A second Olympic Games is just around the corner for Mona McSharry. An opportunity then to improve on the eighth-place finish in the 100m breaststroke final in Tokyo.
The ticket to Paris was secured last summer after the Sligo competitor smashed her previous Irish record for the event at the World Aquatics Championships in Japan.
McSharry swam a time of 1:05.55 seconds in the heats, with her previous best of 1:06.04 set at the Irish Championships the previous April.
And then a fortnight ago the 23-year-old clipped two seconds off her Irish record in the 200m breaststroke, when competing in Vancouver. She will also tackle the aforementioned event in the French capital, as well as the 400m medley relay.
With all the competitive stuff out of the way, the training continues for McSharry. She'll be back in Ireland on 14 July for a nine-day camp before heading to Paris.
Excitement as to what might transpire at the Aquatic Centre in Saint-Denis is certainly driving McSharry, satisfied that preparations have gone well as she dreams of winning that Olympic medal.
"I'm always trying to do better than I did before," she told RTÉ Sport.
"So for the 200m that’s qualify for a semi and better. And then for the 100m that’s better than eighth place. That’s the goal that I would try and set for myself. I know that once you make it into the final, it’s who can get their hands on the wall first.
"It’s rare that you see best times in finals, it’s usually just about who’s mentally and physically ready to just go for that 100m and doesn’t let the nerves take over. Once I get to the final I’ll just try and get my hands on the wall above as many people as possible and hopefully that’s top three.
"If it’s not, I know I’ve given my best but I’m definitely excited to get out there and start racing.
"The main priority of this year is to work hard and a lot of that work is now done. I’m really just fine-tuning and making sure that mentally I’m in a good place for the last four weeks. And just see what happens.
"I’ve done a lot of travelling and a lot of competitions. Definitely put a lot more focus into long course training this year which I really liked because I do love long course. So it’s been really enjoyable, trying to just enjoy the moment, enjoy the training and not put too much pressure on the end result."
In referencing her desire to enjoy the moment, McSharry is broadly describing a new-found attitude towards swimming, this after a period of time where she was "trapped in something I really disliked".
One Sunday in the summer of 2022, things came to a head. A feeling of unhappiness took hold, the tears flowed, and she came to the conclusion that she hated swimming. McSharry took a long break from the sport and gave herself a deadline to get herself out of the place she was now in.
Could she love swimming again?
She could.
She came back, thanks to those closest to her. McSharry did not seek professional help; she did not reach out to a sport psychologist.
"My circle's really small so I find it hard to open up to a lot of people and, for me, I felt a lot more comfortable to speak to someone who knew me well," she outlined to RTÉ Sport at the time.
"A trained professional would also have been really helpful but the way my mind works, it was a lot easier for me to talk to those people."
As a result, McSharry is now a "little bit lighter" on herself, and was determined to carry the "same light-hearted, no-pressure" attitude into this Olympic year. And that approach seems to be working.
"I think I’m in a much better place than I was," she added.
"The one kind of lasting factor from that time in my life is that I definitely look at swimming very differently. I wouldn’t say I have struggles. There might be one or two days where I wake up and I’m like 'oh my gosh, I don’t want to do this’ but I think that’s pretty normal given the amount of time that we spend swimming. You’re not going to always want to do it.
"But for the most part I’ve loved this whole year of training and even the previous year when I went to the Worlds. I think the mind shift for me of this is something I really enjoy doing. I need to enjoy it and it’s going to end at some point and that’s OK and I’m going to have things coming.
"I think swimming is not my whole life anymore and I don’t look at it that way anymore. I’ve put a great amount of time into it because I love what I do and I want to be really good. But I think that’s the big lasting result from getting to that point where I really just wasn’t enjoying it anymore is that I’m trying to focus on really liking the small details. Like swimming really fast at training, getting to see my friends and I think focusing on that mind shift has really helped."
As for life beyond Paris?
Well, McSharry has just finished a four-year degree in kinesiology - the scientific study of human body movement - at the University of Tennessee. Postgraduate study is the plan, with 2025 the year in which she'll decide whether or not to continue her swimming career.
If it is to be the end, McSharry will certainly value her time in Tennessee.
"I've created such a great life and a great system for training and of course there are other options but I just love the push that I get daily from training with people that are as fast as me or faster and that may not necessarily be specifically in the 100m breaststroke long course.
"But there's always people to race, there’s people that are better than me in the gym, there’s people that jump higher than me, there’s people that are more flexible than me, there’s always something that I’m aspiring to be better at and I think that that’s the biggest takeaway from here.
"I think I also learned a lot about working on a team which is not something you experience or at least I haven’t experienced as much just because of the small programme that I came from in Ireland. I really didn’t have a lot of team-mates to train with and so working with a group of 70 athletes - men and women - who are all striving for the same goals is really nice.
"We’re down to a small group because a lot of people are done with US trials, it’s really just the Olympic squad left. But I’m still training with about 15 other people and we’re all going. It’s really nice to have all these different countries coming together and racing different events but being able to train together.
"And also having school, even though it wasn’t my main priority, I’ve always said that I’m here to race and swim in the collegiate system, I couldn’t care less about school. But it’s awesome that I have been able to get a degree and I think that’s given me something to focus on.
"And I’ve really enjoyed it. I did kinesiology which is the study of the body and anatomy and how the body moves so I’ve been able to apply a lot of that to swimming and being an athlete which I’ve really enjoyed. So I think it just gave me something else to focus my mind on other than just swimming which sometimes can get really tough."
McSharry was born in the North Sligo village of Grange, just a stone's throw away from the Atlantic Ocean. She would like to live by the sea eventually. Moving back to her birthplace is an option, as is staying in the States for a few more years, or moving to Europe.
"I can't live without the sea. It’s the one thing I really miss", she revealed.
As to what her career might encompass after all the laps of the pool are completed, McSharry may follow a route that stems from her primary degree or something completely unrelated.
"I'm excited to have some unplanned time in my future after swimming is done. I feel like everything has been so regimental which I’ve loved, but up until 2024 I knew that the plan was swimming in Paris and training six days a week for most of the year and so I’m kind of excited to take a couple of years to maybe not work as hard.
"Probably do a job because I’ll need money, but I can see myself doing strength and conditioning. That would probably be the only route that I would go with kinesiology. I love doing that stuff and now that I’m doing a masters I could get a position at a D1 college in a strength room which would be really exciting for a couple of years, just to work with top-level athletes.
"My dream job would be to work with animals in some form. Not as a vet but maybe as a rescue or I don’t know, something along those lines. I’m really not sure what I want to do yet but I’m not putting a lot of pressure on it either because I know there’ll be time to figure that out. There’ll be something for me."
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