No one knows how they will respond when they’ve fulfilled their life’s work and ambition and finally ascended an Olympic podium. So Mona McSharry’s soul-searching in the aftermath of her historic 100m breaststroke bronze in Paris was inevitable.
Achieving her dream at the age of 23 brought acclaim and validation but would her Olympic medal provide further motivation or liberation? Did she still love swimming enough to continue the grind, or would nailing her lifetime goal provide a full-stop and 360 degree pivot to a completely new life?
The ennui the Sligo star felt in the wake of the Tokyo Olympics, which almost made her quit swimming, actually benefitted her when the thrill of Paris dissipated.
This time she understood the imperative of a proper post-Olympic break. A two and a half-month camper van road-trip across America’s West Coast first fed her soul and then she extended her absence from a training pool to a full five months before returning to her final three months in college.
A strategic decision then to do an additional one-year Masters in the University of Tennessee literally, tested the waters of her relationship with her sport and the daily rigours of training six days a-week. Committing to that one last year of US collegiate swimming in 2025 gave structure, motivation and support but also, time to figure out where her compass was going to land next.
And now it has.
“We’re playing the long game for LA in 2028,”
reveals the Sligo swimming superstar.
Her decision to continue for a third Olympic cycle is major considering its timing.
When McSharry graduates from the University of Tennessee with a Masters in Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communication in three weeks’ time, she is stepping into that post-college phase that tests even the greatest athletes. She is stepping away from the myriad supports enjoyed by student athletes in the US, becoming, technically, a professional athlete.
Yet, like so many Olympians, she competes in a sport that offers paltry earning potential. Swimming championships, apart from Worlds, don’t offer prize money. Even on its burgeoning ‘pro series’, a victory only earns $1,500, a drop in the ocean compared to the vast rewards in team sports.
From now on McSharry will be responsible for her own housing and flights, two big expenses previously covered by her university. As an alum, she will retain free training facilities and coaching from coach Matt Kredich and his team in Knoxville, for which she is hugely grateful.
“It’s definitely going to be different but, as far as training goes, it won’t change much,”
she explains.
“Financially, there will be challenges, but that’s why I’m so thankful for the funding I get from Sport Ireland. That allows me to be able to commit fully to swimming still, because I think it would be very hard to try and find a job and also train full time.”
Collegiate swimming provided a vital bridge since Paris 2024.
“When I initially went back, I had at least three months of NCAAs still. I knew I might come back and hate it. I just figured I’d have to push through the three months, and then I could be done.
“But I just fell straight back into the routine. It just felt so natural and easy. It didn’t feel like hard work. I’d had a taste of life after swimming, where I didn’t have to jump into a pool every morning and yet, when I returned, I just loved it.
“I still didn’t want to commit to staying yet because, I was thinking ‘maybe this will wear off?” she admits. “But I pushed forward and really enjoyed Summer training last year. Unfortunately, I got sick at ‘Worlds’, but even when I came back for the fall (Autumn) semester, I was still enjoying it and I still am. In the last few months, rather than having it as a thought in the back of my head, I started saying ‘LA’ out loud.”
Has winning that Olympic medal added or released pressure?
McSharry feels it has been liberating.
“It was so close in Paris,”
she says of taking bronze by one hundredth of a second ahead of two swimmers who were tied for fourth.
“Achieving it by such a tiny margin and seeing that nothing changes, there is a freeness in that. It was an amazing experience and it’s so cool to be among the people who have done it, but it hasn’t changed me. I’m still the same person.
“I’ve put a lot of pressure on myself before and I think I still do, but I’m much more comfortable with dealing with it now, knowing that I’m choosing to do this. This is an option I have and I should enjoy it. I’m not forcing myself.
“I don’t feel stressed that it has to happen again in LA. I know that regardless, I’m still going to be the same person, and I’m going to have tried really hard.”
Her decision was surely helped by a milestone moment at last month’s Nationals in Bangor when McSharry clocked 2:22.22, chipped over 0.02 seconds off the national 200m breaststroke record she set two years ago.
“I hadn’t got close to it since but, based on the training I’d done, I felt I could break it and, after the morning swim, I knew I could do it.”
Record breaking entails continuing to find the sweet spot for which every athlete strives, that flow state where technique and fitness meet in perfect harmony.
“It’s almost impossible to describe it, all I can say is that you just feel free and, for me, avoiding getting stressed and anxious helps me get into that flow state more often.”
Next up is the world-class Sette Colli meet in Rome in June before European Championships (in the site of her Olympic glory) in August, building to the World Short Course Championships in Beijing in December. As she moves into this new phase of her career the 25-year-old is also buoyed up by a unique honour, after receiving the ‘Freedom of County Sligo’ at a very special ceremony while back in Ireland last month.
“We wanted it to be a celebration of all the local people – from (hometown) Grange and Ballyshannon and Sligo – who helped me along this journey. To get everyone in one room at the one time and to have the opportunity to say ‘thank you’ was really great.
“I’ve always said ‘it takes a village’ (to win an Olympic medal) and it really did. At so many different points in my career, different people made small decisions that pushed me in the right direction,”
McSharry stresses.
“Without all those little decisions I wouldn’t be where I am now so I wanted to highlight that and make sure those people knew that.”
Now she has made a momentous decision of her own.
“I know I’m going to have to keep chipping away at my times but also that it won’t necessarily be linear. The 200m was frustrating for the last two years but knowing that I will get there and need to stay patient, is really important.
“We’re playing the long game for LA now. When that’s the goal, that can be frustrating in the short term, when you want to go fast, but now it’s all about building to 2028 and I’m OK with that. You have to kind of look at the big picture.”