Nick Sweeney competed in the men’s discus throw at three consecutive Olympic Games – Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000 – making him one of the most prolific Irish field athletes in Olympic history.

From Dublin, he attended Wesley College where P.E. coach Dan Kennedy introduced him to the discus, eventually becoming Irish schools record holder. Despite receiving no athletic scholarship offers from American universities, he travelled to Harvard College on his own initiative and completed a four-year degree, winning two Outdoor Heptagonal Championship titles and earning All-American honours.

His finest international results came at the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart where he finished 6th, and the 1994 European Championships in Helsinki where he finished 4th – the best result by an Irish field athlete at a European Championship at the time.

He won ten Irish national discus titles and set an Irish record of 67.89 metres in 1998.