Sean Sullivan competed in the men’s extra-lightweight (60kg) judo at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.

From the Lower Falls area of Belfast, Sullivan was a member of St Peter’s Judo Club and by profession a coach-builder. He had competed in three World Championships and six European Championships in a distinguished international career.

Sullivan’s Atlanta qualification story illustrates the particular challenges of late wild card invitations. He had narrowly failed to qualify for the Games through the standard route and had finished his training season for the year, conducting a coaching course in Galway, when news arrived of a wild card place.

A note pinned on his accommodation door asked him to contact the IJA immediately. The subsequent push to make the 60kg weight limit and restore competitive form before Atlanta proved immensely challenging. Sullivan subsequently married his then Indian girlfriend – who is known on occasion to remind him of his opening-round defeat to a compatriot of hers.