Sweet Rio-demption
A fourth place in her first Olympic campaign,
Left Annalise heartbroken, she couldn't hide the pain.
But our Irish Laser Radial Queen,
Immediately focused on twenty sixteen,
Brushed herself off and got back on her feet,
Showed the world she was more than that London defeat.
While the road to Rio wasn’t smoothly paved,
Murphy's passion and drive could not be waived.
Four years training in both sunshine and hail,
Perfecting her technique for the tricolour sail.
She started in Rio - a bullet in race one,
Irish hopes soared as her Olympic series begun.
Consistently staying in the top 3 all week,
Had us all on the edge of our tracker following seats.
Then it came to the final medal race day,
But bad weather postponed events in Guanamara Bay.
Murphy kept her cool for one more sleep,
While the nerves of her nation were all in a heap.
On Tuesday the light Rio sea breeze filled in,
allowing the Radial medal race to begin.
Three Olympic medals, five boats in the mix,
Murphy guaranteed Bronze with a finish ahead of boat six.
On the first leg Murphy magic began to spark,
Second place around the windward mark!
As Annalise sailed the course she made us even prouder,
Shouts at the TV back home got louder and louder.
Then she crossed the finish line with a big grin,
This time she'd done it - a silver medal win.
A 36 year medal drought in the bin,
Thanks to Annalise Murphy our Irish Sailing Olympian.