Mentorship in Elite Sport - The Sport for Business Podcast

What happens when a swimmer refuses to settle and a mentor refuses to mail it in? We bring together Olympian Darragh Greene and business leader Pádraic O’Kane to explore how elite performance really works—on the stopwatch, on the balance sheet, and over a career. 

Dara traces his path from a sport‑mad Longford upbringing, through a broken leg that sent him back to the pool, to sub‑60 history in the 100m breaststroke. He lays out the choices behind the results: switching programmes when the ceiling closes in, using lactate‑guided training to personalise pace, and building a four‑year Olympic plan down to daily targets. 

Then he tells the story of the audacious two‑week trial that became six months inside Australia’s toughest squads—higher volume, world‑class teammates, and the pressure that sharpened him for Paris and beyond.

Pádraic adds the view from business and mentorship. He heard Darragh speak at a Longford rugby lunch and turned admiration into action—creating a support plan that blends funding with flexible work, real activation, and a roadmap for life after LA 2028. 

We explore the gap between public funding and actual needs, and why private partners can make a difference when costs exceed stipends. This is not a quick logo deal. It’s patient mentorship, goal setting, and honest conversations about what comes next: entrepreneurship, events, or a role shaped by the water.

If you care about Irish sport, performance, and what it takes to sustain both, this conversation offers a clear blueprint—ask bold questions, choose the right environment, and back talent early in the cycle. Subscribe, share with a friend who mentors or manages athletes, and tell us: what’s one practical way the private sector can support an athlete in your county?

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome & Why This Story Matters
• 2:00 Dara’s early sports path
• 5:20 Breaking a leg, finding the pool
• 9:30 Coaching changes and first breakthroughs
• 13:40 Planning like an Olympian
• 17:20 Mentors, Longford roots, and support gaps
• 22:40 From records to Tokyo qualification
• 27:50 COVID disruption and the Tokyo experience
• 31:20 Plateau in Dublin and the Australia gamble
• 36:10 Funding the six‑month trial
• 40:20 The case for private‑public backing
• 45:30 Paris lessons and aiming for LA 2028
• 50:10 Mentorship as a serious commitment

Transcript

SPEAKER_03: 0:01

Hello and welcome to the Sport for Business Podcast. I'm your host, Rob Hartnett, and in this week's episode of the main podcast, I'm delighted to be joined by Darra Green, Olympian swimmer, national record holder, and his mentor, Porig O'Kane, a regular on the Sport for Business Podcast. The owner of Soul Restaurant operates Fire Restaurant and the Round Room at the mansion house, and is also well known to us as the driver behind the Erlingus College Football Classic. It's a great conversation, really diving into what it takes to become an elite performance athlete getting to the Olympics in terms not only of his training schedule but also the kind of things that you need to figure out in life, like how to pay for things and the contribution and the assistance that can be offered to Dara as a local Longfoot hero from his Longfoot colleague Porry Cocaine. I think you're gonna find this really interesting. To find out more about what we do day in and day out, you can visit us at sportforbusiness.com or check us out on LinkedIn or other social media platforms. We produce a twice-daily news bulletin, a weekly main interview podcast, and over the last couple of weeks, a new Sport for Business Daily, which is an audio reading of one of the lead stories that we have published that morning. You can do that wherever you get your podcast from, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or you can find them on the Sport for Business website. For now, though, let's get into the conversation that we had with Porygokain and Dara Green. We're looking at the life of an elite athlete and how they are supported, not only financially, but also with the idea of mentorship. Support comes in many different ways. And even though we're recording this in the beautiful surroundings of Seoul Restaurant in the heart of Dublin, this is a story which is very much rooted in the fields and the towns of County Longfoot. I'm delighted to be joined by our athlete, Dara Green, double Olympian, uh swimmer par excellence, national record holder in a number of different um variants of the uh of the pool, and by Porigo Kane, who we know on this podcast as the uh as the creator, the uh the mover-in-chief of the Erlingus College Football Classic, but also has a couple of restaurants around town, including this one and Fire. He runs the round room at the mansion house and is a business leader. You share a Longfoot heritage, but let's dig in first of all to your backstories a little bit. And can I start with you with you, Dara? A double Olympian is some proud badge to actually wear, but it wasn't always going to be swimming, was it?

SPEAKER_00: 3:11

Uh no, not at all. Um coming from a big sporting family, uh, especially from Lamford, it's uh Gaelic and football kind of taking our house over. Um so yeah, did every kind of sports growing up, fortunate enough. Um dad had us in everything, experience and everything. Um but mum had us myself and my two other siblings in swimming to be water safe. Um and went up through the swimming club. Uh wasn't really fond of swimming at the time. Obviously, uh I really didn't like it whatsoever. Um the early mornings and didn't like it till then. All I wanted to do was just race, and I'm uh interested in the one stroke, which was just breaststroke at the time and still am. Um so they kind of say you're either a swimmer or a breaststroker, you know. You don't really veer off that. So all I wanted to do when I was training was some breaststroke and race at the fact. Um, but he obviously had to put in the work with it, and but yeah, we kind of was more interested in kind of the social side of football and stuff, and growing up through from being based in Newtown Forbes for a national school to then St. Mel's in Lamford for secondary school. I ended up breaking my leg and played rugby actually in school, and uh uh obviously had gold cold turkey on all the sports, and the first sport I could get back into once I got my cast off was swimming and absolutely for a rehab perspective, and absolutely loved it. Um just kind of it more like gave you the kind of sight of what you're missing when you didn't have it. Um and I just said I'd just keep at this. I didn't take up any other sport after that going into my transition year. Um and um yeah, just kind of put in the work first and was like, oh, hopefully get uh some sort of scholarship at this stage because even at that level I was nowhere near national standard for even competing for Ireland at junior level, wasn't even making um podium for my age group to anything like that. And yeah, it was kind of that thing in the background of if I could get uh uh some sort of help to to university, ended up getting uh a scholarship to DIT for some of them, and but at the same time, which was great for fur in leisure management, and uh they gave us support, but they had no kind of training facilities at the time, so it's based out about still a uh swim dwell boat in Rings End, ESB. Um and that was good, but at the same time, I kind of the coach there, Bill McCarthy, he's seen potential in me, even potential that I didn't even see it myself, and he was like, You need to um move on here, and which is a huge thing because like a lot enough like a lot of coaches find it hard to say that to their summers that they can be quite proprietorial, I guess. If they see potential, they want to be there for the journey. Like, no, you need to make these moves. So I ended up um moving from DIT to UCD, and it still wasn't that a standard for a scholarship there. Um, and that's kind of where I joined my first senior program in Ireland. They were the main senior program in Ireland at the time, and that was the kind of game changer that I needed. Uh, I started doing more sessions and and I added strength and conditioning to my my uh routine as well as kind of just looking after myself as well because it was just a bit more access to it, especially the university setting from physios to nutritionists and stuff. And there is where within two years I qualified for my first uh Irish team uh at the age of what 21. Um that was World University Games, and made my um made a world finalist um play sixth in the 50-minute retro, and it was kind of ignited a hunger to it and uh like a possibility how this could work, but at the same time it was only a 50-meter event which isn't in the Olympics, so I had to make that decision to what was next for me because as UCD was an unbelievable step zone first, but it was a sprint-based program, so the only focus on the short distance, and I needed to work on my endurance for 100-200 if I wanted to make the Olympics a possibility.

SPEAKER_03: 7:40

And um Were you making these calls on your own? Did you did you have a sense that because you know for most of us that would never get anywhere near the Olympics, we kind of you know, we we dial in and we and we tune into what's needed, but we don't plan it out, you know, two years, four years, six years in advance of what needs to be done. Like these are fairly material changes to the way that you compete, the way that you train, who you train with, where you train. Like, was that all on you to actually come up with the with the answers to those questions?

SPEAKER_00: 8:17

Yeah, it was uh funny enough to say that looking back on it. It was kind of that I kind of like developed a kind of next level kind of mindset that I kind of look back on my career on of being like, right, I've hit this part of my journey. I need to go one up again to be able to reach somewhere. Um and yeah, it was definitely that kind of thing of what's next I need to to do to get to where I want to go, instead of just you know, the one thing that kind of uh kills all um improvement will be like staying stagnant with something for too long. Um you kind of want to keep keep it moving or keep um like improving. So you kind of have to put yourself in situations or look for the best scenario with it that will get you there.

SPEAKER_03: 9:04

Do you set your own targets?

SPEAKER_00: 9:06

Do you set a target every time you get into the pool? Uh yeah, I do. Um whether it's uh a session to an overall goal for like a four-year cycle, with especially now as an Olympian, you kind of set your season as uh your your season as the Olympic cycle, and then you work back from that. So it works all the way back from four years out, three years out, two years out, a year out, months out within each session, you're trying to get something out of what you're trying to improve because you have, yeah, you train a lot, but you like you train a lot every week, but you can also get a lot, but not a lot out of it if you don't put yourself to reflect.

SPEAKER_03: 9:47

I want to come back to the that transition from from where you are then in in UCD to qualification for Tokyo, the whole experience of that, and and and then Paris as well. But I want to bring in Porig. Um, I'm guessing that um St. Mel's in Longford was uh another shared connection. Everybody I know from Longfoot, it's not many, have tended to either being at or been in the surroundings of Mel's.

SPEAKER_02: 10:13

Yeah, in a lot of our cases we're in the surroundings as opposed to being in the classes at times. What uh it's funny as uh Darren talks there, I now um see that I'm actually responsible for his swimming career as well, because a many year earlier when I was playing rugby for Longford and uh I was lucky enough to play under 18 for Leinster, I set up rugby in St. Mel's and brought it in as a sport um back a long, long time ago, 1990, 1990, I think it was. Um and we had to work very hard with uh with the priest uh to accept rugby and it was allowed in on the base that we'd take none of the um senior A players or allow them to be on the team, etc. Senior B's are okay, and a few of the rest of us, etc. So as it happens, uh I just discovered Darrell broke his leg, playing rugby for St. Mel's, and then went into swimming.

SPEAKER_03: 10:57

So I'm actually taking full credit for how I I love how sports business is the place where you just go to find out all of these little secrets, even amongst two whose whose paths have have come together. Um well, congratulations on that. Well done well done.

SPEAKER_02: 11:14

It's amazing what you've been doing, but ironically, you know, in in in small counties, in the counties like Longford, um when you do finish N Mells, then we all either hand off a jobs or go to college or whatever, um it's a little bit better now, but in most of the time that was the case. But uh Longford Rugby Club this time last year, um November last year, I was back um at a business lunch, um, which we get invited back to each year, and the club are really good at underage and bring on, etc. And Darrell was one of our keynote speakers that day, and um listening to him was fascinating, and also you know, I wasn't fully aware of you know, we had a double live in i in Longford in Swimming of all sports, etc. And um it's that rural connection, it's that Longford connection or lead to wherever you you're from. Like it's our alumni when it comes back to college football, it's back to the counting. We've talked about it on on many occasions. But I got talking to Dara afterwards. Um I was over at Pint, he was of course on a glass of water. Um I think he was on a pint two training. Um but I I asked him to take me through the journey more, and I just found it um both fascinating and embarrassing. Uh fascinating in relation to you can hear the story so far, and I I know Rob, you you'll you'll get the next couple of chapters out of Darrow, but the lack of support that Darrow and many other Olympians and double Olympians, and his goal was to go on to be a third three-time Olympian, which is you know, Australia we'll talk about in a minute, has has really helped and it's been a it's been a game changer. But you were also, I think you were thankfully past the point of that stage where you were going to go for it, you weren't sure whether you were gonna get there. We've now got a clearer path, thank God. Um, but just to listen to somebody in in transition, you know, can I get to the third Olympians I really want to, and so on and so forth. And you know what, the one thing that was fairly common uh in his conversation was about money. Can I afford to do this? But uh it wasn't all about money as we got into it, it was about what am I going to do after the Olympians, after the Olympics, uh, you know, from 21 to you'll be 33, 32 when you finish. What's the career? So um I we swapped cards uh and I said, look, I want to talk to you about this, etc. And while we've talked to Dara about finance and we've a plan built for the next three years, we're now in a huge mentoring scheme, and Dara's worked with us for the summer, and every time he's going to be home now over the next number of years, he will work with the team as well. And uh we can talk to you a little bit more that he'd great fun with the college football this year and was it was a great uh asset, etc. But as well as a path clearly to the to LA, it's what's the path to when Dara finishes, when that third Olympian police guard comes down when he gets there and has a really good performance at it, etc. It's what next for Dara Green and many other Olympians in relation to where their career is going to, etc., etc. So we've set goals now, as much as you talked about Dara about goals going to the swimming pool each year, we've goals set for next August for the next time. We have a really deep conversation, we've just finished it now, um, in relation to what our plan is for the next year. But part of that, and the big question uh Dara is working on, what do I want to be? Do I want to be an entrepreneur? Do I want to uh what go into business, what angle of business, etc.? And we're going to try and cement that next August, September, and we've two years in to carry it out before Darr retires, please God, at the Olympics, and not before uh an injury is the only thing that'll hopefully well injury the only thing that'll get in your way at this stage, etc. So I felt Rob that it was just fascinating. We've met a few times after that, and we've we've now formalised it to see a young man or a young woman that is doing everything for Ireland. You know, we we we watched young Kate Connor last week and uh from Dun Dog and what she's done. But when you read the article about her and her dad and what they're going through in relation to trying to finance it and her dad going part-time from from work and everything else to put everything in as her coach, etc., there's something fundamentally wrong of how we support um these young men and women. And I felt, particularly with the Longfit Connection, that I need to do this for DARE. But I want to talk a little bit louder about it too, and get other fellow um business people along like that can get in behind DARAs from all 32 countries around Ireland and see how we can support them and bring them on, not just on financial, but on the mentoring side of it and where uh what what is the port's career after when they finish sport?

SPEAKER_03: 15:24

Yeah, I think that's that's really important. I want to dig into that a little bit. I mean, financially, the structure that we have here where the government funds Sport Ireland to fund sporting bodies, local sports partnerships, a very broad canvas. So, you know, 60 odd sports that are funded, um, not quite that many at the high performance level, but the you know the jam has to be spread a little bit thin. And it does require that additional support. But but the mentoring side of it and support in its widest sense is the thing that I I really like. And when we spoke about the potential of doing this, that was the thing that I thought, oh, this is the there's there's something there's something golden in this, and it and it's something that's very simple. But when you get to a stage in life, you realise that everything that you've learned, everything that you've done, while you've stored it away in a in a in a cupboard somewhere, is actually a value to the next generation that are coming behind, and we share it with our kids, but wouldn't it be great to actually have that beyond? So so let me take you back a little bit in your life. You come out, you play underage for Leinster rugby in a in an era when professional rugby wasn't really a um you know a thing. It was kind of on the horizon but not quite there. What was it that gave you a leg up in terms of becoming an entrepreneur, in terms of becoming a businessman? Because you're never born that. You're never born that way. You always need somebody to give you a helping hand or just to say yes on occasion. Who was the person that said yes to you?

SPEAKER_01: 17:05

So, you know, it it's interesting to say it. And uh on the rugby feeling my career ended fairly quickly. One, to do it in knee, but two, the the career I went into hospitality.

SPEAKER_02: 17:14

Um when uh I went to Port Russian, went on to UK and hotels, you just work weekends, so it comes down from that. But it's funny when you go back to Longford again, you know, club rugby was a different level than it even is today. It was a step back, you know, our pints were probably more important than our level of skill sets. Um, but I had to be driven up and down to um Dublin twice a week, etc., himself and uh and uh um another young man from uh Drumlitch. Um you know, uh and there's a guy called Derek Turner who runs Longford Rugby Club and uh Darrow would know of him too, and he's the value who arranged at lunch that connects the two of us together. He's absolutely delighted that we're now getting behind Darrow, etc. But when you have somebody like that in um in a club that has dedicated their life to, and he's a very successful business person too, uh, from there that gets in behind and really gets behind um young guys um like us, etc. And has stayed in touch all the way through um um and were delighted to hand back, etc. But uh my mentor probably went into um it came out of sport and went very much and sported a very minor part of it, um, was when you worked with hoteliers, uh and I've I've had three or four fantastic mentors in in um one up in in in Kelly's approach, where I worked at the weekend, who just could see um potential and allowed me uh do things uh advance there quicker. And then when you go to work with someone like 40 hotels, uh who at the time, you know, if you have got uh the ability to move a hotel, uh you get promoter as one of their youngest food and beverage uh um it's just outside of London um in Nottingham for years. But that's because people believed in me and I was able to go back to them and talk them through. And I've been fortunate to have people like that in my life all the way through um um to where I am today, and there's people I go chat to uh in the morning uh about certain things, etc. So it's so important to have it in life, but it's also I'm now giving it back, I suppose it's a slightly different with Darren, but I have a young leadership team, I have a young management team across all our team. We have a team of 220 full-time um staff that most that there's so many of them over 10 years with me, but they're still in their 30s and the early 40s, etc. We mentor through and we show that leadership and we bring through and they get promoted through. So it's very much in the culture of our company, of what EHL experiences is uh as a group company. It's something I've got very good at over the years. I've become a far better listener than a talker, and I still talk a lot, as as both of you know. Um but yeah, mentoring and having that opportunity, and that's when you know I could pick that up off Dara straight away, and I picked it up off our uh teams and different small businesses that I'm involved in, etc. If you have that core want to learn and listen and take on, etc., um people should listen and we should find ways to sport in on it. And and it's you know, it's not because just Dara is from Longford and a swimmer. Um, Dara has serious potential, whatever he goes on to do. Um if he's going to become a triple Olympian, he'll do it. Um where he goes on to that's the question, you know, is it a business around um swimming and water when he when he finished up, etc. If if so, what is that and how do we go work on that? And we'd work on that together and who else we might have to bring in. Or where is he going? Is it an event management? He enjoyed the college football this year, etc. But it's to get him to see different things and to open his mind now over the next three years as he as he comes to LA and outside of that and bring it on. And and I get a kick out of that because one, he's a fantastic young man, he's a role model for uh athletes at Longford. Um, but it's also for me he's a few he's a future part of our our management and leadership team, and that excites me too.

SPEAKER_03: 20:54

It is really important that sort of that the sense of mentorship uh as something which you think about and you actually sort of you know you plot out and you plan in the same way as a as a as a coaching programme. Because sometimes I think people just they don't take the time. They they get approached, they say, Oh yeah, no, I can I can support you, I can write you a cheque, I can do this, I can do that, but without the time and without the the thought that goes into it, and sometimes it is a long ago planted seed. I can remember when I was starting out on my career, so the the one of the newspapers over in in the UK in uh in sport identified me, picked me for some reason as being somebody that was worth keeping an eye on, that they were somebody that was going to go well and it it registered in there. And so when I set up sport for business, I was able to actually bring out the 30 under 30 program, and we've had 300 young people that have gone through that now, and it is that sense of of giving something back where it's it's down to the individual to actually take from that what they can, but they can't take it if you're not willing to give it. So let me just let me just come back on that. The idea of a three-time Olympian is something which is an incredible rarity in Ireland. I remember being struck this summer, Galway has only ever produced two Olympic medals. And both of them, Fiona and Africa, were in rowing uh b back in uh back in Tokyo. And a country with such a sporting heritage as Galway, that's it. Only only two medals. But being an Olympian, an Irish Olympian, is something which is is really to be treasured. To go three times, incredible. We'll come back to LA, but let's go through Paris and Tokyo first. So where we left your story was that you were 21 years old, you decided that you needed to do this. Where was the leap that came from there to getting on a plane to Tokyo and having to sit separate from everybody else because of course it was the Covert Olympics?

SPEAKER_00: 22:57

Um yeah, going from there, then I made the decision um to move out to the national sports campus um attention. Uh they got uh Sumirland, had a new performance director in, and they recruited uh uh top class coach, especially in Brettrook. Um his name is Ben Higson. So he's based from Sterling, University of Sterling. So he would have coached and brought up the likes of Ross Murdoch, who was um European champion, uh world medalist and like European record holder and all like he's done it all and knows how to do it. Um and yeah, just to get the opportunity to train under him and uh learn from like uh brought us on leaps and bounds. It was kind of within I started up there, my training like it completely shifted again. There was um sports science brought into it. We followed the all break system, it's called so it's a kind of a system instead of the traditional everyone is under the one umbrella. This is a system that um you'd do a test um to start off each block of training, and you do a certain amount of blends, and they take your blood pre- and post each um kind of um swim. And depending on how you're reacting to that and the times, uh they'll send it off and you'll be able to get exact training times that are suited for you for the whole training block, and you'll be able to improve on from that. So it's it's completely like a personalized kind of session thing compared to like you'll get some general like stuff to do in training, but you know exactly what times you have to be hitting yourself, that is going to work for you, not just for any other person, and you're hoping that kind of thing will stick or not kind of well. Um, but yeah, that was the biggest shift ever because I literally went from um starting with them and within that summer I qualified for my first European championships, and that summer then I knew there was something coming. Uh as in I qualified for Europeans in April and I broke my first Irish record, which was 60 point two at the time. And I remember two years before that, I remember looking at so when you get your the heat sheets with every single event on it. I remember like growing up looking at all the Irish records are put on the top of each event. And there's always that thought of like being like that is ridiculously fast. Like is if anyone has done that in Ireland, never mind me being a possibility of coming even near that. And yeah, went and broke the Irish record, went 60.2, and then went on to Europeans and made Irish history and be the first Irish man to break 60 in a hundred meter breaststroke, so kind of pushing on Irish breaststroke at the time. And it's funny though, even though I did it, it was kind of very bittersweet in the moment in the fact that I missed out in the final. I was the first cyber person to miss out on the final um and going that quick of a time. And but at the same time, like you do have to take a step back and realise where you come from to how you got yourself to this thing and moving on to bigger and better things. Um, but I knew I wasn't satisfied with it whatsoever. Um so when I went and did that time, it was under the FINA A time, which is the Olympic qualification time, but it was still two years out. Um but at the same time it was just a crazy realization of like as if I've done Olympic qualification time like two years out and have joined this, like what's there next? So um, yeah, so then the following year then was the main year because the Olympic qualification window opens at World Champs, World Championships, which are in South Korea. Um went to South Korea and did the qualification time, broke an Irish record again, um, went 59-8. So went 0.1 under the qualification time. Um and yeah, it was kind of one of those things that was like Did the time missed out in the semi-final, I think it was. And it was once again, it was that that time that didn't make it, it was one in history again, and it's like as if this is happening again, but uh and it's but like you do have to kind of take it with both hands of being like, but you've done what you came here to do. You're the only uh I was the only Irish swimmer to qualify at uh South Korea at the time, and then everyone was kind of building up for Irish Olympic trials, and I think we were what we were heading to the airport for our last competition before um Irish Olympic Trials. It was in Edinburgh, and remember we were all as an Irish team just about to get on the plane, and then got a phone call saying that we're not getting on the plane because the country was going into lockdown for COVID, and uh we all went back to the pool and swam, and then the form sector came down saying, Oh, we all have to go home for two weeks with a gather getting order in two weeks' time, and then that was two and a half months later. Then we're all used to go home, and yeah, it was kind of that like this week that like obviously it was in great form uh and trajectory towards the Tokyo Olympics, but then obviously it got postponed the year, um but at the same time still had that kind of security of I've done the time while everyone else is still waiting for when their chances to to do. Um and then Tokyo itself was a completely learning curve because even though it was nothing really compared to my first, like it was my first Olympics, it was unbelievable. But at the same time it was COVID, like they had uh like an over 20,000 capacity stadium completely empty, and it was just dead silent. Like there was just like this is a different experience altogether.

SPEAKER_03: 28:44

Yeah, I think it's what made Paris so special for a lot of Olympians that did double up because it was the three-year run that they had no idea of what the Olympics could be like, and then all of a sudden they experienced it in Paris as well. I've asked some uh without really getting a a full answer, but do you have any thought as to whether 2020 might have actually been better for you than the extra year? Or do you think that both physically and emotionally and everything else, having that extra year actually was a win for you?

SPEAKER_00: 29:18

Yeah, i i you always kind of thinking both sides of it the way it was going. I always thought, like, oh am I ready for this to maybe a bit more time training. Um would have like a more time to prep, they say, um would benefit you. But then yeah, it's really you you don't really know uh which is a hard one to put down to.

SPEAKER_03: 29:42

Okay. And then Paris, moving on moving on to Paris.

SPEAKER_00: 29:45

Yeah, so then I went through the journey then of oh well, I after Tokyo, um I wanted to uh obviously Paris was a bit closer. Uh the fact that it was a few years away, it's not to four, it was to three, so I was like Okay, the fact it was so close, surely I can do it. Spent two years in Dublin, um still under the uh so after Tokyo, uh there's a change up in the coaching. Uh so um the assistant coach moved up to head coach and I was just kind of training by myself. Um, like there was still a team there, but I was the only breastdropper at the time, and I was definitely finding myself plateauing pretty quick and fast. Um and I like I felt myself getting comfortable with it. I was working hard with more kind of the outside of trying to get sponsors to secure myself with it. Like I was able to lucky enough to get a car sponsor and uh in which helped us get to and front training. Like I had a 08 golf player going, was it just before Tokyo, and it broke down five times with me on the M50 trying to get going to the front yeah with it, and so I was lucky enough to get that, and the only one you had that secured, you're like, okay, but then everything in the pool just wasn't working. Um and I knew quick and fast, like after Europeans, then I went to world champs, and world champs is a year out from Paris, and it was way off the times. I was like, I need to do something here. Um, even though like some like home still wanted us, and they're like, No, we have to write trajectory with it. I was like, no. So um I'd taken a risk of um I uh taking a trial out in Australia with the Australian swim team. So um there's my old SNC coach was training um a guy called Zach Subley Cook. He's was Olympic champion from Tokyo uh in my event, and he's he was current world record holder at the time. He was his threat and conditioning coach, and I was like, Can I get a shot in there with the team? And he's like, I don't like I knew well it was nasty asking a half because nobody wants to change their their environment like Olympic year, um, and for some random Irish guy to come over and slot in. So I had a two-week trial and it was kind of that like it went from my usual kind of mileage in the pool, it was around maximum forty kilometers a week. And going out there I knew it was gonna be a bit of an ask as then like it was going up to 60 to 70 kilometers a week. Um yeah, and I didn't know it was always that thing of like am I gonna be able to cope with it to whatever else, but it was more that mentality of like people are always doubting me being like it's not gonna be the right move, and sure they just obviously wanted us to stay, but at the same time, as like if the world champ and Olympic champ can do it, surely anyone can do it, like if you got into that stage of it.

SPEAKER_03: 32:43

Yeah, so they said yes. That it's like it's it's always the only time the only time that a an answer to a question is guaranteed to be negative is when you don't ask the question. But you were brave enough to ask the question and did the trial.

SPEAKER_00: 32:57

Did the trial for two weeks, was asked to stay on until February, which was world champs, and I ended up doing the same like getting my time back towards qualification time, and then they asked me to stay on till their Olympic trials, and so ended up. It was supposed to be a two-week trip, spent six months out there uh before Paris and a snapsuit game changer. Um just more had the likes of the most decorated Australian Olympians on the team. There's eight of them from Mitch Larkin, who's a world record holder, world champ, Olympic medallist, Kay Campbell, who's one of Australian's most decorated Olympians, um, and then Zach, who's done it in my event and was striving to do it again. Like just putting yourself in the mix of that. Like I like I said to the coaches, I don't need any technique or any um attention off eat. The fact that I'm just able to get in and just be able to go head to head with these guys is more than enough what I need, and is exactly what I needed.

SPEAKER_03: 33:56

This is before you've again said yes, going to the business lunch, speaking at that meeting meeting Pori. So, how how do you fund what's supposed to be a two-week trial into a six-month stay?

SPEAKER_00: 34:13

Um, I was um it was kind of that thing that I lucky enough it was I had a bit of savings on me coming into that year. I was and um and but at the same time with high form of sport and stuff that you do, because like even as you say, like it wasn't planned, and the fact that I was staying out there, I was lucky enough to be renting with one of the guys, Mitch, who had taken us in. He was so good to us, like support-wise, just being able to meet good people that helped you along the way. He was one of the guys I was trained with. I was living with him to then it was that thing of like when I came back from Worlds, the Aussies, the Australian team were going on altitude training camp in Flagstaff, Arizona, and they asked me two weeks. Like, I literally got back from Doha and they asked me we're going in two weeks, would you be able to join us? I was like, 100%. Yeah. They're like, alright. I literally had to look at my funds, and within two weeks I had like a block of savings, and it was completely wiped, it was gone within that trip a four-week thing. And I was like, okay. Um went from mom and dad helping us out just to be able to feed myself out there to even getting back. Um I was still getting a bit of funding from the government, but it was still only covering bare minimum for what I needed. And like what le what level are you on now at the moment with the speciality? It's the international band, so that's like what$1,500 a month. Okay. Yeah. And like between that and like it's helped a bit, but it was more the time and wise of it. Like it literally caught it in the way of like I wasn't getting paid for another three and a half weeks. And I'm like, yeah, I'm out in America where the the difference of like it's even more than the euro at the time. Um and then came back. And you're like, you're still just putting the head down because you're you're you're trying to qualify for your second Olympic Games and you're taking it as it comes. I don't mind the the stresses of everything else. You're doing the you're doing the hardest thing you've ever done in the pool, and then outside the pool as well. It was testing at times.

SPEAKER_03: 36:20

I think most of us have probably done that at some stage. I can remember on a J1 visa in the States surviving on MMs and a big bag of MMs for two days because I had no more money for to to buy food. You've probably done the same yourself, Boric, but but we we weren't we weren't training to uh to to make it to an Olympic game, which is a slightly different one. Is that is that the kind of was that the story that you heard that made you think, Jesus, this is something that we really need to do better, and maybe this is something that I can actually help with.

SPEAKER_02: 36:53

Yeah, like I mean Darrell had done it and with his mum and dad and friends at this great and got it all together and you know I I get the point too, the Irish government can't back every athlete going out there and the the the the well community both so far. I think it needs to go a little bit further, personally. But you know Darrell come back from Paris, he was he was he was he was in at Longford and you know we we got chatting about what is the journey going forward and it you know it it it's it's a he's now an EHL ambassador and he's worked with our team throughout the summer, as I said. Um it's a commitment for us over the next three years. Uh but one we're very comfortable and and happy to do with the mentoring and the other side the one is as important as the other. It goes back to sponsorship problems, you know it. There's so many times companies put uh 10 grand, 100 grand, a million quid into a sponsorship of someone, but don't leave any money to actually activate it and drive it through, and then they they work out how the sponsorship doesn't work. Um for us, um, it's about as much about getting Dara to LA, but it's also how we can help Dara uh be a fantastic young young man coming out of that. And so the idea on Dara alone um and the Longford connection is certainly there, but it's also and the reason why I picked up the phone to you uh on it is I think um and certainly I'm gonna put uh I'm privileged to be on the uh Erneston Young Entrepreneur Year alumni, um and it's something I'm gonna intend to talk to my fellow alumni about from because they're from every length and breadth of the country, etc. How do more of them get in behind Dara's uh young Dara's uh and and um um young monas and all the rest of it from there um to see how we can help their journey, but just not on the money side of it, on the bigger side of it, etc. Because we see these kids once a year or twice a year the world, or uh you know, once probably every two years between the worlds, and I know you're Europeans next next year, etc. But uh the Olympics are standout, and we all sit around the television or and look at it, wow, isn't that great, isn't it fantastic to have um um X and Y winning on whatever the boxing or whatever the case may be? And then the Olympus goes and we forget about all these young men and women again very quickly. So it's how do we get behind it? And even having um Daniel was in uh Daniel Whistle was in with with um Um uh Dark a couple of a couple of weeks ago where we're just chatting about it, and he was I found it fascinating. Like, I mean, Dan has now got good deals in place for winning gold and and being the person he was, etc. But he was saying if he was silver, it wouldn't be the same at all. You know, the difference between a gold and a silver medal, I never mind being an Olympian or a double Olympian or a triple Olympian, etc. So uh I think as um society we have to do more. It can't be all relying on the government. You know me with the the college football, that's a that's a public-private partnership. It works, it's one of the most successful ones that's there. So I think for our our Olympic athletes or our world athletes, uh whatever the sport is, um there has to be a better um private-public partnership. I think the private sector has to step up a little bit, and probably the most obvious way is get behind some individuals um that are have a degree or do a degree in something that's in science or whatever the case can be that your industry is about, and you can bring them on and mention them from there, they're from your hometown or your home county or whatever. Um because they want it. Like, I mean, that the the the the effort and you when you hear Darek talking through the the different scenarios of as if you could talk to him all day, there's more examples of how he's gone through it and the bank account has been in minus whatever. Um but the sheer determination to do it and get to Paris and not stay in Ireland at the time, uh, if I'm going to get to Paris, I'm gonna have to do more than this. And he done it. And he that probably the ask was more than asking a half, I'd say it was probably a five-time ask. Um, but you had the the the audacity to go and do it, and and that's what got you to Paris by not taking no for an answer. And I think that's where business Rob has a connection with and we have to do more, and then we will have more athletes at LA for sure, and get behind these guys and then what they do after the Olympics, I think we've a particularly as well.

SPEAKER_03: 40:52

If you're listening to this and you're part of the EY entrepreneur of the year alumni group that's out there, or if you're not at that level, if if you're just somebody within business or that has inherited some money that has the ability to do something financially, but also has the life experience to do it, substitute somebody should do something about that with I should do something about that. And it doesn't need to be at the very highest level. It doesn't need to be at the level of a vote of own supporting Irish rugby. It can be a lot more personal, it can be a lot more um granular than that, but it can be so important equally as well. If we can if we can round it out, Dara, Paris was great, the medley national record again, like you know, you you're you've you've clearly made those advances. Los Angeles is a long way away, both physically and as we stand at the moment time-wise. You're gonna be swimming there in SoFi Stadium, which is gonna be, again, spectacular from an Olympics point of view. Um, having that connection with American football, I guess, will be of some literal lateral connection within there as well. But what have you taken from the summer of working with Poric, working on the College Football Classic, working with Erlingus and the other sponsors in there, working within the hospitality sector as well. You gave me a tour earlier on of the Saints studio upstairs here, just off South William Street. Unbelievable facility for fitness and training. You've been exposed to a number of different ways in which the career might go. When that does come, when that sort of, you know, when that last drop has been wiped from your your back, getting out of the pool in Los Angeles. And I'm not gonna say that you won't go to Brisbane because four-time Olympian has a great ring to it as well. Along the way, there will be something which means that you realise, okay, I've got to I've got to make a living here. What has attracted you? What has excited you most about what you've seen so far that you wouldn't have had the opportunity without that business lunch, without saying yes to speaking at the lunch?

SPEAKER_00: 43:17

Um yeah, it's it's kind of more like like pretty much uh an unbelievable kind of um meeting, the blessing in kind of both sides of it all, in the fact that like even as simple as even when I met Porick for that meeting, um so I spent pretty much after Paris. I I knew I wanted to get back out to Australia, and I didn't even know if I was still getting funded, because you don't know until you're fund if you're getting funded from the government until two or three weeks into January. So you can't you can't hold your breath for that to make any decisions. So I just spent that block of time to do as much events, swim clinics, build up a bank of money to get myself out there either way. But at the same time, as doing that, it was kind of like wait, do I just use this motivation to get out into the big bad world and get a job as well, even though I still am satisfied in what I'm doing and know I have a lot more to give in the sport and where I want to finish. And yeah, just when I was even just chatting to Pork about it, and he's like, okay, we were talking more about the after kind of uh post-Olympic site, and I reached out to him just before I went to was going to Australia and met him in soul here and we chatted about just the plan in place, and uh Pork's like, perfect, just put it down and write and then I'll go through it with you after, and then just for the next kind of journey with it. Because the one big thing there is like as you're saying, it's whoever it is, and even Dan was saying it that like he is the biggest sponsors that are really helping out, and they all want to like even he was saying, like their deals, they want everything to be pushed on Olympic gear, and he was like, No, I want it the complete flip side, I want it starting like literally four years out, three years out, because that's when all the hard work's been done to get yourself there, and then you're just refining Olympic year, you don't need to go on as much training camps to everything else. It's it's a four-year journey, three-year journey now, compared to it being we're jumping on for the last last like you're up already done and you're in it, but um and then especially the fact that like the one thing that was huge for myself was work was so open with the fact of like like there is at least friendly employment at like businesses in Ireland, but you need to be in Ireland to benefit of that as in like obviously as you're saying, they need you to see you at work, or you're able to be flexi around it. But if it was like that for me here, like I'd yes, I've done unbelievable support, but I'm not getting the training that I needed. But like for Port to allow me to go away to Australia to put myself in that and then come back in the summer once I've done my part in the swimming side and be able to slot in with the team and go with that, is just like the best of oat worlds with it, and it's exactly what I needed for like it's not this thing of like how it's now just like alright, I can I can actually put my head down here and go to work without everything else kind of being thrown on you with it.

SPEAKER_03: 46:19

I love I love sliding door moments when you were asked to go down and speak to this crowd of you know, sort of happy-go-lucky business people down in Longford. Did you think, oh, I need to spend a little bit more time in the pool, I need to get another 10k in this week, or did you just say, Yes, this could be a great opportunity for me?

SPEAKER_00: 46:42

Yeah, I remember getting a call. I was at home and they asked if I could do this luncheon. Um to be honest, I didn't I didn't know much about it, and thank God I didn't, I didn't know who it was speaking to either. Um, and I was glad I didn't at the same time, because then once I got around chatting to everyone after him at work, I was like, as if you're the guy that owns uh that runs the place up here in London. Um, but obviously I wasn't telling them that, but it was like fair fair play. Yeah, um, but yeah, just to be able to just like see because like even in that room it was it was huge for even myself, even seeing how like successful Longfords people are is huge, and how we're able to impact the country itself is huge.

SPEAKER_02: 47:25

There's a good Longford mafia, Rob. But just to pick up on something that both you're you're saying there it is a journey. It is it's a three or four-year journey, and part of when we discussed in detail Australia was uh Dara's been lucky to be brought back in with the Australian team, etc. That is part of the journey, etc. And it's funny we didn't um well Darren and I have McCaplan and we've done our deal in principle and we tidied it up um uh when he came home in June. We didn't introduce Dara to our full team until in the last number of weeks, etc. They've been working with him, they've been understanding, they know they've a double limp, and he spoke at uh at their summer lunch, expect etc. to talk about what it was. But now we're going to we've launched Dara as the EHL uh ambassador and they're all so into it and it's so part of it, and we're gonna follow the journey. And Dara's gonna be talking to the marketing team and doing a number of blogs and stuff like that about the journey over the while. And that's as equally important to us. This is not about um a quick sponsorship deal. This is far more than that. That's why I'd encourage other people to come in. The lads and lassies are on a journey in relation to getting there, but they can tell their story along the way, etc. And if you're just looking at this as a quick sponsorship deal, etc., that's not what it's about. This is about um uh completing dreams um for people who are prepared to give up nearly everything for Ireland and helping them on their career path uh afterwards. And uh for me, for one, uh that excites me. Um that's far more than just making a donation to somebody or or whether it's a charitable donation or a sponsorship donation, um, we can see that the the results behind behind this and the win for everybody. And the goal we've set is for Dara to get to LA, yeah, Paris next year for the Europeans. He's set himself um a good goal there and um for a juice to you. Um so you know, it'll be so exciting to watch the journey. Um staff are already queuing up to go to Los Angeles, which is a bit worrying because it's expensive city to bring a whole team to. Um, but you know what? We'll cross that bridge and we come to it because uh certainly someone will be there with them uh and in Paris next year and and come on on a journey with us, which we'll all enjoy, but we're all doing something that is just a little bit special and different uh and it's just a nice way to give back.

SPEAKER_03: 49:36

I think that absolutely nails it. Like being a mentor, saying yes, sometimes isn't the easiest thing in the world. Being a mentor certainly isn't easy, and don't go into it thinking, oh yeah, this is something that I can do in 15 minutes at the end of the week. Uh you have to invest your own time and your own energy into it. And sometimes within business, we kind of try and do the sums and think, well, what's that going to be worth to me? And in financial terms, sometimes giving your experience is worth nothing. You get nothing out of it. And yet at the same time, you get absolutely everything out of it. And getting everything out of something is something that we should all aspire to. Look, it's been a a real pleasure um talking to you, Dara, as uh as a as an elite sport, getting that different perspective on us, talking to you, Porig. We've been friends for a number of years. There's always something fresh and new that comes out of it. Um, if you want to learn more about what we do at Sport for Business, you can visit us at sportforbusiness.com. We've got events coming up now between now and Christmas that will bring together like-minded souls like the uh two gentlemen here today. Publish a twice-a day news bulletin as well. And if you want to learn more about this, if you want to talk to somebody who has walked that journey, um, get in touch with us. Um, I'm Rob at sportforbusiness.com. I'll put you in touch with uh with Porig as well. Um, but you probably know him because he seems to know everybody within both Dublin and Longford as well, as Dara is reaping the rewards of. So again, thanks very much, guys, and uh the very best of luck on your respective journeys.

SPEAKER_00: 51:16

Thank you very much, Rob.

SPEAKER_03: 51:17

Cheers. So there you go. The story of Dara Green, double Olympian and swimming national record holder, with a number of chapters still to be written, and of Porigo Kane, who spotted something in him as a young man and has given his support in terms of both financial and business experience to help him to navigate a way not only through the remaining years of his sports career, but then beyond that as well. It was a pleasure talking to both of them. We are back in a couple of weeks' time after a short break on the podcast with plenty more really good interviews to entertain and hopefully educate you on. If you want to find out more uh about Portugal Life, you can track him down on LinkedIn. If you really fancy a nice night out, then take yourself along to Seoul Restaurant in the centre of Dublin City. And if you want to follow a swimming superstar on his career, then you can check out Darra Green and uh and follow him on his path towards becoming a three-time Olympian, hopefully in Los Angeles 2028. For now, thank you for taking the time to be with us listening in today.

SPEAKER_01: 52:50

It's splitting, it's splitting, trying to get 60 time, and I'm gonna look at crazy, it is it, it's a