 ireland competed at the 2004 summer olympics in athens, greece, from 13 to 29 august 2004. this was the nation's eighteenth appearance at the summer olympics. the olympic council of ireland sent a total of 46 athletes to the games, 32 men and 14 women, to compete in 9 sports. the international olympic committee allowed athletes from northern ireland the option to compete at the olympic games for either great britain and northern ireland, or for ireland. ireland's olympic campaign for the games started with a controversy, as middle-distance runner cathal lombard failed a drug test for epo, and was not allowed to compete. originally, ireland left athens with only a gold medal from show jumper cian o'connor. on october 8, 2004, international federation for equestrian sports announced that waterford crystal, owned by o'connor, failed a horse doping test for fluphenazine and zuclopenthixol that formally stripped off o'connor's olympic title in early 2005. because o'connor decided not to appeal, he formally stripped off his olympic title, and thereby handed it over to silver medalist rodrigo pessoa of brazil. ==athletics ==  irish athletes have so far achieved qualifying standards in the following athletics events (up to a maximum of 3 athletes in each event at the 'a' standard, and 1 at the 'b' standard). middle-distance runner cathal lombard was initially selected to the team, but he failed a drug test for epo, and was not allowed to compete. ;key *note&ndash;ranks given for track events are within the athlete's heat only *q = qualified for the nex
2004_in_Irish_sport Ireland_at_the_Olympics Nations_at_the_2004_Summer_Olympics