Olympic Schools Programme Dare to Believe Expands with Allianz Ireland on board as sponsors
The Olympic Federation of Ireland is delighted to announce the addition of twenty-one new Olympic and Paralympic athletes to the Dare to Believe Olympic Schools Programme, bringing the total number of athlete ambassadors to forty-four across fifteen sports, including Olympic Champions and medallists.
This milestone coincides with Allianz Ireland becoming the official sponsor of the programme, reinforcing its commitment to inspiring the next generation through the power of sport.
With a near-equal gender balance, there are now twenty-one female and twenty-three male ambassadors sharing their stories with and inspiring school children around Ireland.
The programme centres on the Olympic values, and since its launch in 2019, students have enjoyed, not only athlete visits, but the wider activations of the programme, such as the Road to Paris, Olympic Movement Breaks and the hugely popular Olympian Live! events.
Following on from yesterday’s reveal of Allianz as the title sponsor of Team Ireland, the sponsorship of Allianz of the Dare to Believe programme supports their goal of keeping young people in sport, and their #StoptheDrop campaign.
In 2024, 131,636 students benefited from the Dare to Believe programme, across 3,548 schools. This incorporated 132 Olympic ambassador school and club visits, with 82% of the schools being DEIS schools. The Olympian Live! Webinars were reached by 59,447 children across primary and secondary schools.
Olympic boxer Grainne Walsh has been a Dare to Believe ambassador since 2019, and speaking about the impact of the programme on the community from a school visit to Mullingar Educate Together National School, Walsh said,
“I've been a Dare to Believe ambassador since day one, and my journey has grown so much since then. I love visiting the schools to inspire kids because I know how much I would have valued this at their age.
“It’s all about paving the way for the next generation, passing the baton, and showing them that anything is possible with belief and hard work. Honestly, I get as much from these visits as the kids do. I leave every school feeling fully of positivity and ready to smash my next challenge, so it works both ways.
“I try to share with the students that setbacks happen, I’ve had my fair share of them, but you have to find a way of getting over them, and believing in yourself. When you do that, success is all the sweeter.”
Programme coordinators Roisin Jones and Roisin McGettigan are looking forward to launching into a new year of school visits:
“We are delighted to announce 21 new Dare to Believe ambassadors today, to join some of our more seasoned ones. It’s really exciting to see how much this programme has evolved, and we are very grateful for the support of Allianz, whose values align so closely with ours around the value of sport to young people.
“We are looking forward to what the future holds. We know from research that having sporting role models positively impacts activity levels for children, and we have great Olympic and Paralympic ambassadors on our programme.”
Dare to Believe new ambassadors
Ronan Byrne (rowing)
Victoria Catterson (swimming)
Lily Cooke (luge)
Ross Corrigan (rowing)
Andrew Coscoran (athletics)
Tim Cross (hockey)
Eric Favors (athletics)
Stacey Flood (rugby 7s)
Jude Gallagher (boxing)
Darragh Greene (swimming)
Noel Hendrick (canoeing)
Natalie Long (rowing)
Daire Lynch (rowing)
Jack Marley (boxing)
Bryan Mollen (rugby 7s)
Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe (rugby 7s)
Fintan McCarthy (rowing)
Sophie Noble (badminton)
Katie O’Brien (para-rowing)
Tiarnan O’Donnell (para-rowing)
Nicola Tuthill (athletics)
Registration for the Dare to Believe programme is free of charge and all details can be found on www.daretobelieve.ie for both primary and secondary curriculums.