IRELANDS BOXING SUPERSTAR KATIE Taylor remains Ireland's most admired athlete according to an annual study that gauged Irish general public’s attitudes towards sport and their sporting heroes The data was collected by the Teneo Sport and Sponsorship Index.
Taylor, who defended her boxing belts against Amanda Serrano in Madison Square Garden in April and Karen Carabajal at Wembley last October is Ireland’s most admired athlete for the sixth year running with 21pc of all votes.
She shared the feat with fellow countrywoman Kellie Harrington last year.
London , United Kingdom - 28 October 2022; Katie Taylor, left, and Karen Elizabeth Carabajal, nd. (Photo By Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)Irish Jockey Rachael Blackmore took second place on the TSSI with 7pc of the vote. The Tipp woman won the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Henry De Bromhead’s A Plus Tard.
The likes of golfer Shane Lowry and rowers Paul O'Donovan (both 5%) and Rory McIlroy and Ellen Keane (both 4%) closed out the top seven.
There was also a vote for 'team of the year' and the team that have won that award on the TSSI was the Ireland women’s football team.
Vera Pauw's side reached their first ever major tournament by beating Scotland back in October.
The Irish team will now head to Australia and New Zealand to play in the 2023 version of the Women's World Cup.
The Girls in Green received 26pc of the vote from the Irish public.
In second place the Irish men's rugby team, which won a series in New Zealand, beat world champions South Africa and Australia in Dublin, and became the number one ranked rugby side in the world received 24pc of the votes.
Coming in third place was the record-breaking Ireland women’s boxing team who backed up a two-gold medal haul at the World Championships in May. Lisa O'Rourke, Amy Broadhurst and the likes made Ireland proud on the boxing stage in Turkey.
It is the 13th year of the TSSI, and the research was carried out between November 17 and 25.
