WHAT SHOULD have been the sporting experience of a lifetime turned out to be a veritable nightmare for Carlow athlete Leona Byrne. For two years the former Youth Olympics competitor toiled and trained to help qualify Ireland for the women's two-person bobsleigh for the Winter Olympics, only to be forced to watch her colleagues race on television from the Olympic Village.

It has transpired that Leona was not actually selected on the Ireland team, as per IOC regulations (no bob reserves), but crucially she was never officially informed of that decision. She was, in her own opinion, left with the impression that the three team members - Aoife Hoey, Claire Bergin and herself - would travel to Whistler with the best break-women in practice taking the rear seat.

For reasons she fails to fathom, the slim six footer considers she was treated with indifference by the Ireland Chef de Mission Siobhan Hoey before and during Whistler, and actually denied her access to the track where she claims she should have been assisting the bob crew as is the practice for any reserve.

At no stage during two years of competition, or in the run-up to Canada, was Leona told that only one break-woman would travel, and had she known then she could have prepared accordingly and accepted the final decision.

For two years Leona, pilot Laois-born Aoife (Siobhan's sister) and former world junior championship athlete Claire Bergin (Dublin) ground out a tedious circuit in World and European Cups chasing that elusive Olympics place, and while Leona was contributory to qualification she was not even included in the Ireland team, yet not informed of that decision even at the gear distribution meeting which she attended.

The train of events, or more to the point inexplicable decisions, from long before qualification in Switzerland to the Games in Whistler has been a catalogue of frustration and disappointments for the DCU sports science graduate.

The Carlow athlete felt that the bob was more of a Team Hoey than Team Ireland, and from rumblings heard the hassle did not only involve Leona.

The unfortunate chain of events began when the Carlovian was excluded from the pre-Games media photo-shoot in Dublin, yet having attended the previous day's gear distribution meeting. However, as it transpired Leona was informed that her gear was 'not there.' All athletes' names were on the gear bags yet none for the Carlow girl at the meeting. And at that stage she was still not informed that she did not make the team.

The first she knew of the photo-shoot was when team colleague Claire Bergin said she would see her here the following day, but because of no formal invitation from the team leader Leona was in Carlow when the shoot was held.

Although she was contributory to the sled qualification, Siobhan informed this writer that it was the driver who qualified the sled, yet the team boss persuaded Leona to defer her final examinations 'for the good of the team' when it transpired that Bergin was prevented from attending two qualification events because of her own exams.

Where the apparent 'clash' originated is puzzling Leona who ironically said she received a Christmas present from the Chef, but she was further baffled when informed by Ms. Hoey that she would be travelling to Whistler AFTER practice and the opening ceremony, and with the accreditation of 'coach,' which OCI press officer Jack McGowan explained was in acknowledgment of Leona's contribution to the team over the last two years.

Leona said she did not want a 'sympathy' trip, and added that had she been told well in advance that only one break-woman would go she would have accepted the decision and happy to watch the games from home.

Apparently the Carlow girl was, because of the reluctance of the team principle to make her aware of the regulations, left under the illusion that she was part of the Ireland team, for reasons she cannot explain.

Reports on what transpired in Canada run counter to what would be expected from a harmonised team representing a nation at a major event, yet Leona was 'separated' from the girls she almost lived with for two years for most of the Whistler duration.

It was probably never the ideal situation to have the pilot sister of the team leader, and inexplicable too was the fact that the bob crew, after the end of trials, chose not to sit with Leona in the village dining area.

Leona, who did not know of the regulations, expected to have helped her colleagues prepare the sled, but she was prevented from going to the track by Ms. Hoey who told her the decision 'was final and official,' the Chef not explaining the situation to her.

Another OCI official was apparently to have travelled as Chef de Mission; Leona finally entering the village as a coach, with Ms. Hoey earlier informing her, by text, that she would be travelling as 'manager,' still not informing her that she was not registered as an athlete.

It was an IOC decision not to include reserves even though any mishap to Ms. Bergin would have ruled the sled out of the competition. The Ireland men's team which competed in Salt Lake City in a previous Games we believe brought a reserve.

After requests from Leona to be permitted to assist her colleagues (after she had filled in as an administrator for the Chef for several days), Ms. Hoey threatened to send the Carlow athlete home, with an OCI official persuading her to remain and not miss the closing ceremony.

Leona took for granted that she would be on the team flight home but learned that she was being flown home prior to that; the 'excuse' that the official fight was full, yet Leona discovered there was availability on the plane. She brought the fact to the attention of Ms. Hoey and an OCI official.

However, Jack McGowan explained that flights were arranged by the international bobsleigh association (FIB) and that the Irish competitors travelled home on three different flights, adding that Leona was not nominated for the Games by the national bobsleigh federation. 'It was felt that it would have been unfair to have penalised Leona by not having her in Whistler, but she had to get a new (different) accreditation. The flights had nothing to do with the Chef de Mission,' he confirmed.

Because of an incident of disharmony at the Games, one Irish athlete is believed to have contacted her parents in an effort to get them to tell the OCI to see to it that their daughter was not hassled in the run-up to her event.

While Leona was precluded from performing the normal duties of a reserve, because of IOC regulations, it was noted that a Hoey brother had accreditation to the village as 'sled technician,' even though he was not involved in any of the girls' international events according to Leona.

Extremely hurtful to her was when the bob girls, their parents and other friends ignored her when they got together for an after-competition dinner, yet Leona's mother Deirdre was dissuaded from travelling to the Games (having booked tickets at a cost of ¤1200) by Ms. Hoey who informed Leona that 'athletes' and relatives would not be able to mingle. The Chef would have known that Leona was not an 'athlete' at Whistler so why attempt to dissuade her mother from travelling?

On another occasion Deirdre and Leona's partner, Ricardo Tavolieri, travelled to see her compete in Germany, but on the decision of Ms. Hoey, Ms. Bergin was to race, despite the fact that the two break-women clocked the same trial times. The 'explanation' was that Claire was heavier (by approximately one kilo) yet Ms. Hoey apparently ordered that two five-kilo weights be removed from the sled for the competition.

It would stand to reason that if the pair clocked the same time the performance of the pilot on each run would be a factor in the times of the two break-women.

It was also rather disingenuous of the bob girls to ignore the qualification contribution of Ms. Byrne when they were the only Irish athletes to appear on two television shows recently. Indeed, they were not challenged when Aoife claimed to have been involved in only ONE crash, and Claire not having had that experience at all. Yet Leona recalled being behind Aoife when she toppled the sled TWICE.

After one of the two crashes Aoife was taken to hospital for precautionary treatment, yet Leona claimed she was not in receipt of the same attention but dismissed with the presumption of fitness.

Apparently all was not rosy in the Olympic camp where athletes should be shielded from politics and controversy, and if the Irish team's poor (boxers apart) performance in the summer games was a topic for examination, then there must be cause to dig deeper into events at Whistler.

A down-side of Leona's involvement in the bob team is that she put her track activity on hold for the two years.

Leona's parents were particularly disappointed at what they heard from Canada, with Oliver 'Racey' Byrne saying: 'It was not just Leona but how everyone was treated,' adding that he was amazed the team did not compete in the Irish colours. 'That was unbelievable - the only thing Irish was the sticker Leona put on it.

'Any parent would be naturally delighted for a daughter, but then for all that to happen. Leona cried almost every night when speaking with her mother.

'Sport has been her life and I'd fear that what happened might put off other young athletes,' he added.

* This writer sought permission from Ms. Hoey to interview Leona prior to the Games. The Chef was to have returned my call that night, but when I rang later in the evening the call was abruptly discontinued. She had informed me that she was not keen to have the athletes interviewed so close to the Games, yet her own sister was heavily publicised in a daily newspaper interview some days previously.

After I contacted the OCI, Ms. Hoey texted her 'permission' to me the following day; the method of communication suggesting a reluctance on her part to afford Leona any publicity.

- PAUL DONAGHY