Special Olympic medal for floorball star

Corbally man James Murphy was elated to return from the Special Olympics World Winter Games on Wednesday with a little additional hand luggage.

The floorball star touched down with a bronze medal from the championships in South Korea.

Speaking from South Korea by video James said he was “very proud” of his medal and looking forward to coming home and seeing his family.

James’ family didn’t travel to the games with him but have been keeping a close eye on his progress from home.

The South-East Clare man was one of eight athletes on Ireland’s floorball team. This was the first time for Ireland to be represented in floorball at a world-level competition event. Following his six-goal blitz against hosts South Korea on Wednesday, James and his team mates overcame Austria by 11 to 7 in the last of their pool matches of the tournament.

They then faced the same team in the semi-final match.

This was a closely matched affair in which Austria just got the upper hand, with a score line of six to five. Ireland had trailed by five goals to one at half-time but fought back bravely to score four goals in the second half.

Team Ireland quickly put any disappointment aside in the play-off game against South Korea, which would decide third and fourth place.

Ireland proved themselves to be deserved bronze medal winners, clocking up a convincing scoreline of 11 goals to South Korea’s one, a repeat of the result of the pool game when the two teams met.

James has been involved with Special Olympics since 2000 and attends Lisnagry Training Centre in Limerick. As part of Team Ireland, James trained every week in Lisnagry and for the past number of months did additional training with his fellow Team Ireland team-mates.

Reacting to Team Ireland’s success, head floorball coach, Paul O’Callaghan said, “I am delighted for the team. Since they got here, they have put everything they have trained for into practice. They’ve shown courage, determination and, above all, pride and honour while representing Ireland at these world games. On a personal level, I am delighted and incredibly proud to be part of the first Irish floorball team at a world-level games”.

Matt English, CEO  of Special Olympics Ireland said, “This is such a fantastic achievement for Team Ireland and I want to pay tribute to every one of the athletes and their coaches. They came here as a team prepared and ready to take on the world and that’s just what they did. They have been fantastic ambassadors not only for Ireland but for the sport of floorball and hopefully their success will inspire others to get involved in this exciting team sport.”