Irish coach: Michael O'Reilly embarrassed the country and Irish boxing
Irish boxing coach John Conlan has accused Michael O'Reilly of embarrassing the country and Irish boxing.
Conlan says O'Reilly didn't train with them for eight weeks before the games and and said the rest of the team didn't see him until they met at the airport.
“This has been a very difficult two weeks for Irish boxing,” Conlan said yesterday. “We had that whole scandal that shocked us.
“It shocked us as a team because, to be honest, Michael O'Reilly hadn't been with us for eight weeks. We met him in the airport.”
O'Reilly was sent home from Rio after failing a drugs test which had been administered in Ireland before the team flew to Brazil. Conlan said the scandal had upset the whole group.
“It has embarrassed us as a team,” he said. “He embarrassed Irish boxing and brought a terrible thing to Irish boxing.
He added: “And we're very strict on anti-doping. We bring them to seminars and educate them constantly. We have zero tolerance.”
Conlan’s son Michael is boxing for Ireland at the Olympics and is through to the quarter-final stage in the men's bantamweight (56kg).
