And Still – Katie Taylor Remains Ireland’s Most Admired

And still.. Katie Taylor remains Ireland’s Most Admired Athlete.

The Irish Sporting Icon was voted as such for the NINTH year in a row. The two-weight undisputed world champion retained her crown on the Teneo Sport and Spon­sor­ship Index (TSSI), a 1,000-strong sur­vey con­duc­ted by Teneo’s Sports Advis­ory team and iRe­ach Insights.

Taylor topped that cat­egory, receiv­ing 14% of the vote. As in 2024, a win in her only fight of the year, the highly anti­cip­ated tri­logy fight against Amanda Ser­rano, was enough to see the Bray boxer retain her crown.

Ireland’s only double Olympic gold medal winning boxer Kellie Harrington also appears on the list finishing in joint fifth on 4% of the vote.

Troy Par­rott debuts on the list in second place on 10% after his goalscor­ing hero­ics against Por­tugal and Hun­gary that kept Ire­land’s World Cup hopes alive.

Rory McIl­roy takes third place (7%) after com­plet­ing the career Grand Slam at Augusta, fol­lowed by Shane Lowry in fourth (6%) after the Clara golfer sank the putt at Beth­page to retain the Ryder Cup for Europe.

Bundee Aki, the Ire­land, Con­nacht and Brit­ish and Irish Lions centre, shares fifth place (4%) with Har­ring­ton, recently retired jockey Rachael Black­more and the Repub­lic of Ire­land men’s foot­ball inter­na­tion­als, Caoimhín Kelle­her and Séamus Cole­man.

Taylor also finished high on the Most Memorable Sporting Moments of the year. Her win over Serrano at Madison Square Garden finishing second behind Parrott’s hat trick against Hungary.

Two iconic golfing moments shared third place on 10% apiece — Rory McIlroy’s putt to complete the career Grand Slam with victory at the Masters in Augusta, and Shane Lowry’s emotional celebrations after rolling in a nerveless seven-footer on the 18th at Bethpage to retain the Ryder Cup for Europe.

In fifth place on 6% was Kate O’Connor’s poignant embrace with her father and coach, Michael, after claiming silver in the heptathlon at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.

The findings come from a TSSI survey, conducted with quotas across gender, region, age and social class, examining attitudes among the Irish public towards sport and sporting heroes. Now in its 16th year, the research was carried out across the Republic of Ireland between December 3 and 11 and reflects the views of the general public, not solely sports fans or experts.

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