Look how the O’Donovan brothers’ silver at the Rio games transformed Skibbereen Rowing Club from a little known rural concern to a legendary paragon of sporting excellence. I witnessed at first hand the enormous morale boost Olympic glory can give to an unsung area which suddenly finds itself occupying a significant place on the national map.

The same kind of stardust could descend on Dublin’s north inner city in the next few weeks, on the Offaly village of Belmont, on Furbo in the Connemara Gaeltacht, on the towns of Newtownards, Ballincollig and Lisburn, on Moycullen in Galway and Cabra in Dublin.

And also once more on Skibbereen. Five years ago the O’Donovans became the great surprise stars of the games but the under-the-radar days are over. The lightweight double sculls pair of Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy are red hot gold medal favourites.

O’Donovan’s situation is a bit like Katie Taylor’s in 2012. After four world and two European golds, an Olympic triumph would crown a great career. McCarthy is also an extraordinary performer, he had to be to oust Gary O’Donovan from the boat after the brothers had won the 2019 world title.

One world and one European title later, the new partnership have seemed invincible. Fine German, Norwegian and Italian duos appear to be just competing for silver and bronze. But O’Donovan will remember that at the last games an apparently unbeatable French team barely held off a pair of Irishmen who’d only scraped into the last qualifying place. Rowing golds are hard won.

Witness Sanita Puspure’s situation. Had the games been held as originally scheduled the reigning world champion would have been overwhelming favourite. But a serious rival has emerged in the shape of Russia’s Hanna Prakhatsen who followed up a European Championship win by beating Puspure in the World Cup at Lucerne. Puspure remains a likely medalist but gold may require the best performance of the 39-year-old’s career.

The big rowing surprise package has been the Four of Galway’s Aifric Keogh and Fiona Murtagh, Dublin’s Eimear Lambe and Skibbereen’s Emily Hegarty who announced themselves as serious contenders when finishing runners-up by less than half a second in the European Championships to a world silver medal winning Dutch team. An even closer second to World champions Australia in yesterday morning’s heat confirmed this impression. The rapidly improving Irish should be fighting it out for the medals with the Aussies and the Dutch, though a useful Chinese crew could also be in the mix.

It’s looking good for the rowers but there was a warning against complacency on Friday when the world silver medal winning double sculls duo of Cork’s Ronan Byrne and Antrim’s Philip Doyle finished last in their heat. A repechage performance yesterday which saw them barely scrape into the semi-final was also hugely disappointing for a duo who’d been considered serious gold medal prospects.

Boxing has provided over half of our Olympic medals and boasts one of our strongest contenders in Kellie Harrington. The 2018 world lightweight champion looked as good as ever when beating world professional champion Maiva Hamadouche in the qualifying tournament and is capable of emulating Taylor’s 2012 gold.

The big dangers will be reigning world champion Beatriz Ferreira of Brazil, immensely promising English 20-year-old Caroline Dubois, who lost a split decision to Harrington in the qualifier final, and the incredible Finn Mira Potkonen who is twice Dubois’ age and eliminated Taylor from the last Olympics.

While boxing is the great traditional Irish Olympic sport gymnastics has never been our forte. But the arrival of Rhys McClenaghan changed all that. His Commonwealth Games and European Championships gold medals in 2018, beating Olympic champ Max Whitlock of Britain, announced a new star on the pommel horse, an impression confirmed by a subsequent world bronze medal.

The tight margins in top level gymnastics were illustrated by the Down man’s disappointing fifth in this year’s Europeans. If he gets things right he’ll be battling with Whitlock and Taiwan’s Lee Chih-Kai for gold in Sunday’s final, but the slightest mistake could leave him empty-handed.

For a long time it looked like the showjumping team wouldn’t even make the games, but a team of Darragh Kenny, Cian O’Connor and Bertram Allen should compete for a podium spot with the likes of Switzerland, the USA, Great Britain and Belgium. Kenny is a strong individual medal contender.

Kenny’s fellow Offaly man Shane Lowry shouldn’t be discounted either. Few golfers possess the same level of local pride as Lowry and, as the Ryder Cup shows, this kind of motivation helps in events with a national as well as individual aspect. Rory McIlroy, on the other hand, says he’s not the patriotic sort. That might well relax him sufficiently to ensure the big performance he’s been threatening.

Those seem like our main contenders though a dark horse may well emerge from the boxing ranks with Lisburn featherweight Kurt Walker and Castlerea middleweight Aoife O’Rourke worth watching. Chances are a few more great moments will be added to the Irish sporting pantheon.

The real spirit of the Olympics has nothing to do with grandiose opening ceremonies, corporate advertising campaigns or self-important administrators. It resides in the kids who on rivers, in rings and in gyms once dreamed the impossible dream of following in the footsteps of Ronnie Delany and Michael Carruth, Katie Taylor, John Treacy, Sonia O’Sullivan and John Joe Nevin, and now find themselves near the end of an incredible journey.

They come from our fields, our streets, our towns, our country, our island. By following their own dreams, they’ll spark new ones in the next generation.

These Olympians are going to make us proud and do us proud.

Are you ready Paul? Kellie? Sanita? All right folks, let’s go.