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'I cried, I cried on screen' | Dara O'Briain recalls Katie Taylor's Olympic gold

When you mention Wicklow sporting greats, Katie Taylor is right at the forefront, and Dara O'Bria...



'I cried, I cried on screen' |...
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'I cried, I cried on screen' | Dara O'Briain recalls Katie Taylor's Olympic gold

When you mention Wicklow sporting greats, Katie Taylor is right at the forefront, and Dara O'Briain's memories of her Olympic gold in 2012 ensure he has a soft spot for the boxing superstar.

O'Briain joined Adrian and Eoin on OTB AM as we got set to crown our Wicklow sporting Mount Rushmore.

The Garden County can boast an incredible array of sporting talent - including their only football All Star Kevin O'Brien, and rugby internationals like Shane Byrne and Reggie Corrigan.

However, Taylor's gold medal achievement at London 2012 will forever be a moment that Bray comic and presenter O'Briain remembers well, having been in the stadium.

"The BBC were covering us [myself and Ed Byrne] and we had little microphones... it looked like we were commentating, but it was supposed to be just capturing our things as we said them.

"I stood up and roared when she got it [the decision], didn't think anything else of it, went to the Irish hospitality centre that evening and watched it and said hi to them.

"Then they showed the report, which was mute in the background - except for the bit where I rose up and my shirt came up with me and my gut... it's the worst television image I've ever had!

"It was a very good fight, it wasn't clear-cut... and then the anthem - I cried, I cried on screen. I couldn't see myself crying on screen because I wasn't looking at it because I'd seen my belly appear seconds earlier!"

But would Taylor make an all-island sporting Mount Rushmore? Dara told us there's no question she should, and the noise in the arena that day eight years ago said it all.

"I would say she would, absolutely, It was one of the more convincing gold medal wins... I was in the ExCel to see that, now a Covid hospital.

"There's a photograph I used to show people that I took at the time of a woman with a beehive turned away with her hands in her ears - it was Princess Anne.

"The noise... around 8000 of the 10,000 or so seats were Irish... the noise was insane. Princess Anne was cowering from the noise, and then she turned around and saw me and did this face [rolled her eyes]!"

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Adrian Barry Boxing Dara Ó'Briain Eoin Sheahan Katie Taylor London 2012 Off The Ball Olympic Games Olympics Otb Am