Green Rebel Support Irish Sailor’s Independent Bid For Paris 2024 Olympic Games
Irish offshore survey company Green Rebel is sponsoring Ewan McMahon, a sailor from Dublin who has launched an independent campaign to compete in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Ewan is set to compete in three performance based trial events next year to determine which of two eligible candidates will go forward to represent Ireland in the sole spot in the ILCA 7 class at next year’s Olympic Games. The class is the single-handed men’s dinghy category and was previously known as the Laser.
The 24-year-old has recently completed a Masters in Energy Systems Engineering at UCD. He started sailing with his main club in Howth when he was 8 and began racing at the age of 10, developing a passion for the sport across many classes of sailing. This commitment to his sport has resulted in Ewan representing Ireland in both youth and senior categories, competing at the highest levels nationally and internationally.
Despite achieving the necessary published criteria at a recent World Cup, Ewan’s application for sport funding for 2024 was disallowed following a decision by Irish Sailing to invalidate the event’s qualification status, and as a consequence, the team concluded his contract.
Undeterred by the setback, Ewan has taken the initiative to self-manage, fund and organise his own campaign. Although he no longer has formal coaching support from his federation, he trains alongside other top-ranked international sailors. His fitness programme is supported and managed by the UCD Elite Sport Ad Astra scholarship team.
Ewan McMahon said, “I have dedicated a large part of my life to my Olympic sailing goals and will continue in my endeavours of achieving selection for the Irish place in the coming months. The margins for winning at the top of the fleet are very small and I believe I have the ability to edge out those margins to succeed. The selection will be based on performances across three key trial events early next year, which are likely to include the World Championships in Australia, the European Championships in Athens and another additional international event in France. As a solo Olympic campaigner there are many demands and I am extremely grateful for the incredible sponsorship and support of Green Rebel which has allowed me to forge my own path and ensure that I will be at peak performance for the trials. Their demonstration of faith in me, despite my recent setbacks, has galvanised my strength, fortitude and commitment to go on and achieve my goals of Olympic success.”
Kieran Ivers, CEO of Green Rebel added, “We are delighted to sponsor Ewan as he aims towards the 2024 Olympics. His ambition and determination to succeed in what is a physically and mentally challenging sport is inspiring. At Green Rebel we are passionate about recognising and supporting home grown sailing talent; Ewan embodies the passion, drive, positivity and energy needed to succeed in his sport and as a company we really connect and relate to those qualities. The fact that Ewan has also achieved success in his Masters and a degree in engineering in tandem with his Olympic campaign, is a reflection of Ewan’s self drive and determination to prevail in his life ambitions. We greatly admire his strength of character and resilience to keep pursuing his Olympic dream and we wish him the very best of luck and look forward to being part of his journey towards Paris 2024.”
Green Rebel is headquartered in Cork and operates a fleet of vessels and aircraft to map vast areas of the ocean. It has a team of scientists, chemists, engineers, ecologists, vessel crew and support staff across multiple locations in Cork and Limerick. Green Rebel provides the offshore wind and other sectors an end-to-end set of data services that extend from acquisition, processing, interpretations and reporting, with their fleet of purpose-built vessels, aircraft, floating LiDAR buoys and in-house team of scientists and industry experts.