TWO years ago, Mona McSherry was ready to call time on her swimming career – but on Monday night she stood on the podium with tears in her eyes and an Olympic bronze medal around her neck.
The Sligo woman, a graduate of the Marlins Swimming Club in Ballyshannon, held off Italy’s Benadetta Pilata by hundredths of a second to cling onto third spot in an intense finale of the 100m breaststroke final on Monday night.
In doing so, she secured Ireland’s first medal at Paris 2024 in the process, and a first Olympic swimming medal in 28 years.
Yet, a year after also making the final of the 2021 Games in Tokyo, McSharry was fed up. Done with swimming.
“I’d come to the conclusion that I hated swimming, really disliked it,” she told The Irish Times at the start of this year.
As she watched the Irish tricolour being raised in La Defense Arena, how happy the 23-year-old must have been that she didn’t follow her gut when relief was the overriding emotion after the 2022 European Championships in Rome.
“Those moments where I thought I was done really put it into perspective, what I really do this for and this is a huge bonus.
“But there’s so many other things that become a part of this, like training and watching my friends compete and, you know, being able to see myself progress and get better.
“And then you do have bonus moments like this, where you get to stand up on the podium and watch your flag raised at the Olympic Games. I think it’s just the pinnacle of sport to have all your hard work pay off in something like this.
“There’s been a huge progression - it’s definitely down to a lot of hard work, and just dedication to moments like this and trying to be the best I can be and keep pushing to be better.
“I don’t think I’ve ever cried for a medal before so I think that just goes to show how big of a deal it is.”
And it was also the realisation of a dream formed alongside coach Grace Meade way back in 2015, as McSharry plotted out how she wanted her career to go. There have been ups and downs along the way but, on Monday night, she got there.
“I’ve been telling myself that I’m going for a medal all year and, honestly, this was in the plan way back when I sat down with my coach Grace Meade
“We said 2020 [Tokyo Games] was the feeler Olympics and 2024 would be the ones where we get stuff done. So it’s been in the works for a while, and I’ve always had the expectation that I could.”
She even had to overcome a bit of turbulence on the night, after the right lens of her goggles filled up with water in the first 50 metres.
“It probably, honestly, was a little bit of a benefit because this one filled up, so I couldn’t see anything on the side of it. So, I was really just watching the Chinese girl and like, okay, come on, I gotta get her, I gotta get her.
“I kind of had my blinkers on for what was going on.”
Meanwhile, Dublin’s Ellen Walshe finished in eighth position in the women’s 400 individual medley.
Competing in her first Olympic final, she clocked 4:40.70, slightly slower than her semi-final time on Monday morning
The race was won by Canada’s Summer McIntosh, who holds the world record for the event, in a time of 4:27.71, with US duo Katie Grimes and Emma Weyant taking silver and bronze 4:33.40 and 4:34.93 respectively.
“When you look at the overall outcome, like I’m Olympic finalist. Not many people are able to say that and, yeah, I would have liked a stronger swim tonight and they thought I had a little bit more in me then this morning, but I think I tried to race the race beside me, then my own race at the start, so probably paid for it a little bit.
“It’s an amazing achievement and I probably don’t quite see it right now but, hopefully in years and months to come, I will look back and be like it was a very special moment.”
Elsewhere, Newtownabbey’s Danielle Hill finished in eighth position in the semi-final of the 100m backstroke, having earlier qualified in 16th overall.
