Enniskillen’s Gavin Noble will lead the largest-ever Irish Olympic Games team into action this week as Ireland’s Chef de Mission.

Ireland is sending a record 130 athletes across 14 different sports for the Paris Olympics, which start on Friday, and the athletes along with the team’s supporting entourage is under Noble’s management, as he masterminds the huge logistical operation.

The former triathlete, who represented Ireland as a competitor at the London 2012 Games, took on the role of Deputy Chef de Mission at the previous Games in Toyko before stepping up to oversee the Ireland team in Paris, and he admits he is looking forward to the challenge.

“There are no nerves for me because I’m not the one going out competing, but it is very exciting,” he said.

“I have been in the village since July 11, and the first teams arrived on Friday. I have been setting everything up. I have a load of meetings, and then we welcome the teams bit by bit because they all come in on different days.”

The opening ceremony this Friday will mark the start of the Games, but the work put in by Noble and his team has been going on since the end of the last Olympics four years ago.

After overseeing the selection process, the main focus of the Enniskillen man’s task for the remainder of the Games is now focussed around making the athlete’s Olympic experience as stress-free as possible.

“We have announced all the teams, but there is still a lot to do,” he revealed.

“I’m chief problem solver. There are always problems, always things I have to do and people I have to support. I’ll have to iron out some things. I’m not firefighting, but I’m on hand to sort out any problems that the athletes and the teams may have when they come in.

"There will always be something, and you have to be prepared every day. Whether it's illness in the camp, or it's security, or how they are going to move from A to B. I report back to the organisers in terms of ways I think they could improve things, like with transport, or ticketing, or access, or it's very hot at the minute so maybe how they could mitigate against the heat.

"We have to sort out how people are getting in and out of France, sorting out accreditations and access, and we have a medical team that manages any injuries. I have to do a Chef de Mission update every morning. We get updates from the government, I do security briefings. There is a lot around the team that might not directly affect the performance of the team, but it certainly affects the operation of the team.”

Noble will have Irish athletes spread out across the country, but his main base for the next two weeks will be the Olympic Village.

“The village is a weird and wonderful place,” he revealed, adding: “But everyone quickly settles in and they go around and get all the free stuff, and get into the food hall, and get photographs with all the landmarks. It’s a special place. The athletes all have a picture in their minds of what it is like, and it is our job to make sure it matches their expectations. There are 8,000 athletes, all in different sports, and it is a magical place.”

As a native to Fermanagh, the athletes of his home county hold a special place in his affections and he admits he will be making sure to catch up with the locals during the Games, despite their bases not being centrally located.

He spent Monday with Clare Boles and the Ireland Rugby Sevens teams in their training camp three hours out of the city. 

Leona Maguire will fly in and out of Versailles for the golf competition, and Nathan Timoney and Ross Corrigan arrived on Monday and headed straight for the rowing venue.

“Ross and Nathan are not staying in the village,” explained Noble. “They have a hotel closer to the course, so they are not going to be staying in the village before they compete. They will base themselves at the hotel and travel back and forth to the race site, and then after it is over maybe they can join the village. I will definitely call out to see the rugby women and I will call out to see the boys rowing for sure. I will make a point of going to see anyone from Fermanagh!”

At the previous Olympics in Toyko Ireland came home with four medals, and Noble admits they would like to better that in Paris.

“Our goal is that we do better than Tokyo, and that should be realistic,” he said.

“There are probably 10 people within the team with a realistic ambition to win medals. If you are going to take those 10 chances or not you just don’t know, but we have 10 opportunities to do very, very well.

"We could end up with 10 really good results in terms of medals, or you could end up with none. It should be realistic for us to get between four and six but if we take our chances I would be very confident that we end up around about 10.”

Having recently won on the Ladies European Tour, golfer Leona Maguire will be one of those dreaming of her first Olympic medal, while Noble believes Paris could be just the start of a long Olympic journey for Timoney and Corrigan.

“With golf, it’s hard to know how it might go, but Leona goes into every tournament trying to win and the Olympics will be no different,” he said.

“Ross and Nathan are first-time Olympians so there is not too much expectation on them. The goal from Rowing Ireland is that everyone is prepared to be good enough to be in the top six. I think that is realistic for the boys. If they can reproduce their form from last year’s World Championships then maybe they can go better than that.

"I think in the first year of the Olympics it is about working it all out before you can go on to another games and be better competitors. I think they should just enjoy it, and if they can get through the semis and into the final then they will have done a really good job.”

Noble will have a lot on his plate over the next two weeks, but despite the hectic nature of the task ahead of him, he is hoping he can make some time to enjoy what he believes will be a memorable Olympic Games.

“I am so busy that I don’t know if I will get the chance to sit down and enjoy it, but I hope I do. My pass is ‘Access all Areas’ so I get to go where I want to go, but I don’t necessarily go as a spectator a lot of the time,” he said.

“There is a lot of positivity around Paris. The venues are unbelievable, with the amount of people and the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower and all the different landmarks. Everyone around the place is in good form.

"Even back home when we were doing the selections, you cannot help but get excited by it, but at the same time we have a big job to do and we will try to keep it professional.

"There is a really good energy here. European Games, especially for us English-speaking people, fans can travel over and it is in our time zone on TV, so there will be a great buzz. You don’t know when or where, but you know there will be iconic moments throughout the Games that will be remembered forever. I am looking forward to plenty of those.”