Nicholas Quinn represented Ireland in the men’s 100 metres and 200 metres breaststroke at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, finishing 19th in the 200 metres – winning his heat but narrowly missing the semi-finals.

From Castlebar, Co. Mayo, Quinn trained and studied at the University of Edinburgh, where he subsequently completed a Masters in Performance Psychology. He had described swimming as the sport that helped him process the loss of his father to cancer, a motivation he spoke about publicly with characteristic openness. He qualified for Rio at a competition in Eindhoven in April 2016, breaking the FINA A standard in the 200 metres breaststroke with a time of 2:11.24 – almost half a second inside the qualifying mark.

He represented Ireland internationally for more than a decade. After retiring from competitive swimming he became a Management Consultant and was appointed co-chair of the Swim Ireland Athletes’ Commission.