Rachael Blackmore wins Sportsperson of the Year

Katie George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal are Team of the Year

Dominic Casey wins Manager of the Year

Gavin Bazunu named Young Sportsperson of the Year

For full report and clips, click here.

Joanne Cantwell and Darragh Maloney presented the RTÉ Sport Awards 2021 on RTÉ One tonight (Saturday 18 December) celebrating the stars of a remarkable year of Irish sporting achievements at home and abroad, a year which saw an unprecedented six female sportspeople out of the eight nominees vying for tonight’s main award, the RTÉ Sport Sportsperson of the Year.

The Republic of Ireland’s first choice goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu was named Young Sportsperson of the Year after a 2021 in which he had several nights to remember as he became a permanent fixture in Stephen Kenny’s side. The 19-year-old stopper produced a string of world class saves, the highlight of which was to deny Cristiano Ronaldo from the penalty spot.

Ireland’s lightweight rowing head coach Dominic Casey won Manager of the Year for a year in which he again oversaw success on the water with Ireland’s first ever rowing Olympic gold medal. The 2018 World Rowing Coach of the Year celebrated as Paul O’Donovan & Fintan McCarthy put in several dominant displays throughout the year, firstly in the Lightweight doubles sculls at the European Championships and then the Tokyo Olympics.

Katie George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal were named as the RTÉ Sport Team of the Year. 2021 saw the tandem para-cycling stars have their best Paralympic games yet, with two gold medals and a silver at Tokyo 2020. They inspirationally seized silver at the velodrome in the B 3,000m individual pursuit. On the roads of Mount Fuji they retained the time trial title they won in Rio five years ago, before completing their triple medal haul in the B road race at the Fuji International Speedway.

Also, this evening saw double World cross country champion, Olympic silver medallist and soon-to-be-retiring chief executive of Sport Ireland, John Treacy inducted to the RTÉ Sport Hall of Fame.

Finally tonight Rachael Blackmore was crowned the RTÉ Sport Sportsperson of the Year. The National Hunt jockey twice made history this year. Firstly, with a stunning week at the Cheltenham Festival, where she was the first ever female to be crowned ‘Top Jockey’, with six wins, including in the Champion Hurdle with Honeysuckle. She then followed that up at Aintree, as she became the first female jockey to win the Randox Grand National with Minella Times.