Despair to delight as Rachael Darragh has Olympic place confirmed

Since the calendar turned to May after the close of the qualification period for the Olympic Games, Rachael Darragh wondered and waited with her emotions in a spin.

The Raphoe badminton player could see on the rankings list that she was 34th and 38 make the cut for the Olympics.

The rankings couldn't talk, though.

As she sat taking in the sun in Albufeira last Friday, the call came, made by Dan Magee, Badminton Ireland's high performance director who also happens to be her uncle.

Finally, her place in Paris was confirmed, as reported by Donegal Live last weekend.

“The last couple of weeks I think I've experienced every emotion that is known to mankind. I feel like I've been happy, I've been sad,” Darragh said.

“I think I told my parents ‘I’m in the pits of despair, I don’t think I qualified . . .’ Then to get that call on Friday, I was like ‘is it real, am I actually going to the Olympics?’

“It was definitely a roller-coaster of emotions the last couple of weeks.

“I experienced every emotion under the sun in those two weeks. I’d had a really good year, ticked off a lot of boxes, and to do everything I’d written down on paper, and still to be on the very, very edge. It was a tough wait.”

Darragh and Nhat Nguyen will compete for Ireland at this year's Olympics.

Darragh has been on tour over the past year in a bid to make it over the line to secure a place.

In April, she reached the last 32 of the European Championships, losing out 24-22 23-12 against Miranda Wilson after defeating Ksenia Polikaprova 21-23 21-15 21-17.

Also this year, Darragh has reached the quarter finals of the Madrid Spain Masters World Tour and last year hit a quarter-final in a super 100 level tournament, eight quarter-finals at challenge level and one semi-final at challenge level.

Darragh said: “The fact we had no real break the whole 12 months trying to qualify, then had two weeks off, I was forced to sit and think about things a little bit.

“There were nights you’re waking up three or four times, it’s all that’s in your head, it’s your goal since you’re a kid.

“You’re on the edge, and the amount of times it’s in your head ‘what if I don’t qualify’. It’s difficult, things people don’t know because they don’t see.”

Her aunt Chloe Magee is a three-time Olympian. When Magee competed at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Darragh was just ten years old and watched in awe as history was made.

At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Magee defeated Kati Tolmoff from Estonia to become the first Irish woman to win a badminton match at the Olympics before losing out to Jun Jae-youn from South Korea.

Magee also competed at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games in London and Rio.

Darragh wants to pen a chapter of her own at the Porte de la Chapelle Arena in late July.

She said: "I want to go to Paris and shut out the outside noise. I want to perform well. I'm not just going to get the tee-shirt.

"We have to wait for the draws, but I want to perform the best I can at the Games."