Swimming-Irish success has been years in the making, says McSharry

PARIS - Ireland's swimming success at the Paris Olympics has been years in the making rather than being any surprise breakthrough, women's breaststroke bronze medallist Mona McSharry said on Wednesday.

McSharry took her country's first Olympic swimming medal since Michelle Smith in 1996 in Monday's 100m final and was followed by Daniel Wiffen taking men's 800m freestyle gold on Tuesday.

That feat made him the first Irishman to win an Olympic swimming medal.

Wiffen won both the 800m and 1,500m free at the world championships in Doha in February, however, and had been outspoken about his chances of winning in Paris.

McSharry, a University of Tennessee graduate from County Sligo, was world junior champion in the 100m breaststroke in 2017.

"I think it's been years and years in the building," she told reporters after qualifying for the 200m breaststroke semi-finals.

"I've basically been travelling with the same people my whole time. There's not a lot of swapping in and out, which is great because we form great connections over the years.

"We've all been just working really hard to push swimming forward and it's great to finally see that coming through, all our hard work is now being shown on the stage."

McSharry said she went to bed at around 4.30-5 a.m. after her medal swim, but was able to sleep in.

"I watched back a couple of clips of my post-race interview and I started crying so I was like 'OK, we're going to have to leave that until after we're done'," she said.

She was at the La Defense Arena to see Wiffen triumph, although she had to leave before the medals ceremony, and said being part of a team performing so well was a general boost.

"Two medals for the swim team... great performances so far and I'm excited to see how the rest of the week goes," added McSharry.

"He's been saying it for years," she added of Wiffen's confident predictions.

"When he first started saying it everyone was like 'Wow, that's a lot of confidence' but he did it. He believed in himself and he did it. It's honestly really impressive."

Ireland previously made a splash when Smith won three golds at the Atlanta Games in the space of five days.

She was banned for four years in 1998 for tampering with a urine sample but maintained her innocence, never failed a drugs test and retained her medals. REUTERS