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29th Jul 2016

PIC: An Irish teen carried the Olympic torch in Brazil last night

Alan Loughnane

He’s the only Irish man carrying the Olympic torch to Rio 2016…

13-year-old Irish teenager Mark O’Brien carried the Olympic torch on a leg of its relay towards Rio last night.

Mark, from Dublin, has had the dream of carrying the torch ever since the London 2012 Olympics and it became a reality for him last night.

A keen athlete, Mark proved the value of persistence as he wrote letter after letter to various Olympic committees before a letter he sent to Carlos Arthur Guzman, the President of the Brazilian Olympic Committee, earned him the honour of bearing the torch.

A moment the youngster will never forget…

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