Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy hitch lift to Cork after returning home with Olympic gold
The rowing duo had been planning on getting the bus home from Dublin to Cork.
Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy returned to Ireland this afternoon fresh from winning their second Olympic gold medal as a team last week.
The fearsome duo emulated their success in Tokyo by defending their Lightweight double skulls crown and winning a second successive Olympic gold medal.
After soaking up the atmosphere in Paris for a few more days, the Skibbereen boys jetted home to Dublin and were greeted like heroes by fans when they made their way through arrivals.
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As double Olympic champions, you would be forgiven for thinking that the pair were going to make their way back to Cork in a private car or something of that nature.
You would be wrong, as the double Olympic Champions had planned on getting the bus home to Cork from Dublin.
Those plans changed however when they met a man on their flight who was driving back to Cork and offered to give the two lads a lift, with Dublin Airport's official social media account on hand to capture the moment the three men began their journey to Cork.
With two golds earned alongside McCarthy and a silver with his brother Gary back in 2016, O'Donovan is now regarded as one of Ireland's greatest ever Olympians, an accolade which O'Donovan himself plays down.
"I think that’s a fluke, to be honest."
On his the win last week, O'Donovan said: "It was always in doubt for everyone else," he claimed. "I mean, no-one else believed we could do it. And against all the odds we stuck with it, trained hard and Italy out there today were the number one seeds and really put it up there.
"Greece were underdogs like ourselves, also put in a big day again today and got onto the medal podium and unfortunately Switzerland missed out after some good performances earlier this year. But very happy to prove the doubters wrong. So it’s a good day for the Irish.”
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