We caught up with the man of the moment, Kieran Behan in the mixed zone after his performance in the Men’s Floor Exercise at the London 2012 Test Event. We were lucky to get a chance to speak with Kieran, he is in demand. The last 24 hours or so have been a roller coaster for Behan and the rest of the Irish delegation, Technical and Performance Manager Sally Filmer and Coach Simon Gale, a whirl wind of interview after interview on both radio and television since early this morning and until late last night.
Kieran is on top of the world right now, he admits that he was worried about going to sleep last night and waking up this morning to find that it was all a dream. Of course, it was a dream but a dream come true! To come from where he has, defying all odds having seen his budding career struck by several devastating setbacks over the years to qualifying to the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games is nothing short of a dream come true. As he said yesterday “this is what dreams are made of”.
His main objective is to maintain his fitness and upgrade his difficulty in floor. We’ve spent some time with Kieran this week, the more time we spend, the more we love him. He is an amazingly driven person, an incredible gymnast and an inspiration to the younger up and coming gymnasts in Ireland, not to mention down to earth. From the interview you can clearly see his gratitude and how much he really enjoys being on the international stage.This string of good fortune couldn’t have have happened to a better man, he is so well deserving of his Olympic spot.
Not only has Kieran attracted a lot of much deserved media attention during the last couple of days, he has won the heart of many gymnastics fans over the world for his remarkable story. One big fan is 2004 Olympic Floor Champion, Canadian Kyle Shewfelt. Not bad for a days work!
Read Kieran’s story from the very beginning here.
Watch Kieran’s 6 routines from the All Around Qualification at the Test Event here.
Read how Kieran felt when the news broke that he had qualified for the Olympics here.
