Sport

Sarah Keane to step down as Olympic Federation of Ireland president at end of year

Swim Ireland chief executive took over the organisation and led the fallout from Rio 2016 Olympic Games

Sarah Keane will step down as Olympic Federation of Ireland president at the end of the year. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho
Sarah Keane will step down as Olympic Federation of Ireland president at the end of the year. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho
Johnny Watterson
Wed Mar 20 2024 - 16:00

Sarah Keane will step down as Olympic Federation of Ireland (OFI) president at the end of 2024. Keane was first elected to the presidency in February 2017 amid the fallout from Rio 2016, where her predecessor, Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) president, Pat Hickey, was arrested and jailed on ticket touting charges in Brazil.

Hickey always denied all the charges and no trial ever took place. He decided to “step aside temporarily” from all his Olympic positions until the matter was resolved, before officially resigned in December 2022 on health grounds.

Keane took over the reins in 2017 after what was called a “quiet revolution” within the OCI, which was financially costly. The old guard was successfully ushered out and the first female president, along with a new board, took over and renamed the organisation the OFI. Sarah O’Shea, honorary general secretary of the OCI, was also voted in as the OFI drove for an athlete-focused organisation and gender balance.

It marked a sea change in the way the Olympic movement was run. Hickey had been OCI president for 28 years, stretching back to 1989, when he was first elected. Keane represented a fresh face and outlook.

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Moving from associate partner at Matheson law firm in Dublin to chief executive of Swim Ireland to the OFI presidency, where she defeated acting president Willie O’Brien and Basketball Ireland chief executive Bernard O’Byrne in the election, Keane was clear in her view of how the OFI should change and set out a strategic plan for the following seven years.

Speaking to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport in August 2017, just months after gaining office, she also issued an apology to athletes, coaches and families caught up in the Rio affair.

“The new OCI board has been working hard since its election six months ago to drive a much needed, rigorous reform agenda at the OCI,” she said. “We are committed to the true values of the Olympic movement and we are determined to rebuild the reputation of the OCI in the eyes of both athletes and the Irish sporting public; a reputation which has taken a hammering over the past 12 months.

“The fallout from Rio has been reputationally and financially damaging for the organisation and its members but we are determined to work hard to rebuild the OCI as an Olympic representative body of the highest standards. We unreservedly apologise to Irish Olympians, coaches, families, member federations and others for the issues that arose in Rio and indeed where this detracted from the fantastic performances both then and now of many Irish athletes.”

In November 2020, Keane was elected for a second term and had always stated that two four-year terms should be a limit under the new governance structures. This year will mark the end of her second term of office with an election to find a replacement likely to take place in November.

Johnny Watterson

Johnny Watterson

Johnny Watterson is a sports writer with The Irish Times