Sligo’s Mona McSharry took a stunning Olympic bronze medal in the final of the women’s 100m breaststroke at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
In doing so, McSharry became Team Ireland’s first medallist at in the French capital.
A product of Ballyshannon Marlins SC in Donegal McSharry stormed to third in a time of 1:00.59.
McSharry pipped Italy’s Benedetta Pinato to the wall by just one-hundredth of a second.
South Africa’s Tatjana Smith took gold in 1:05.28, with China’s Qiantang Tang second in 1:05.54.
She has scant time to rest, as she’ll be back in the pool for tomorrow morning’s heats of the 200-metre breaststroke.
McSharry, a graduate University of Tennessee where she has been part of the swim programme under her coach Matt Kredich, becomes the first Irish swimmer to win an Olympic medal in 28 years, and notably the first Irish swimmer to ever win an Olympic breaststroke medal.
Speaking directly afterwards McSharry said: “I’m very excited! I don’t think it’s fully sunk in yet that I’ve actually won a medal! I think once I get up on the podium it’ll all become really real but I think it’s just amazing because it’s years of hard work that have paid off and it just feels amazing!
Asked what she thought when she saw the result she said: “A little bit of relief, a little bit of wow – okay this is actually happening! Then just really excited to be in that position.”
Reflecting on the story of the race itself: “I could see the Chinese girl beside me so I knew that she was ahead of me so I was like I need to try and catch her because if she’s ahead then I don’t know what’s going on, on the other side – I can’t see that.
“I had a bad first fifty – my goggles filled up with water a little bit so not a perfect race but it just shows you’re in it until the end and you just have to keep going – I was like ‘I’m not giving up, I’m going, I’m going’ and I think it was 0.01 between me and the next swimmers so that’s kind of crazy, but that’s what racing is about – close finishes!”
