Daniel Wiffen reveals drastic life change he's undertaking in order to maximise chances at LA Olympics
2
Deloitte Ireland yesterday announced a four-year partnership with Wiffen
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Monday's announcement came on Global Olympics Day
Credit: Alamy
The 23-year-old
Manley told him he needed the change now to achieve his goal of becoming a treble gold medal winner at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Wiffen said: 'I am moving out of my house in Loughborough, so I'm definitely moving back to Ireland as my main training base.
'I will be doing stints in America. The Olympics are going to be there so you have to get ready for that way of life and time zone.
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'Nathan is going to be there. You can only stay so far away from your twin you were born three minutes before so that's what I'm going to do. I'll be moving coach and it's going to be hard.
'I only decided four weeks ago that I was going to be leaving Loughborough. It was maybe two weeks ago when we had the conversation.
'We're really good friends and we chat all the time. He wants what's best for me. He's not a selfish coach and he's not going to tell me to stay just for his own benefit.
'He thinks it's beneficial for my career, that I need a new start because being in a university programme, you get 18-year-olds, 17-year-olds coming in every year who are a lot lower level than what I am at this point in my career.
Most read in Other Sports
'You want to strive to be better than the people . . . you want to train with somebody better than you though it's hard to train with somebody better than an Olympic gold medallist.
'It's trying to progress in other areas. A university programme probably isn't the best place for me at this point in my career.'
Full circle moment' - Jacqui Hurley emotional as RTE host prepares to represent Ireland on global stage
Wiffen is unsure who will coach him but is happy to return to his Armagh base and work from there with support from Swim Ireland.
But having won over fans last year when he declared he would win an Olympic gold medal in Paris and then achieved the feat, he has even loftier goals for LA 2028.
He said: 'The end goal is three gold medals at LA. I'm just training away and refining the skills right now.
'And then at the start of July I'm leaving for Malaysia for our pre-camp before the World Championships in Singapore in August.
'I've been told a couple of times by different world champions that the hardest world championships to win is the one after winning the Olympics.
'I'm up for the challenge. Obviously my goal is to stay undefeated in the 800 metres. I haven't lost in the 800m freestyle since 2023.
'For me that's the goal — just to keep undefeated and win another gold medal and then hopefully add that 400m and try to challenge it a bit more, and then for the 1500m.
'It's to try and progress from that bronze medal and win the gold I won in Doha before.
'I would say we're aiming for three gold medals. The 400m is maybe a bit of a stretch because it's a new event, but definitely two.'
DEALINGS WITH RUDD
Wiffen also spoke on the subject of former Swim Ireland National Performance Director Jon Rudd, who was the subject of a BBC Panorama programme that
None of the allegations were from Rudd's time in Ireland and Swim Ireland
But Wiffen said he always enjoyed working with Swim Ireland while highlighting that he had few dealings with Rudd and no knowledge of the allegations.
He said: 'I've only got good things to say about Swim Ireland and how they have supported me. Jon was not a performance director for me, he wasn't my coach.
'He just answered emails for me and was never on poolside coaching.
So I would have no idea.'
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The Irish Sun
2 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
Fintan McCarthy admits partnership with Paul O'Donovan ‘up in the air' after facing fellow Olympics gold medal hero
WHEN Paul O'Donovan's brother Gary made way for Fintan McCarthy, it was a reminder that nothing lasts forever in rowing. And now McCarthy is getting his head around the fact that one of Irish sport's most successful sporting partnerships may not have another chapter in their story. 2 Pictured at the Multi Sport Pavilion, Sport Ireland Campus in Dublin is Olympic rower Fintan McCarthy Credit: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile 2 Olympic Champions in lightweight men's double sculls Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy Credit: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile The siblings won silver in Rio before Gary, the older of the two, was supplanted by McCarthy for Tokyo. A gold medal in 2021 justified the selection and the pair Winning a hat-trick of Olympic titles will be a little more complicated. For one, the the Games , prompting a step-up to heavyweight. Read More on Olympics Secondly, right now, they are in what might be called — in sporting terms — an open relationship . So at the World Cup in But the pair still found themselves gravitating towards one another off the water . Alongside Konan Pazzaia, McCarthy came third. Most read in Other Sports O'Donovan paired up with Daire Lynch — who took bronze in Paris with Philip Doyle — and finished fifth. McCarthy said: 'It was strange. We're so used to each other, which is the main thing I found with other people. Paul O'Donovan wins RTE Sportsperson of the Year 2024 after winning third Olympic medal in a row in Paris 'You kind of have to get to know people's routines, the way they work and their sort of maybe temperament around racing and stuff, whereas I would just be so used to that with Paul. 'It was funny in Lucerne. I think we found ourselves just getting back into the routine of having dinner at the same time. 'Like we all ate together and that kind of thing. 'And then going out to race , you sort of remind yourself like, 'Oh yeah, sorry. It's a bit different'. 'It was strange but he hasn't really been around this year anyway. So it wasn't too much of a shock either. 'But it was nice to have him there actually. 'We got along quite well over there, despite racing against each other. 'At the moment, it's quite up in the air. 'Paul is obviously focusing on his medical career at the moment. 'We don't really know where that's going to take him over the next few years. 'So you kind of have to plan to be without him for a while at least. 'And that is hard because I know how good what we had was and how successful it could be. 'But having said that, there's a lot of talent in the rowing centre as well.' NOTHING NEW That includes Pazzaia, the Geneva-born son of a But McCarthy stressed his new partner has been on the Irish rowing scene for some time already. He said: 'He's not new by any stretch. 'We seem to have had a pretty good double so far.' Pazzaia — who grew up in University — was inspired to take up rowing after seeing the exploits of the O'Donovan brothers nine years ago. McCarthy is not unaware of the passing of time and the changing of dynamics. He said: 'I guess as the Olympic cycles go on, it kind of becomes my job to sort of be what Paul was for me early on and bring on the other guys, which I quite like. 'I probably have a lot to share and offer that will help them. And that's only going to help whoever ends up being in the boat for the Games be the quickest in LA.' But if there is still much up in the air, that is as much by design as circumstance. "We're so used to each other, which is the main thing I found with other people." Fintan McCarthy McCarthy is racing in both the single and quad this year, although he does ultimately still see himself in the double. The 28-year-old is enjoying the freedom that comes in the year after an Olympics, admitting he has allowed himself to party after recent regattas. The Skibbereen man is also savouring the release of no longer having to weigh in at 69kg. He said: 'I feel like we were so dialled in last year that for me anyway, we nearly went too far over the edge. 'I got quite sick in May and I was a bit injured as well. 'That is kind of part of it, especially in an Olympic year. 'I think sometimes that drive to just go all in for a year and leave no stone unturned, it can catch up to you quite quickly, especially when you're so on the line in terms of food and making weight anyway, that it's quite easy to tip the scales. 'So just not having to ride that line so hard has been kind of refreshing as well, knowing that you're going to have the energy to do big sessions and actually recover from them as well. 'That's probably been a relief in itself. 'And then when you add into that, like growing with different people, mixing the groups together, different training partners and stuff, it is all quite new. 'It's not too boring yet anyway.' HITTING TOP FORM There is, he conceded, a large element of trial and error about this year with no markers to hit as they figure out the best way for him and O'Donovan to negotiate the move to heavyweight. But McCarthy does that in the comfort of knowing that the dynamic duo were already within touching distance of the standard required to be in contention for further Olympic glory. He said: 'We kind of knew in top form as the lightweights, we were pretty much up there with the heavy guys. 'We would have done a lot of training with Daire and Phil, they were in the medals in Paris too. 'So we can kind of gauge off them and know that we can do quite well in the double in top form. 'If you look at Paris, we actually had a faster time than the heavyweight guys who had won gold. 'And we raced Romania at the World Cup and they didn't make the final. They are Olympic champions. 'I think it is all to play for, especially in that boat class. And so that is sort of why it hasn't been like a reinvent-the-wheel kind of thing. 'This year was more about figuring out how we can gain those extra maybe two or three seconds and seeing where it needs to come from. 'It might not actually need to be too much extra weight. 'It could just be not having to restrict coming into competition, so we'll have a bit more energy to do a bit more training and get that extra speed from a bit more fitness. 'Leading into competitions as lightweights, for me especially, you can't help but drop the volume and drop the intensity a little bit. 'You can't eat enough to sustain that type of training while also losing enough weight to be 69kg on race day and be somewhat healthy. 'We've been a bit freer in the gym as well. 'Usually, it's a lot of maintenance in the summer rather than pushing on the strength and building. 'We have been able to kind of keep up a pretty good gym routine coming into the summer. 'And we've never really been able to do that before. 'I think there's probably more scope to gain a bit of speed from the fitness side of things for this summer.'
The 42
3 hours ago
- The 42
An isolated, distinct land that carries the football tight to its heart: Failte go Tír Chonaill
THERE IS CHANCE, a good chance at that, that in around 20 years, perhaps when the management career of Michael Murphy is winding down, that the history of Donegal football could be told through the stories of three figures: Brian McEniff, Jim McGuinness and Michael Murphy. From the birth of McEniff, Donegal were only getting going. He lit the flame that the other two have carried. They have had almost no success of note without those three figures. Geography, politics, culture all play a role, but the county has always been fragmented. To achieve requires a lot to be straightened out. When it is, though, they can unite into an irresistible force . . . ***** Anyone looking to escape the build-up to Donegal being in an All-Ireland final, could have picked worse places to take a quick staycation last week than the Isle of Doagh, on Donegal's Inishown Peninsula. By our own counting, we tallied up more flags for the hurlers of Cork and Tipperary than in support of Donegal on the road from Ballyliffin to Carndonough. In a county that is a place all of itself, there are fragments even within that system that have their own peculiarities. The Inishown peninsula favours soccer. The view of Five Finger Strand. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo In a Moville household during the week, I heard the children refer to soccer as 'football', and the native sport as 'Gaelic.' Naturally, they have requested six tickets for Sunday from their local club. The old tourism board slogan of 'Up here, it's different' contains multiple truths for Donegal. The very formation of the county system wasn't a natural geographic fit and three distinct Donegal cultures emerged. The east of the county unquestionably held more in common with the Protestant character of east Ulster. It was thriving and industrious, hiring many from the impoverished other parts of the county while Scottish settlers created a society with its own schools, newspapers, churches, marriage patterns and class structures. That left the south of the county and the extremely isolated north west. Utterly underdeveloped industrially, with areas such as The Rosses still lacking in proper road structures even up to a century ago. And in between the three regions was barren wasteland, high up and low down. Shouldered by the mountains on one side and hemmed in by the waves on the other, the locals created their own enterprises and entertainment. By the middle of the 1800s, north Donegal and particularly around the Inishowen Peninsula, with Urris as the epicentre, was a Poitín making industry, creating thousands of gallons that was exported to Belfast, Dublin and even Scotland. The lack of a permanent police presence in Inishown helped, but the locals were a shrewd bunch. They would station their distilleries in a sheugh between their land and a neighbours. In the event of discovery, they would successfully argue that it wasn't on their land, but on disputed territory. Incredibly, it worked. But the addictive nature of the alcohol was responsible for families being torn apart. Nobody wanted to incur the wrath of Judge Louis Joseph Walsh. In a previous life he was a contemporary of James Joyce and a playwright as well as a radical Republican who stood for election. But when he was appointed as the very first district court judge by Dáil, he took a dim view of Poitín and his policy was to jail the mother of the family caught transgressing. And any house would fall apart without the presence of the Irish mammy. Previously, in 1814 they brought in a system of townland fining. If the argument over disputed territory was used, a fine would be placed upon the entire townland. When the bills were inevitably unpaid, the army would move in and round up and impound the livestock of the area. This would cause huge poverty, cut off their means of paying tribute to landlords, and result in eventual eviction. All in, the existence of many was bleak. Diversion and sport was practically impossible. The Famine became a decades-long event in Donegal. The further failure of the potato crop in the late 1870s left those along the southern end of the county around Kilcar, Glencolumbkille and Killybegs barely able to make ends meet. Jonathan Bardon's 'A history of Ulster' held that, 'Living conditions in Gweedore were poor, with small homes built from turf; most had only a hole in the roof as a chimney and a low entrance acting as a doorway. Many had no windows and little space for habitation . . . Gweedore has a sad notoriety. Poverty and privation have been the portion of its peasantry.' During the Great Famine, occurrences of excess deaths in Donegal were significantly lower than other regions. Between 1846 and 1851 it was 10.7 per thousand, whereas a county such as Cavan, for example, had a 42.7 rate. A deserted famine house in Bloody Foreland, Gaoth Dobhair. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo What saved the worst excesses of suffering in the county was the established pattern of seasonal migration and emigration. With one of the lowest rates of literacy among the lower classes, parents were less inclined to encourage children into education, but to prepare them for the hiring fairs in Strabane and Letterkenny held twice a year, that could take their children away to labour for periods of six-months solid. Quite often, the venue was Scotland for the potato harvest, or 'Tattie hoking' as it was known. Ordnance Survey reports are typically unsympathetic to the plight of the natives – see Brian Friel's masterpiece, 'Translations' and the Captain Lancey character for further evidence. But in a statistical report taken by a real-life Lieutenant W. Lancey in May 1834 he cruelly noted about the public's lack of recreation around Downings, 'They are, like the rest of the country, not addicted to public sports. They appear either to have lost or never possessed a taste for feats of activity or manly strength, and all their leisure time is taken up in moping over misfortunes, real or supposed.' Advertisement Historically, there are many examples of two different types of hurling in Donegal. The earliest reference can be found a few miles outside Carndonough in the ruins of a 17th century planter's church ruin at Clonca, where a craved slab features a sword and a stick alongside a ball. By the 1800s Camán, also widely known as 'commons', was played on a restricted field with the ball – a wooden object known as a 'nagg' propelled along the ground. The other type was a cross-country affair, focussing more on ball-carrying and played across entire townlands. Beaches were suitable venues for games that were recorded in Gortahork and Magheraroarty. In the south of the county, once the final harvest of the year was cut in August, it would produce a frenzy of activity on the level fields. After the establishment of the GAA in 1884, Donegal started slow. Several clubs were formed in the east of the county, Letterkenny the furthest inland. With no county board to organise and sanction games, they depended on the Derry county board for sporadic games. Donegal clubs also were somewhat commitment-phobic, with an example of the Green Volunteers not fielding against The Joys, but later playing a soccer match against Derry club, Ivy. The historic connection to Scotland, along with the origins of Glasgow Celtic, goes a long way to explain the deep roots that soccer has in the county. When it came to Gaelic Games, the seeds fell on fallow ground for decades. That's not to say that sport had no presence in the county. The Protestant influence in east Donegal brought activity in hockey, cricket and rugby. Regattas would be contested by teams of fishermen on the Foyle and Lough Swilly. After the Irish Republican Brotherhood seized control of the GAA at a convention in Thurles Courthouse in 1887, the clergy in Derry began encouraging the working classes to play association football instead. The locals obeyed. The early hankering for hurling helped Donegal who, it might surprise to hear, have three Ulster senior hurling championship titles from 1906, 1923 and 1932. They reached the second final in 1904 to be beaten by Antrim. The same outcome occurred in 1905 though it is left unclear if that game was actually played, the title nonetheless going to Antrim. The 1906 championship reached its finale on 14 July, 1907, when Donegal beat Antrim on a recorded scoreline of 5-21 to 0-1 in Burt, a place that has deep hurling roots. Essentially though, Donegal took their own sweet time. The Prairie Fire that torched across the country in the spread of Gaelic Games was snuffed out on the bogs of Donegal. There were many factors. The lack of rail transport. The lack of anything approaching modern roads. The distances involved in organising GAA activities at board level, when the majority of meetings were held in Limerick Junction in Tipperary. It wasn't a particularly nationalist county, either. The level of Donegal involvement in the 1916 Easter Rising was minimal, if any. The Irish Republican Brotherhood tried to organise in the county and Ernest Blythe spent some time trying to rise numbers for the Irish Volunteers, but could only recruit 20 men. When the GAA's Central Council called for mass participation in Gaelic Games on 4 August 1918 in what would become known as 'Gaelic Sunday', almost 100,000 taking part in an act of civil disobedience with the RIC seeking permits for games, there was no record of activity in Donegal. Almost a year later, Ulster GAA held its convention in Derry on 16 March. Secretary Eoin O'Duffy was a huge figure in the War of Independence who led several lives. He would later become the first Garda Commissioner before raising an army to go and fight in the Spanish Civil War on the fascist side of General Franco. But Donegal have him to thank for their GAA culture as he personally formed a new county board, their first meeting being held in Strabane, Co Tyrone on 3 April 1919. This time, it stuck. The board would meet regularly. Six different regions were set up in a smart move to keep travel to a minimum. Clubs sprung up everywhere. In 1921, both Ardara and Glenties were formed in a spirit of nationalist fervour. That decade was one of consumerist growth. It all helped. In 1923 there were 9,246 motorcars registered in the county. By 1930, that figure had grown to 32,632. The county footballers first made an appearance in the Ulster championship of 1905/06 where they were beaten 0-20 to 0-1 by Derry. A year later and the score was 0-18 to 0-2. They checked out then until 1919 and became a fixture from then on. The country changed. Donegal may have been lagging behind but they were still moving forward. A dance in Donegal town in September 1921 was reported on as, 'Irish dances were in the ascendant. No jazzing or one stepping. Any attempt to introduce these ugly, disgusting things would have been immediately frustrated and criticised'. A year later, the people of Gaoth Dobhair went for it with full jazzing and one-stepping to beat the band and were rounded on by the local press. The establishment of the Department of the Gaeltacht went about revitalising those communities on the western seaboard, just as tourism was taking off and Bundoran was becoming an Irish Blackpool. Donegal was arriving. ***** Almost everything they achieved in Gaelic football had the imprint of two men: Brian McEniff and Jim McGuinness. For their first Ulster title in 1972, McEniff was a player who won an All-Star. He was also the team manager, at the age of 30. Two year later he repeated the trick and while the reigning Ulster winning manager, was ousted by a county board that were familiar with the whetstone. In all, he managed Donegal five times. He won five Ulster titles and an All-Ireland in 1992, when he carried a teenage McGuinness on the panel, nicknamed 'Cher' by the squad on account of his long curly black hair. Brian McEniff with the Sam Maguire, 1992. Billy Stickland / INPHO Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO McEniff's final stint as manager brought them to an All-Ireland semi-final loss to Armagh. But it was also achieved while he was the serving county board chairman. McGuinness has now also accumulated five Ulster titles: 2011, 2012, 2014, 2024 and this year to go along with the All-Ireland in 2012, while Declan Bonner managed Donegal to Ulster success in 2018 and 2019. Throughout the decades in the method of playing football, Donegal had a certain way of doing things. They were early adopters of the fist-pass and carried the ball tight to their chests. Even today, that's the Donegal house style. Work the ball through the hands. Your feet are for shooting. They don't apologise for that. In the past, McGuinness has linked the 2012 All-Ireland with the 1992 All-Ireland in terms of style. 'That identity, what goes on in club football with the wind coming in off the Atlantic, it happens every day of the week,' he said in an interview over the past year. 'That style got us over the line in '92 and it happened in '12 again.' The Donegal bench, with a teenage Jim McGuinness standing, await the final whistle of the 1992 All-Ireland final. Billy Stickland / INPHO Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO Now, you can point out that it all sounds a little fanciful given that other western seaboard counties such as Galway and Kerry have known a gust of wind in their time and haven't been afraid to give the ball an odd kick. But that was bred into him. Even when McGuinness was a teenage sub on the first Donegal team to win the All-Ireland in 1992, their full-back Matt Gallagher went the entire game in the final against Dublin without kicking the football once, instead laying it off with a handpass every time. Doing it their own way is the county character. Take the music for example. The Donegal style of Irish traditional music is very connected to the Scottish Highlands. Almost exclusively played by fiddle. The cradle of this music originates from the areas around Gaoth Dobhair, while Johnny Doherty of Ardara was the most famous and renowned exponent of popularising it. It is played with single bowing, making it choppy, staccato and raw. Not to say that it is unsophisticated, but there are those that can look down their noses at it. Put it this way: Donegal traditional music is the most distinct from the others. For reasons, primarily geographic and cultural isolation, it has absorbed precious few other influences. It won't surprise you to learn that their Sean-nós singing is fairly unique also. Again, they do things their own way. And there's a particular strength that comes with that. When Jim McGuinness made his complaints around having to play Mayo in Dr Hyde Park this year, he'd have known this was no huge injustice. Especially with Kerry having to play Meath in Tullamore the day before. Instead, he was channelling his former manager, Brian McEniff. During the 2003 championship, McEniff made an enormous noise about having to play an All-Ireland quarter-final replay against Galway, in Castlebar. 'A pilgrimage to Castlebar,' he called it when the venue was announced. Given that the opposition was Galway, some of the Donegal players sniggered at their quirky manager. But McGuinness – who appeared as an injury-time sub for Christy Toye that day – would have noted the support that Donegal garnered through McEniff's proclamation. 'It would only happen because it's us,' said McGuinness of having to go to Roscommon. If 2012 owed something to 1992, then the lessons taught by McEniff go deep. ***** In a way, it's absolutely amazing. At The Famine Village in Doagh, the proprietor Patrick Doherty talked of living in his family home with the thatched roof and the low entry. Related Reads 'One of my early years, I had the match played in my head a thousand times beforehand' David Clifford 'could be the best player that has ever played the game' - McGuinness 'It's challenging but it's adding to the entertainment' - Goalkeeper view on new rules There were a few 'back in the day' yarns, one which centred around how mothers treated teething weans to the long stems of seaweed, coiled up. The child would bite on the tough stem and the taste of sea salt would please them enough to stop the crying. Doagh Famine Village. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo What changed everything, he said, was the entry into the European Economic Community in 1973, and the acceleration of events in 1984. The Man From The Council would then come round to your thatched house and order it to be tumbled and replaced with a fresh house. The clothing company, Fruit of the Loom, came to Buncrana in 1987 and employed thousands. Ireland was modernising. Donegal's modernisation was gaining pace, building on the existing and improving tourism industry. Think about it. For a couple hundred years, they were few areas in Europe quite as remote as Donegal. People ate the seaweed and cockles off the beaches and what they could catch on a rod. Now, the world comes to them. To taste their now legally-distilled Poitín. To chew on the local seaweed and marvel at the few thatch cottages left. They sit in recreations of Irish wakes and lap up the folklore before grabbing coffee and traybakes, making plans to hear a little of that old time music later on in the evening. Americans, English, Europeans, Irish, they all come in their droves to rent out houses and take trips on the coach tours, marvelling at some of the most unspoiled views of western Europe; or at least those that have not entirely succumbed to Bungalow Blight. They have it made. In other ways, they don't. There are fishing vessels moored in the deepwater port of Killybegs that are valued around €25 million. In the past, they would have fished the waters nine months of the year with people employed the length of Bundoran to Falcarragh within the industry. Now, the boats can leave the harbour in late October but they have to be finished by the start of March. Other crews from Spain, The Netherlands and Portugal can dock in Killybegs and travel 15 miles outside the bay to fish their bigger quotas. That's got to rub a few noses in it. Even something as emphatically Donegal as a day on the bog is gone. People still 'win' the turf, but it's a clandestine affair and selling turf for burning has been banned since 2022. Given the misery of the mid-1800s outlined earlier, you'd be forgiven for believing that Donegal had never achieved prominence. Within the Donegal GAA crest is a right hand gripping a red cross, the coat of arms of the O'Donnell Clan. They ruled Tír Chonaill for centuries as old royalty of the Gaelic nobility system. Frequently warring with other clans, most notably the O'Neill's, their most famous member was Red Hugh O'Donnell who was instrumental in many battles during the Nine Years War. Eventually though, after red Hugh's death in 1602, Rory O'Donnell engineered the Flight of the Earls on 14 September 1607, taking the prominent members and supporters of the families in a ship holding a reported number of 99. An art installation commemorates the Flight of the Earls, Ramelton. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo Leaving for Spain in a French boat hired in Nantes six months previously, determined to seek Catholic support, particularly from Spain to challenge English rule in Ireland. It never happened for them. As they left Ireland behind them, nervously looking at the shores of Lough Swilly, paranoid that the English were aware of their plan, they left behind a leadership void. One that was filled by the Plantation of Ulster by English and Scottish settlers. The descendants of the O'Donnells and O'Neills would go on to die young on foreign battlefields or rise to nobility and loyalty in Europe. Prior to their departure, they had elevated Donegal to international renown. The contrast in centuries was hammered home in one letter to The Irish Times some years ago, when a daughter recalled telling her father that his native parish in Donegal was hanging on a wall in the Doges Palace, Venice, in the 17th Century. He replied: 'Imagine, the Venetians knew about us in the 1700s and Dublin only discovered us in the 1960s!' They know all about them now. ***** Check out the latest episode of The42′s GAA Weekly podcast here
RTÉ News
6 hours ago
- RTÉ News
Mona McSharry not feeling the same pressure ahead of World Aquatics Championships
Mona McSharry, Ireland's Olympic 100m breaststroke Olympic bronze medallist, says she isn't putting any pressure on herself as she returns to her first major competition, the World Aquatics Championships, the swimming phase of which gets underway on Sunday in Singapore. Following her Olympic exploits last year in Paris, the Sligo native had toyed with the idea of retirement. After her tearful success in Paris, McSharry said at the time that "knowing that this is most likely my last Olympics, I am really happy to come away with a medal". However, after her complete break from swimming over the winter, the 24-year-old returned to the pool to compete in the 2025 World Championship qualifiers at the National Aquatic Centre in Dublin, where she posted the required qualifying times. After a recent training camp in Malaysia, McSharry and the rest of the 12-strong Irish swimming squad, which include Paris gold medallist Daniel Wiffen and finalist Ellen Walsh, are now in the final stages of preparation for the Singapore event. It's almost exactly a year to the day since McSharry won that Olympic bronze medal in Paris. "It's kind of crazy that it's been a year, honestly. I feel like it's gone really fast and I'm excited to be back competing and just seeing where I can go from here," she said on the eve of the Worlds. Now back in the pool after her break earlier this year, McSharry is not putting any pressure on herself ahead the women's 100m breaststroke, the heats of which are off the blocks on Monday. "I'm leaving it (expectations) pretty open, honestly. "I want to try and be kind of relaxed coming into this just because there was so much pressure building up into last year and I don't feel the need to come in with that same amount of pressure this year. "But I am excited to see where I'm at, especially after having a shorter season and only kind of getting back into training in January, and just kind of seeing where my body is at after a shorter training period. "I just have it in my mind to enjoy the racing. "It's a good team and a good group of people and so it's always fun to kind of travel away and have a good time. "That's such a big part about traveling and going on these trips is like, you know, racing is fun, but it's also just about kind of getting to enjoy time with friends and people that do things that you do and kind of cheering them on as well." After Monday's 100m breaststroke heats, McSharry will also compete in the 200m equivalent, the heats of which are on Thursday, followed by the 50m version of the discipline next Saturday. The opening day of competition in the pool sees Jack Cassin take part in the men's 100m butterfly and Tom Fannon, the Paris Olympic semi-finalist, in the men's 50m freestyle
