Ellen Walshe
Age: 22
Event: 200m & 400m Individual Medley, 100m Butterfly
Club: Templeogue SC
Second Olympics (Tokyo 2020)
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A brilliant all-rounder, Ellen Walshe holds the Irish records in all three of her events, both long and short course. When she won the Leinster Championships in May, she took a second off Michelle Smith’s record for the 400m medley. It was one of the oldest records on the books, having sat there since the summer of 1996.
Walshe went to the Tokyo games as an 18 year old, swimming the 100m butterfly and the 200m medley. She didn’t make it out of her heat in either event but comes to her second games having been an excellent college swimmer at the University of Tennessee in the interim. Will probably need to lower her national records to make a final – her best times would have left her a fraction outside the top eight in Rio and Tokyo.
Shane Ryan
Age: 30
Event: 400m Medley Relay
Club: National Centre, Dublin
Third Olympics (2016, 2020)
Shane Ryan will become the first Irish swimmer to compete in three Olympic Games when he forms part of the medley relay team. In Rio, he swam an Irish record to make it through the heats of the 100m backstroke before finishing last in his semi-final. In Tokyo, he set another national record, this time in the 100m butterfly, but it wasn’t enough to make it out of the heat.
This time around, his attempt to go to Paris to compete in the 50m freestyle came up just short. He actually hit the qualifying time, setting yet another Irish record in Belgrade in June – but sadly for him, it came after the cut-off date set by Swim Ireland. Instead, the Irish-American stalwart will swim the freestyle leg in the men’s medley relay.
Darragh Greene
Age: 28
Event: 400m Medley Relay
Club: National Centre, Dublin
Second Olympics (2020)
Darragh Greene will head to his second Olympics as Ireland’s foremost male breaststroker and will swim that leg in the medley relay team. He is the Irish record holder at 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke but wasn’t able to hit the individual qualifying time for Paris.
In Tokyo three years ago, the Longford swimmer didn’t get out of his heat in either the 100m or the 200m but came away from the experience glowing at being an Olympian and keen to progress in time for Paris. This will be the first time Ireland have sent a men’s medley relay team to the Olympics and although it will require them probably taking close to two seconds off the Irish record to advance, it’s not out of the question.
Max McCusker
Age: 24
Event: 400m Medley Relay
Club: Millfield School, England
First Olympics
Max McCusker will swim the butterfly leg of the men’s medley relay, having just this year broken Shane Ryan’s 100m national record to add to the 50m one he has held since 2022. Born in England, McCusker represents the Dolphin Club in Cork but has spent most of this Olympic cycle swimming at collegiate level in the US.
He spent four years at Florida State and made it all the way to the NCAAs in 2021 and 2022. After finishing his degree there, he moved on to do a masters in Arizona State, where he helped their medley teams to the Sun Devils’ best ever finish in the NCAAs – second in the 200m medley and third in the 400.
Conor Ferguson
Age: 24
Event: 400m Medley Relay
Club: Loughborough University
First Olympics
Conor Ferguson has waited a long time to qualify for the Olympics, even though he is still only 24. When he was 16, the Larne swimmer missed out on the qualifying time for the 100m backstroke in Rio by an agonising 0.05 of a second. He has improved steadily ever since, setting two personal bests this year alone – but he has still come up short for his individual event, the qualifying time having had half a second lopped off it the years since. This time, he missed out by 0.16 of a second.
Ferguson will go to Paris as the backstroke swimmer in the 400m medley relay team. His personal best is still a shade outside Shane Ryan’s Irish record but he is trending upwards and he is in the form of his life.
Victoria Catterson
Age: 23
Event: 400m Freestyle Relay, 400m Medley Relay
Club: National Centre, Dublin
First Olympics
Victoria Catterson has proven herself as one of Ireland’s most dependable and consistent relay swimmers throughout this Olympic cycle. She will definitely swim a leg in the 4x100m freestyle relay in Paris and is highly likely to be part of the medley relay team as well. She is the holder of 10 Irish records, eight of them as part of relay teams.
She is also the Irish record holder for the 200m freestyle, both long course and short course. The Belfast swimmer competed for Northern Ireland at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham two years ago, making the semi-final in the 100m freestyle and swimming the fastest leg in the 4x100m freestyle relay. She is a first cousin of James Hume, the Ulster rugby player.
Grace Davison
Age: 16
Event: 400m Freestyle Relay, 400m Medley Relay
Club: Ards SC
First Olympics
Grace Davison will be the youngest member of the Irish Olympic squad across all sports and disciplines. The Ards swimmer doesn’t turn 17 until the end of August but has already achieved much in her young career. She broke on to the scene at the Commonwealth Games in 2022 as part of the Northern Ireland freestyle relay team. Even though she was still only 14 at the time, she competed in five events and only narrowly missed out on a semi-final spot in the 50m backstroke.
She won gold and silver medals at the youth Commonwealth Games last year despite having suffered with tonsillitis in the run-up. She is a former Irish record holder at the 200m freestyle, having broken Sycerika McMahon’s long-standing mark. Davison was openly sceptical just 12 months ago as to whether she would make the Olympics, presuming that Paris “might come a bit too soon” for someone her age. But she will go as a relay swimmer and is definitely one to watch for the future.
Erin Riordan
Age: 24
Event: 400m Freestyle Relay, 400m Medley Relay
Club: National Centre, Dublin
First Olympics
Erin Riordan heads to her first Olympics as a stalwart of Irish relay teams throughout this Olympic cycle. She has been part of four teams that hold Irish records – the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay (long course and short course) and 4x100m medley relay, as well as the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay.
Born in Hong Kong to Irish parents, Riordan has represented Ireland at World and European Championships and trains out of the National Aquatic Centre in Abbottstown. She briefly retired from swimming after the World Championships in February, after the Irish 4x400m Freestyle teams finished 17th in the rankings for Olympic qualifying, missing out by one place on Paris. But the Japanese team has since withdrawn and Riordan has been back training full time with the team since late June.
Mona McSharry
Age: 23
Event: 100m Breaststroke, 200m Breaststroke, 400m Medley
Club: University Of Tennessee/Marlins SC
Second Olympics (2020)
Mona McSharry is Ireland’s most successful female swimmer this century. In Tokyo, she became the first Irish swimmer to make an Olympic final since Michelle Smith in 1996 – and brought none of the attendant baggage with her in doing so. She made the final of the 100m breaststroke and though she eventually ended up finishing eighth, it was a huge achievement for the then 19-year-old from Sligo.
She almost gave up swimming in the meantime, openly admitting last year that she had fallen out of love with the sport. But she returned with a bang, winning medals at college level in the US and, earlier this year, finishing fifth in the 100m breaststroke at the World Championships in Doha. It is a measure of her ambitions that she came away annoyed at finishing fifth, describing herself as gutted at the result and the time, which was well outside her personal best. She is an Irish record holder in no fewer than 14 events, seven individual and seven as part of relay teams.
Daniel Wiffen
Age: 23
Event: 400m, 800m, 1500m Freestyle, 10k Open Swim
Club: Loughborough University/Lisburn SC
Second Olympics (2020)
Daniel Wiffen carries Ireland’s best hope of a medal in the pool in almost three decades. The Co Down distance swimmer is the reigning world champion at 800m and 1,500m freestyle, becoming the first ever Irishman to win a world title in Doha earlier this year. He is also the world record holder at 800m freestyle and a multiple European champion into the bargain.
Wiffen was born in England but his family moved to Magherlin, Co Down when he was two. His twin brother Nathan is also an elite swimmer but came up just short of qualifying for Paris. Daniel has been bullish for a long time about his expectations with regard to the Olympics.
“I kind of decided that World Championships doesn’t mean that much this season,” he said in June. “I was like, ‘I may be world champion but that’s not my goal for this season’. That was just a stepping stone to the Olympics. As soon as I hit World Championships I took a couple days off and just put my head down.
“And then obviously the sponsors were great. I’ve got so many new sponsors, which helped me contribute to my training this year that allowed me to go on so many different camps – allowed me to say that I’m in the best shape of my life for going to this Olympics.”
Anything less than a medal will be a major disappointment. Don’t be surprised if there’s more than one.
Danielle Hill
Age: 24
Event: 50m Freestyle, 100m Backstroke, 400m Freestyle relay
Club: Larne SC
Second Olympics (2020)
Danielle Hill is Ireland’s fastest ever female swimmer and has had a fantastic season already. The 24-year-old from Newtownabbey, Co Antrim became the first Irish female swimmer in 27 years to win a European long-course gold medal at the recent championships in Belgrade. She won gold in the 50m backstroke, only narrowly failing to beat her own Irish record in the process.
Hill holds the Irish record, either alone or as part of a relay team, in an incredible 21 different events. She is the 50m record holder in the freestyle, backstroke and butterfly and holds the 100m records in backstroke and freestyle (long course and short course) as well. She swam in the 50m freestyle and 100 backstroke in Tokyo but didn’t threaten to get out of her heat in either event. She will be aiming higher this time around.
Tom Fannon
Age: 26
Event: 50m Freestyle
Club: National Centre Dublin
First Olympics
Tom Fannon is the fastest Irish swimmer in history, holder of the short-course record for the 50m freestyle. A native of Torquay in England, Fannon swam for Great Britain as a teenager and won bronze in the 50m freestyle at the European Junior Championships in 2016, following up his gold with the 4x100m freestyle relay team the previous year. He swam for England in the 2018 Commonwealth Games before switching to Ireland and joining the National Centre in Dublin in 2021.
He briefly held the long-course 50m freestyle record as well, setting a new mark earlier this year. But it has since been broken by Shane Ryan, albeit too late for Ryan to punch his individual ticket to Paris. Fannon will be looking to wrest it back at the Olympics and will very possibly need to – his lifetime best of 21.94 would have seen him into the semi-final in Tokyo by just 0.03 of a second. Anything slower than that and Fannon will struggle to make it out of his heat.
