Hickey re-elected as President of Olympic Council of Ireland
Friday, 16 February 2001 14:25
The outgoing President of the Irish Olympic Council, Pat Hickey, has been re-elected for another term. After a heated campaign for one of the top jobs in Irish sport, Mr Hickey easily defeated the challenge of Richard Burrows at the organisation's annual general meeting in Dublin last night.
Despite all the pre-election speculation in the end it proved to be an easy victory for Mr Hickey. He defeated Richard Burrows by 27 votes to ten and now begins an unprecedented fourth four-year term as President of the Olympic Council of Ireland. Earlier this week, some of Ireland's most famous Olympians, Eamon Coughlan, Michael Carruth and Mick Dowling, came out and urged support for Mr Burrows but last night Mr Hickey won a landslide victory.
Mr Hickey has been embroiled in a number of controversies during his years as President. There was a row with the then sports minister Bernard Allen over the removal of control of funding from the OCI to the Sports Council. Then there was the dispute between Athletics Ireland and the OCI over the official gear for track athletes at the Atlanta Olympics. And at the Sydney Olympics last year, there was a row with the current Minister for Sports, Jim McDaid over accreditation.
