then at the moment triathlon is still a minority sport.

Much was made of the outstanding Chrissie Wellington not making the BBC sports personality of the year short list last December. Indeed, the case for her inclusion far outweighed her exclusion, and her achievements in a very short time are mind-boggling. However, Ironman is not a live TV friendly format, so mainstream coverage for the sport is always going to be difficult.  While the recent appearance of Lance Armstrong in Ironman events has raised the level of the coverage to a certain extent, the long form distance of the sport may always fight an ongoing battle.

With Morrison riding high in the ITU World Series, and an increased interest in the shorter triathlon races, it must be a hope that The Olympics could change that.

Roll on London 2012.