Dunlevy-Kelly make the cut but other Irish cyclists overlooked by RTÉ

The annual RTÉ Sports Awards have rolled around again and while cycling is represented, in the ‘team of the year’ category, there are a number of notable riders overlooked this time around.

Katie-George Dunlevy and pilot Linda Kelly are nominated for ‘team of the year’ after they secured road race and TT gold at the UCI Paracycling World Championships in Scotland in August. Dunlevy has won this award before, with then pilot Eve McCrystal, after they claimed double Paralympic gold in 2021.

This time around the Irish cyclists are up against some stern opposition after a bumper year for Irish sport. Also nominated for RTÉ Sport Team of the Year are: Cork camogie, Dublin men’s Gaelic football, Dublin ladies Gaelic football, Irish rowers Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy, Irish men’s rugby, Limerick hurling, Munster rugby and Shamrock Rovers.

While the RTÉ Sport Sportsperson of the Year and RTÉ Sport Young Sportsperson of the Year awards also feature some great athletes, a number of cyclists who might have made the grade are missing.

Their absence is irksome considering some of those nominated – while they have achieved big things in their sport – are competing at a lower level than our cyclists.

Oisin O’Callaghan (The YT Mob), for example, made history this year by winning a round of the UCI Downhill World Cup. However, he is not nominated in the young sportsperson category, which he won three years ago after he became junior world champion.

Similarly, Darren Rafferty – who had a huge season with Hagens Berman Axeon – won Giro Ciclistico della Valle d’Aosta-Mont Blanc (2.2U), was 2nd overall in Giro Next Gen and also secured a World Tour contract with EF Education-EasyPost, but was not nominated.

While Archie Ryan (Jumbo Visma Development) and Lara Gillespie (UAE Development Team) enjoyed very strong seasons – including a Tour de l’Avenir stage win and two European U23 titles on the track, respectively – they are not on the shortlists.

However, both Ryan and Gillespie are aged out of the ‘young sportsperson’ category, meaning their absence from the awards this year is perhaps understandable.

In the ‘sportsperson of the year’ category there is no nomination for Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), even though he took five wins at the highest level of pro sport, including a spectacular stage victory on Giro d’Italia.

In the ‘sportsperson of the year’ category, the nominees are; rugby’s Johnny Sexton, soccer’s Katie McCabe, boxing’s Katie Taylor, gymnastic’s Rhys McClenaghan, jockey Paul Townend, para-swimmer Róisín Ní Riain and Limerick hurler Aaron Gillane.

The ‘young sportsperson’ nominees are; U20 rugby player Brian Gleeson, soccer’s Evan Ferguson, sailor Eve McMahon, long jumper Elizabeth Ndudi, runner Nick Griggs and para-swimmer Róisín Ní Riain.

Joanne Cantwell and Darragh Maloney will present the RTÉ Sport Awards 2023 live from Studio 4 in RTÉ this Saturday, December 16th.