Seán McGoldrick: Prolific Co Donegal family paving a path to Paris

Samuel Magee was one of the founders of Raphoe Badminton Club, based in the town’s Presbyterian church originally.

Four of his eight children, Daniel, Chloe, Sam, and Joshua, have had distinguished careers in the sport on the international stage.

Badminton Ireland’s newly appointed first women’s national development manager, Chloe, was the first Irish woman to win an Olympic badminton match at the Beijing games in 2008. She was also an Olympian in 2012 and 2016.

Together with Sam, who is now one of Badminton Ireland’s two elite-level coaches, they secured a bronze medal at the 2017 European Championships and the pair also won bronze medals at the 2015 and 2019 European Games.

Daniel is Badminton Ireland’s high-performance director, while Joshua and his doubles partner Paul Reynolds are aiming to qualify for the Paris Olympics.

Meanwhile, the next generation of Magees are emerging as the new stars. Their niece, Rachael Darragh (26), is Ireland’s current number one female player and looks on course for Paris next year.

Raised in Raphoe, her mother Naomi insisted Rachael sample all the available sports when she was growing up. “I tried everything: gymnastics, swimming, hockey. You name it, I did it, but badminton was the one I was always excited to go to and I always wanted to do.”

Her first memory of the sport is watching her aunt and uncle, Chloe and Sam, being put through their paces by an elite coach in Raphoe.

“I would be there picking up the shuttles.”

She moved to Dublin after completing her Leaving Certificate at the age of 17. Badminton Ireland was then based in the Marino Institute of Education off Griffith Avenue – they have since moved to the Sport Ireland campus in Blanchardstown – and Rachael lived on the college grounds.

Later, she secured a sports scholarship at the Technological University Dublin (TUD) in Grangegorman and completed a course in management. Due to her badminton commitments, she spread it over six years.

Apart from the sports scholarship, she has essentially been financing her badminton career from her own resources until last year, when she also received some assistance from Badminton Ireland and Sport Ireland.

She hit a career-high of 59 in the world rankings last week and is 24th in the Olympic ratings, comfortably inside the cut-off point of 38. But the qualification process continues until next May.

Her fortunes have improved dramatically after a disastrous start at this summer’s European Games in Krakow.

“The European Games is absolutely huge, it’s once every four years, and I had it built up in my head. So, I was really excited for the event. I was looking forward to it. I got there and was about to walk out on court and I just had an absolute meltdown.

“The nerves were crazy, I couldn’t play at all, I was stressed. I don’t think I’ve played that badly in about three years. That was a big wake-up call for me.”

Watching online, Chloe knew something was amiss as soon as her niece struck her first shot.

“Rachael is a very, very skilful player. Her racquet is what makes her as good as she is, and when her shots weren’t even close to how good they are, I was like, ‘Right, OK, there’s just something not right here’. You could just tell, you know when someone’s really, really nervous.”

It wasn’t until she was back in Ireland that Rachel focussed on why things went awry.

“I came home from that event and I had a real hard think about why I started to feel like that, why it happened. I spoke to my coach [Iskandar Zulkarnain bin Zainuddin from Malaysia, who also coaches Tokyo Irish Olympian Nhat Nguyen] and Chloe as well because I know she’s obviously felt like this before.

“I just found the reasons why and how I can prevent ending up feeling like that in the future. I got some coping mechanisms for nerves and things. I tried to fix the things that went wrong with my coach and then forget about it. It’s a year-long process.”

Her results since illustrate the transformation. Rachael had a first podium finish in the Lagos International Challenge and reached the quarter-final of a Super 100 event, a part of the World tour.

“I think I cannot fully relax until I see that list and my name is on it next May. But I think having the results behind me is making me more confident on court and being able to relax a bit more.

“Obviously, I have a good team around me, and they are helping me in the process as well. It is not just about qualifying for the Olympics, it is about how I show up at these events, play well and get my results.”

All the signs are that the Magee badminton dynasty is headed towards Paris in 2024.