Kellie Harrington doing something that few of the all time greats have managed
The way the Irishwoman has carried herself should be presented to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as part of the case for keeping boxing at the Games
It's not just being a double Olympic champion that sets Kellie Harrington apart. Her decision to retire while at the pinnacle of a glittering career is something unusual, and it's something few of the all time greats have managed.
On New Year's Eve, 2009, RTE marked the decade with a programme showcasing the results of an online poll to find Ireland's greatest sportsperson.
Golfer Padraig Harrington came top, followed by rugby's Brian O'Driscoll in second spot, and motorcycling's Joey Dunlop in third. It is an interesting exercise to look at the top 10 and consider how their careers ended.
READ MORE: Kellie Harrington becomes double Olympic champion with performance of a lifetime in Paris
READ MORE: Kellie Harrington crowned the Queen of Paris as she makes her exit centre court
Golfers go on longer than most and Harrington is still a force on the seniors' circuit. O'Driscoll lasted just eight minutes of his last game, a Celtic League final win for Leinster over Glasgow, with a calf injury forcing him off.
Dunlop was tragically killed in a race in Estonia in 2000 and drink destroyed both George Best's life and career. He ended up playing in outposts of the game like Stockport County, Cork Celtic and Brisbane Lions. His last game was with Tobermore United, a lower division outfit in the north.
Roy Keane's career petered out in an ineffectual spell at Celtic and Sean Kelly's final major stage race was in 1994 in the Paris-Nice. He came 57th
Sonia O'Sullivan went to four Olympics but was lapped in the 5000m final in her last visit at Athens 2004.
Christy Ring had a career of astonishing success and longevity. He made his hurling Championship debut in 1939, and was an unused sub in his last season in 1963. Ring won eight All-Irelands with Cork, but his last one came in 1954.
Horseracing is a sport where trainers can thrive well into old age and Vincent O'Brien saddled winners in big races from the 1940s to the 1990s. He didn't go out at the very top, but he was close to it.
Maybe the most loved Irishsportsperson of all is Paul McGrath, who came 10th in that RTE poll. After being discarded by Manchester United, he proved Alex Ferguson wrong when winning the PFA Footballer of the Year award at Aston Villa in 1993.
McGrath played on until he was 38, but was just a shadow of his former self at Sheffield United and Derby County.
Look at Harrington's own sport and the greatest fighter to ever lace a pair of gloves.
But the last sound Muhammad Ali heard as a boxer was the ringing of a cow bell.
Ali's final fight was against Trevor Berbick, a journeyman, in the Bahamas, on December 11, 1981.
It was the most farcical of promotions. To save money, gloves were unlaced rather than cut off hands, so that other fighters could use them.
The bill was nearly three hours behind schedule by the time Ali and Berbick stepped into the ring.
But, somehow, the organisers hadn’t even remembered to get a proper bell to sound the beginning and end of rounds.
A cow bell was procured from somewhere, and it signalled the end for Ali after 10 plodding rounds with victory going to Berbick.
That’s how it ended for the Greatest. That’s how it ends for so many greats.
So for Harrington to bow out with double Olympic gold after a week where she performed better than at any time in her life...it's incredible.
And the way she has carried herself should be presented to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as part of the case for keeping boxing at the Games.
People always get uncomfortable if you talk about class in this country. They prefer to delude themselves that Ireland is unlike the UK, that it isn't really a factor there.
Look at the Olympics for the counterargument. Former Ireland manager Brian Kerr once made the point that you don't get Olympic boxers from Foxrock or Olympic sailors from Tallaght.
Late on Tuesday night, Harrington spoke of her fears for the future of boxing at the Olympics.
There are plenty of influential figures in the IOC that have no love for boxing, feeling it just brings controversy and headaches.
But the Olympics would be far less inclusive without boxing. Look at what Harrington's success means to Dublin's north inner city, one of the most deprived areas in the country.
Look at the impact made at the Games by the likes of Francis Barrett and John-Joe Nevin - both from Traveller backgrounds.
Kerr also once made the point that many amateur boxing coaches are effectively unpaid social workers. An Olympics without boxing would be a lesser thing. Harrington showed the world that over an extraordinary week.
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