The Deirdre-Ryan-Tribute Blog - Irish at the Olympics: Day 13

Joey Fatone. George Lazenby. This chick. There is something pretty difficult about being 'the other one', knowing that no matter what you do, everyone's attention is elsewhere. So tonight, I would like to pay respect to the lovely Deirdre Ryan.

As well as being a fine athlete, Deirdre is actually a fine looking girl; probably the only company for Melanie Nocher and Tori Pena in the small group of Irish Olympians you would actually invite round to watch The Notebook and share a bottle of 'Neuf du Plonk. This, however, makes no impact whatsoever on the fact that today was never about Deirdre Ryan - she can be tall, and pretty, and talented, and all the rest, but she wasn't Katie Taylor, and that's all that mattered.

So, it was never going to be Deirdre's day. It got worse, granted, when she failed to clear 1.90m and found herself eliminated from the heats of the high jump in the Olympic Stadium this morning, but if it's any consolation, no one really noticed. The 30-year-old has a personal best of 1.95; she would have needed there or thereabouts to make the final.

There was only ever going be eyes on the ExCel this afternoon, though. Years of build-up and expectation finally came to an end as Katie Taylor took to the ring in an Olympic final. There's no point in dissecting the fight - it's already been done to death on TV, radio, twitter, crop circles, smoke signals and any other form of communication one can think of. Suffice to say that the two-point margin was the tightest victory Taylor has had in a major championship in a while, and the fight was close enough to keep breaths well and truly baited until the decision was announced. But Katie was not to be denied, the 10-8 win over Sofya Ochigava sending the ludicrously Irish crowd into raptures, and delivering Ireland's first legitimate glory in 20 years. Yes, I'm being controversial. Deal with it.

The men have their opportunity to make their finals tomorrow - what is already Ireland's best Olympics in years could soon be a record-shattering success. But that's for another day. Today is a day for glory, a day for champions: A day for Katie Taylor.

Oh, and Deirdre Ryan.