Donegal’s Rachel Darragh has had her place at the Olympic Games rubberstamped by Team Ireland.
The Raphoe native had known for a number of weeks that she would be going to her first summer games in Paris.
Nhat Nguyen has also been selected to represent Ireland for a second time at the Olympics.
The Olympic Games in Paris will run from the 24th July to the 11th August 2024, with the Opening Ceremony taking place on the 26th July.
Dan Magee, Badminton High Performance Director said,
“It is fantastic to see the progress that has been made from the Tokyo cycle with a strong coaching team now in place and a centralised training system on the National sports campus. Having a home-based training on campus means we benefit greatly from Sport Ireland, the Sport Institute team and Team Ireland daily. The qualification of two athletes in this cycle demonstrates that the system is progressing, and it has a positive impact on our junior athletes in the system who have a goal to qualify for the 2028 and 2032 cycles. I am looking forward to seeing our athletes perform in Paris and to see what we can achieve in the cycles ahead.”
Darragh learned her trade in the Raphoe badminton club, in Donegal, and is the niece of Chloe Magee who competed in the Bejing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Darragh is based in Dublin, and finished 34th on the Race to Paris qualification list, and after full allocations were offered, she qualified in 38th place.
She moved to Badminton Ireland’s High Performance centre at 17 and actually flew to her first European Games in Baku in 2015 the day after completing her Leaving Cert.
During the previous Olympic cycle Rachael was juggling doubles and singles but since concentrating on the latter since 2023 she has jumped almost 100 places in the world rankings and broke into top 60 last Winter.
In 2022 she made the quarter-finals of the Commonwealth Games and the last 16 of the European Championships. In 2023 she moved up a level from the international challenge series to compete at the World Tour Super 100/300 level. She made the last 32 of the 2023 World Championships and her career highlight so far was making the quarter-finals of the Abu Dhabi Masters last October which helped her clinch the 34th of the 38 Olympic slots for Paris.
Rachael Darragh sets her sights on the Olympic Games in Paris
