General

Credit: Badminton Photo
- Qualification for the Olympics is a very stressful time
Date: 1/8/2019 2:00 PM
Published by : Aidan Jones (BEC)
Ireland’s Sam Magee is full of confidence ahead of the Olympic qualifying year but does know that it will be a tough schedule for him and his sister Chloe Magee to qualify.

Magee has not been to an Olympics yet but is hoping to reach his first for when Tokyo 2020 arrives.

Out of the Magee Siblings, Chloe Magee has experience of an Olympic Games and her brother believes that the experience that she has is vital to him.

Tough one to call

Sam Magee, speaking to Badminton Europe knows that he will be up against it in the Olympic qualifying year which gets underway in May.

The current Irish Open winner has revealed that he really wants to see what the ‘buzz’ around an Olympic Games is really like.

- I think it is hard to call, there are a lot of pairs fighting for a couple of spots and it will just come down to who plays well over that twelve month period, Sam Magee said.

- I have actually never been to an Olympics, so it would be nice to go once and meet different athletes from different sports, he added.

- Chloe has experience, there have been some years where she qualified quite straightforward and others when she had to go to the last tournament to qualify.

- I definitely think that Chloe’s experience will help me to know what is going on because it is going to be a very crazy year, he added.


Is the qualification the worst thing for an athlete?

Sam Magee believes that the qualifying year is always a ‘stressful’ time for an athlete and it is just about getting on with it.

Magee will be up against other players to achieve that spot in Tokyo and he knows it is not going to be an easy ride.

- I think the qualification for the Olympics is a very stressful time of an athletes career because you are just going from tournament to tournament and not actually getting proper training done and it takes you out of the rhythm. The Magee brother said.

- You have to enjoy it because if you don’t then you will become stressed out and it would reflect in the results, but with the amount of travelling, it can become a very hard year.

Push on from a good end

The Magee siblings ended the 2018 year in a winning fashion, including winning their home tournament, the Irish Open.

The 28-year old is looking to continue where the pair left off last year but had mixed emotions about having to take a break for Christmas in the middle of a good run!

- It is going to be huge and different to last year. We had time last year to have proper training blocks.

- Whereas in an Olympic year you can’t do that, you have to chase points and play in a lot more tournaments.

- We are hoping to take our good form at the end of 2018 into this year, the 28-year-old said.

- The break maybe came at a difficult time because when you are doing well you just want to continue but perhaps, in the long run, it will benefit us, Magee added.
©badmintoneurope.com. All rights reserved.

Related news
27/03/2024
EOC Executive Committee awards 2027 European Games to Istanbul
The European Olympic Committee...

27/03/2024
Madrid Spain Masters day 2: Victories, upsets, and excitement on court.
French siblings sweep to victo...

26/03/2024
A first action-packed day unfolds at the Spain Masters
The Madrid Spain Masters 2024 ...

26/03/2024
Spain Masters begins today with an unexpected withdrawal!
Madrid is buzzing with excitem...

25/03/2024
Lane/ Vendy and Marin, victorious at Swiss Open
The Swiss Open concluded this ...

24/03/2024
Marin and Lane/Vendy secure finalist spots at the Swiss Open
The semifinals have concluded ...

More news