 We're once again talking Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan and I'm delighted to welcome Daniel McGee to the airwaves of Highland Radio and also to hyndandradio.com. Good to see you Daniel. Good to see you as well. Thank you. Listen Daniel, exciting time ahead. You're about to board a plane on Friday to head away to Japan. We've been waiting a year for this event to come around. It's been a long delay and stuff but you're almost there. You're nearly there. Yeah, almost there. It's been a long wait and a crazy year with everything going on with the pandemic and the COVID situations that we've had to deal with. But thankfully now we're coming close to the finishing line and we'll be setting off soon on Friday. Yeah. I'm just going to touch obviously on the Donegal interest that pre-Olympics was Chloe and Sam and we're all rooting for them. That we're hoping that your family members, your siblings will be able to take it over the line and make it. But it didn't work out for them, which was unfortunate and listen they had an absolutely brilliant year badminton wise. But with things being so tight, just when it came to the crunch at the very end, they couldn't get over the line. Yeah, you know, guys get themselves in a fantastic position and got really close towards the end. You know, really good results, darling. Then European games this year. Unfortunately, the final three qualification events which Sam had talked to you about, you know, trying to reach the quarter finals of those, they were cancelled due to COVID. So with the last three qualification events being cancelled, they just missed out on the final hurdle. Huge disappointment for them. But Chloe, of course, was looking to get into what have been a fourth games. Is there a possibility that next time around in Paris, given that it's not four years, it's three years that maybe the duo could team up again? Or is it something that they're in discussions with at the moment? Yeah, I think Chloe, having done three cycles and, you know, have played as long as what she's had. I don't think another games is in the back of her mind at the minute. With Sam, he is still young enough and his level is still right there. You know, and he's one of her most experienced and most decorated players. So if he went for it and decides that he wants to push on, there's an opportunity there and he'll have to team up with someone new. But if he feels that now is the right time to stop, he's done everything in his career that he can be very proud to leave it there. But he has a few decisions to make now if he wants to make one more push at it. Yeah, hopefully so. We'll see what happens down the lane with Sam and Chloe. But you've got one athlete who's heading out there, Nat Neuwen, and he qualified a number of weeks ago for it. It's going to be a big occasion for him. First time there, 21 years of age, Daniel. Yeah, really impressive qualification period for Nat. He finished 26 out of 42 in the qualification race. So well inside the qualification mark and a massive achievement for him at only 21 years of age to qualify for his first Olympics as one of the youngest players that will compete in it. But not only that, but to be so far inside the qualification mark. What do you expect enough from him or what is he expecting from the competition? What's his realistic target now as he heads for the plane? If you ask Nat, he'll say he's there to win it. But you've got to be realistic with your expectations as well. And we've set a goal for him to reach last 16 in his first Olympics. And that's a high end goal because he'll be placed in a group with a seeded player who will be one of the top 16 players ranked in the world. And then potentially one other player that will be around the same ranking as himself. So for him to achieve last 16, he'll have to create an upset. But we've seen him do that earlier in the year when he reached last 16. All England's beaten Srikanth Kadambi who's number 13 in the world. So he is capable of an upset, but he will need to do that to reach last 16. Interesting to note this week as well, a lot of talk around the Olympics. Patsy McGonagall, Patsy had said it takes 10 years to make a champion. So Nat, given his young age, he's got a lot of time there to come around and get what he wants to do and win something. Absolutely. Like the next Olympics, Nat will be in an even better physical, mental preparation. For that, he'll be a lot stronger and he'll be a lot more experienced. He can go into this Olympics very free as an underdog and someone who's done really well to reach the mark on this occasion. So we have long-term goals for him for 2024, 2028. But this one will be really, really important for him to have that experience of what an Olympics Games is like and still go there with the ambition to create some upsets. Davos Efram, who's his coach, has also gone out. So three years, guys representing Badminton Ireland. But from your own perspective as the high performance director of Badminton Ireland, you've got a huge role there. What is it you want to take out of this Olympics for the sport, Daniel? Yeah, I think every Olympics it's important to have a representation there for your sport. And to try and create some moments that's going to inspire people to play your sport. And we've had that very much with Chloe being the first ever Irish athlete to win matches at the Olympics where she won a game in Beijing and she went on and win again in London. And then we had that famous moment of Scott Evans in Rio where he took off the shirt and started to train the full Evans. So these moments attract people to the sport and when you're maybe a lower profile sport like Badminton, you have to take advantage of these big stages to promote the game. And thankfully through Chloe, through Scott and even Sonja and again back in Sydney, we've been able to boost the profile of our sport and bring members in that way and increase the profile. So it's really important that way. What are you looking forward to most about Japan this summer? I want to just go there and absorb the culture and absorb the Olympic Games experience, but also we're very much focused on our role within the sport that we want to go out there and achieve results that we haven't achieved before. Last Olympics we reached last 16. If we can do that again or even push a little bit further, that would be a big statement for our sport. That's the goal is to keep progressing forward. If it doesn't come, then we have to make sure that come the next cycle that we're even more prepared and even more ready to get these big level results. I don't want to be too negative on this, but that is the hot topic around Japan and the Olympics. Are you worried about the COVID situation over there, Daniel? I don't think so because the amount of work and effort and protocol that's involved, I know even within our own team structure it's not going to be like London. London was like a party festival type Olympics, everybody mixing, everybody enjoying the experience. This time it's everybody keeping within their own bubble, following protocol, regular daily testing, not mixing with the Japanese public using their own private transport and staying within the Olympic Village bubble itself. It should be a safe games in that terms for both the Japanese public and for the Olympics athletes and personnel that are taking part. Hopefully we'll see the boost that sport gives when you get to see it on TV and get people getting behind their home nation. Hopefully that will give Japan a pick up and they'll buy into the games a little bit more. Just finally then, you're always a proud Donagawa man when you blow trekking around the world and there's going to be a very similar case for you now when you hit Tokyo, so what is Daniel? Absolutely, you can take the man out of the man, but you can't take Donagawa out of the man. We're notorious wherever we go for being a bit of fun and a bit of optimism and I hope to bring that Donagawa spirit along with Mark English and the rest of the Donagawa contingent that's going to be there so fingers crossed we can achieve some good results and put Donagawa on the map again. Hopefully so. Listen Daniel, very best of luck to you and indeed your badminton Ireland team with a successful Olympic Games in Tokyo. Delighted to get speaking to you. Thanks Hashi, appreciate that.