President of the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI), Pat Hickey, announced that Electric Ireland will sponsor Team Ireland for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

The announcement was made in the company of Olympic Team Leaders Paul McGinley (Golf) and Kevin Ankrom (Athletics) and five 2016 Olympic hopefuls- Katie Taylor, Paddy Barnes, Thomas Barr, Natalya Coyle and Aileen Reid.

The Sponsorship will provide a significant boost in preparing potential Team Ireland athletes for the challenging journey towards the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Olympic Council of Ireland President, Pat Hickey said, "The OCI are delighted to have Electric Ireland on board again as an official sponsor of Team Ireland. Our athletes and performance support staff understand very well the marginal decisions and smart choices necessary to perform at the very best. Electric Ireland are helping us to ensure that Team Ireland is  given every opportunity to maximise and enjoy the Olympic experience."

Speaking at the announcement, ESB Chief Executive Pat O’Doherty said, “With Electric Ireland’s recent entry into the residential market in Northern Ireland, we are confident that sponsoring Team Ireland for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games will raise awareness and affinity towards the brand. Our sponsorship of Team Ireland for the London 2012 Olympic Games was instrumental in establishing Electric Ireland as a progressive, competitive brand. We are confident that we can build on this success by showcasing the determination of Team Ireland for 2016 through our Smarter Living Sponsorship Programme”.

Electric Ireland’s new sponsorship campaign will demonstrate the value of Smarter Living to its customers, staff and general public, by profiling the lifestyles and technological innovations that Olympic hopefuls choose for health, fitness, performance and energy. The programme will start in early 2016.

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For further information please contact:

Aiken PRLyn Sheridan or Shane Finnegan on 028 9066 3000Mobile: Lyn 07770584157 Shane 07764534565Lyn@aikenpr.com or Shane@aikenpr.com

Notes to Editor:

Electric Ireland  & Smarter LivingElectric Ireland is the retail part of the ESB Group and is Ireland’s leading energy provider with over 1.2 million customers.  Electric Ireland’s vision is Smarter Living meaning simple ideas that make life better. Today for Irish athletes to achieve qualification and be competitive at the Games they need to continuously seek ways of training smarter, preparing smarter and competing smarter, Electric Ireland understand that and want to support them on their road to Rio.  Electric Ireland’s new sponsorship campaign will demonstrate the value of Smarter Living to its customers, staff and general public by profiling the lifestyles and technological innovations that Olympic hopefuls choose for health, fitness, performance and energy. The programme will start in early 2016.

Ireland & the Olympics• 1924 was the first time that Ireland sent a team to the Olympic Games. However it was not the first time that Irish people competed in the Olympics.• The first Irish-born winner of an Olympic gold medal was John Pius Boland, a native of Dublin. Boland won gold in Tennis Singles and a second Olympic gold medal when he partnered Fritz Traun in the doubles.• Ireland made its first appearance as an independent nation in the Olympics in the 1924 Paris Olympic Games. No medal in the sporting events were won by Ireland at the Paris games but Jack Yeats was awarded an Olympic silver medal for his painting “Swimming” in the Olympic Arts division and Oliver St. John Gogarty was awarded a bronze medal in the Literary division.• In 1928 Ireland as an Independent nation had its first Olympic gold medal at Amsterdam with Dr. Pat O’Callaghan’s unexpected victory in the Hammer event. At the time he was barely out of the novice class and he had been included in the Irish team mainly to gain experience of top-class competition. Over the years he was to develop into one of the world’s greatest hammer-throwers and he demonstrated this by winning his second Olympic gold medal at Los Angeles in 1932.• In 1932, Bob Tisdall broke the World Record in the 400 metre hurdles to win gold but the man who came second was given the World record because Tisdall clipped a hurdle, thus disqualifying himself from the World record honour (under the regulations at that time).• In 1948 Ireland sent a Basketball team to the first post war Olympics which were held in London. There was no qualification system for team participating and a total number of 23 nations entered the competition. This was the only time in the history of Irish Basketball that we had a representative team at the Olympic Games.• In 1952 in Helsinki John McNally won Olympic silver medal for Boxing• In 1956 Team Ireland was made up of only 12 athletes and came away from the games with five medals. Ron Delany was Ireland’s gold medal winner in the 1,500 metres. The other medals all came in boxing with silver for Fred Tiedt, and bronze for Tony Byrne, Freddie Gilroy and John Caldwell. Ireland missed out on a medal win in wrestling with a fourth place.• Boxer Jim McCourt took an Olympic bronze medal at Tokyo in 1964, Hugh Russell added another in boxing at Moscow in 1980 and David Wilkins and Jamie Wilkinson won silver medals at the 1980 Olympic Yachting events, which were staged in Tallinn.• John Treacy won silver in the Marathon in 1984 which was the first competitive marathon he had ever competed in.• Michelle Smith won three gold and a bronze medal in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta• Michael Carruth won gold and Wayne McCullough won silver on the same day during the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.• Ireland won three medals at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing - all in Boxing. Kenny Egan (Silver), Darren Sutherland (Bronze) and Paddy Barnes (Bronze).• London 2012 was Ireland's most successful Olympics since 1956, winning a total of 5 medals (1 gold, 1 silver, and 3 bronze) in two sports: boxing and equestrian show jumping. Ireland’s five medallists were Katie Taylor (Gold), John Joe Nevin (Silver) Paddy Barnes , Michael Conlan, and Cian O’Connor (bronze)• At London 2012, Boxer Katie Taylor, who was Ireland's flag bearer at the opening ceremony, won Ireland's first Olympic gold medal in 16 years.• Light flyweight boxer Paddy Barnes defended his bronze medal from Beijing in London, becoming the second Irish athlete in 80 years to win medals at two consecutive Olympics.• For the first time since 1980, Ireland also won an Olympic medal in more than a single sport at London 2012.• Team Ireland finished 41st in the overall medal table for the London Games. 204 countries took part with only 85 countries making it on to the medals table.