OCI Chief Executive Stephen Martin has been chosen by the Olympic Council of Ireland Executive Board to be Team Ireland’s Chef de Mission for the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games, to be held between 7th -23rd February next year.The double Olympic hockey medallist said “Its an honour and a privilege to lead the Irish Team in Sochi” and added ” we have been working closely with Winter sport to ensure we give targeted athletes the support required to help their qualification campaigns” The Olympic Council of Ireland have supported six athletes as part of its Olympic Scholarship programme and expect athletes to qualify in Winter sport disciplines of alpine skiing, snowboarding, skeleton, and cross country skiing.
Brief Bio:
Dr Stephen Martin MBE is a Double Olympic Hockey Medallist, and former Captain of both Great Britain and the Irish Hockey Teams.
He won a Gold medal in Seoul 1988, Bronze medal in Los Angeles 1984 and finished 6th in Barcelona 1992.
He played in 229 International matches for Great Britain (94) and Ireland (135), played in 3 European Cups, 10 Champions Trophy Tournaments, 1 World Cup and 3 Olympic Games before being awarded an MBE for Services to Hockey in 1993.
His career has been in sport, as Director of Sport at Ulster Hockey, worked in the Performance Department at Sports Council NI , and was Deputy Chief Executive at the British Olympic Association as Head of the Performance Unit of The British Olympic Association responsible for the Olympic Medical Institute, Technical and Athlete Services departments providing elite service provision to Olympic athletes, coaches and scientific and medical support teams.
He was Deputy Chef de Mission at Summer and Winter Olympic Games with Team GB in Sydney 2000 , Salt Lake 2002, and Athens 2004 . He was a member of the UK Sports Institute Board
Martin was appointed Chief Executive ,Olympic Council of Ireland in January 2006. The OCI work to provide the best possible support to Team Ireland at European Youth Olympics, World Youth Olympics, European Games, Summer and Winter Olympic Games.
Martin worked with Team Ireland Chef de Mission’s on Irish Team’s planning and preparation for Beijing 2008, Vancouver 2010 and London 2012 were he was Team Ireland Deputy Chef de Mission alongside Sonia O’Sullivan.
