Did you hear about the Irish man who turned up for the Olympic Games opening ceremony with no ticket and his attempt to gain admittance was met with a stern refusal? While wandering around outside the stadium he came across a construction site which gave him an idea. Seizing a role of barbed wire, he presented himself at the gate and announced, "O'Sullivan, fencing".

Well, Siobhan Byrne is Ireland's first female Olympic fencer in 50 years and the first in the sport since 1992 and hopefully the 'gateman' in Beijing will not need convincing when she attempts to gain admittance.

And while the world may not be used to an Irish fencer, Byrne is no stranger to inter-national competition as she has continually defies the odds stacked against her to make it to the biggest stage of all.

Siobhan, whose father John comes from Ardcalf, Slane, has almost single-handedly taken the sport to a new level with her performances for Ireland over many years, and her qualification for the Beijing Olympics has helped kill the myth of the Irish fencing joke.

Her father John, who played football for Rathkenny during the 1970s before emigrating to Germany, lives in Eislingen with his Scottish-born wife Gillian and other children Jason and Keira.

Speaking to the Drogheda Independent before Gillian and himself set off for a 10-day trip to Beijing this weekend to support Siobhan, John said it is remarkable what his daughter has achieved.

'Siobhan flew out to Beijing this week, but she already had a week in Atlanta preparing with the US national team and was staying with one of their top fencers Sada Jacobson,' explained John. 'Jacobson was ranked number one in the world in 2004, won a bronze medal in Athens and is favourite for gold this time. She has spent the last four years preparing for these Olympics, doing nothing else, has her own personal coach as well as the national coach.

'It opened Siobhan's eyes in a big way. Siobhan studied for four years and travelled around the world trying to compete at the same time. She had a 16 to 17-hour day at times. This is in comparison to the American girl who has been focusing solely on the Olympics for four years.

'It's two different worlds, but Siobhan is in the top 30 to 40 in the world at present, and on a good day she can beat anyone and has beaten this girl as a junior in a World Cup com-petition, which was fantastic.To achieve what Siobhan has and get a degree with honours, is mind-boggling.'

As the countdown to competition begins, Siobhan is now in a training camp in Beijing with her Russian coach, legendary Soviet fencer Vladimir Nazlymov. She fences on the opening day of the Olympics, missing out on the opening ceremony because she has to be up at the crack of dawn the next day to compete.

John did not expect to be making the trip to Beijing himself as he went to the States a few months back to see Siobhan graduate - a spectacular event with more than 8,000 students marching into a 100,000-seater stadium.

'That was something I didn't want to miss,' continued John. 'I was happy enough with that, but then my wife went out and booked a flight and we will be over there for 10 days.'

Siobhan has slipped down the world rankings this year because the plan was to leave the World Cup circuit, just compete in a few events and concentrate on college, winning the championship and qualifying for Beijing. She has managed to achieve both, helping Ohio State to the gold medal in the national cham-pionship as well as winning silver in the individual event.

On June 8th she graduated at the top of her collegiate class and received a degree in health information management and systems. She was also named a finalists for the Big 10 Medal of Honour and earned a scholar-ship for medical school.

Had Siobhan being living in Ireland, or indeed Germany, her Olympic dream would never have gotten off the ground, says her father.

'Fencing is not a known sport in Ireland and there wasn't much as far as coaching was concerned. She wouldn't have achieved Olympic qualification if she was living in Ireland; that?s the bottom line.'

She grew up in the town of Eislingen where there happened to be two national fencing coaches and that is what got Siobhan into the sport.

'The idea was that she would change her nationality to German citizenship, but she couldn't do that until she was 18. At the end of the day, though, she wanted to be representing Ireland and when she decided that, the coaching on this side stopped and she was out on a limb for a while.

'Then she got the offer of a scholarship in the States and went for it. Had she stayed in Germany to study, she would probably have had to pack in fencing.

'She has spent the last four years in Ohio State and will now take a year out to work in the university and work as an assistant fencing coach as well. Then she will go back and do her Masters.'