SWIMMING
Swimming is only one of five sports that has been contested at every summer Olympic Games since 1896.
It was however originally only open to men and with women only able to compete in Olympic competition from 1912. It is one of the most popular spectator events at the Games and has the second-highest number of Olympic events (after athletics).
In the first four Olympics, competitions were not held in pools, but rather in open water (1896, the Mediterranean Sea; 1900, the Seine; 1904, an artificial lake; 1906, the Mediterranean). The 1904 Olympics’ races were the only ones ever measured in yards, instead of the usual metres. A 100-metre pool was built for the 1908 Olympics and was located in the centre of the main stadium’s track and field oval. The 1912 Olympics, held in the Stockholm Harbour, marked the beginning of electrical timing.
The 1924 Olympics were the first to use the standard 50 metre pool with marked lanes. In the freestyle, swimmers originally dove from the pool walls, but diving blocks were incorporated starting at the 1936 Summer Olympics. The flip-turn was developed by the 1950s. Swimming goggles were first allowed in 1976.
Women were first allowed the longer distance of 800 metres freestyle in 1968, which remains the longest distance for women in the swimming pool. Up until then, women were considered to be too “delicate” to swim a race this long, even though the men had had the 1500 metre freestyle from the very early years. Women’s teams were first granted the 800 metre freestyle relay race in 1996 even though there had been a men’s relay race at that distance since 1912. At six Olympiads, the men had two freestyle relay races, but the women only had one. Now, both sexes have two. The medley relay races (4×100 metres) were not held for men or for women until 1960, but they have continued in every Olympiad since then.
Starting in 2008, both men and women compete in 10 km open water marathon swim events.
The 2020 Olympics will see the introduction for the first time of a 4 x 100m Mixed Medley Relay.
National Federation: Swim Ireland
International Federation: International Swimming Federation
SWIMMING NEWS
Team Ireland Weekend Highlights, April 12–13, 2025
From Augusta to Dublin, Belgium to the Basque Country, Irish athletes produced standout performances across a range of Olympic sports this weekend. Rory McIlroy Completes Career Grand Slam Rory McIlroy delivered a defining moment for Irish sport this weekend, winning the 2025 Masters Tournament and becoming just the sixth golfer in history — and [...]
Top Results from the Weekend
9 March 2025; Sarah Healy of Ireland celebrates winning gold in the women's 3000m final on day four of the European Athletics Indoor Championships 2025 at the Omnisport Apeldoorn in Apeldoorn, Netherlands. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile A Golden Weekend for Team Ireland! A massive congratulations to our athletes on their incredible performances over the weekend! [...]
Nominations For RTE Sportsperson of the Year
Next Sunday evening, December 15th at 9:30 pm, the RTÉ Sport Awards 2024 will air live on RTÉ One and the RTÉ Player. Hosted by Joanne Cantwell, Darragh Maloney, and Jacqui Hurley from Studio 4 in RTÉ, the event will celebrate Irish sporting excellence in front of an audience filled with the nation’s top athletes. [...]
SWIMMERS DANIEL WIFFEN AND MONA MCSHARRY ANNOUNCED AS CLOSING CEREMONY FLAGBEARERS
Double Olympic medallist Daniel Wiffen, and Olympic bronze medallist Mona McSharry have been announced as the Team Ireland Flagbearers for the Closing Ceremony of Paris 2024 tomorrow night (Sunday). Olympic gold and bronze medallist Wiffen, and Olympic bronze medallist McSharry both reacted with immense pride on discovering they had been selected to carry the Irish [...]
SELECTED ATHLETES
Erin Riordan
BIOGRAPHY Erin Riordan competing in the women's 4x100m freestyle relay alongside teammates Grace Davison, Victoria Catterson, and Danielle Hill at the Paris 2024 Olympics. The team finished 16th in the heats. Prior to the Olympics, Riordan was part of the 4x100m freestyle relay team that achieved a tenth-place finish at the World Championships in Doha. [...]
Max McCusker
BIOGRAPHY Max McCusker competed in the men's 4x100m medley relay at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games alongside teammates Conor Ferguson, Darragh Greene, and Shane Ryan. The team finished 11th in the heats, setting a new national record with a time of 3:33.81. In February 2024, during the World Aquatics Championships in Doha, McCusker broke [...]
Conor Ferguson
BIOGRAPHY Conor Ferguson represented Ireland at the 2024 Paris Olympics, competing in the men's 4x100m medley relay alongside teammates Shane Ryan, Max McCusker, and Darragh Greene. The team finished 11th in the heats, setting a new national record with a time of 3:33.81. Ferguson has a distinguished junior career, earning silver medals in the [...]
Tom Fannon
BIOGRAPHY Tom Fannon finished 10th in the men's 50m freestyle at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. He is a former European junior champion and represented England at the 2018 Commonwealth Games before declaring for Ireland thanks to his Galway-born grandfather. Tom moved to Dublin to train with the National Centre team three years ago, and [...]
Grace Davison
BIOGRAPHY Grace Davison was the youngest member of Team Ireland at the 2024 Paris Olympics and competed in the women's 4x100m freestyle relay alongside teammates Victoria Catterson, Danielle Hill, and Erin Riordan. The team finished 16th overall, recording a time of 3:42.67, close to the national record of 3:41.75. Prior to the Olympics, Davison showcased [...]
Victoria Catterson
BIOGRAPHY Victoria Catterson represented Ireland at the 2024 Paris Olympics, competing in the women's 4x100m freestyle relay. The team, which included Danielle Hill, Grace Davison, Erin Riordan, and Catterson, finished 16th in the heats with a time of 3:42.67. In 2023, Catterson was part of the women's 4x100m medley relay team that set a [...]
Ellen Walshe
BIOGRAPHY Ellen Walshe made her Olympic debut at the 2020 Tokyo Games, competing in the 100m butterfly, where she set a new Irish record of 59.35 seconds in the heats, finishing 24th overall. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, she qualified for the 200m individual medley, representing Ireland once again on the world’s biggest stage. Walshe [...]
Daniel Wiffen
BIOGRAPHY Daniel Wiffen became the first Irishman ever to win an Olympic swimming medal when he claimed 800m Freestyle gold in a new Olympic record time at the Paris Games. Days later he added a 1,500m freestyle bronze medal to his tally, as well as becoming the first Irish athlete to contest the open water [...]
Danielle Hill
BIOGRAPHY Danielle Hill made her Olympic debut at the 2020 Tokyo Games, competing in the 100m backstroke and 50m freestyle. In the 100m backstroke, she finished 25th with a time of 1:00.86, and in the 50m freestyle, she placed 33rd, clocking 25.70 seconds. In 2024, Hill competed in the Paris Olympics, finishing 21st in [...]
Finn McGeever
BIOGRAPHY Finn grew up on the banks of Lough Derg and is a second-year student at the University of Limerick where he is part of Swim Ireland’s high performance squad. He caused a sensation when breaking the Irish 400m freestyle record at this year’s Nationals in April (3:52.83) and was part of the team who [...]
Shane Ryan
BIOGRAPHY He has represented Ireland in three consecutive Olympic Games. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, he competed in the 100m backstroke, reaching the semifinals and finishing 16th overall with a time of 54.35 seconds. In the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, he swam in the same event, finishing 23rd in the heats with a time of 53.73 [...]
Darragh Greene
BIOGRAPHY Darragh Greene made his Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, competing in the heats of the 100m and 200m breaststroke. At Paris 2024, he swam the breast stoke leg for the men's 4x100m medley relay team that finished in 11th place. Greene holds the Irish 50m/100m/200m breaststroke records abd was seventh in the European LC [...]
Brendan Hyland
BIOGRAPHY Brendan, a 15-time Irish champion, was Ireland’s 2019 High Performance Swimmer of the Year and has made finals at the 2021 and 2019 (SC) European Championships. In 2019 he broke the Irish 200m butterfly record at the World Championships, finally breaking 1:57 with his 1:56.55 in the semi-finals to place 11th overall. In 2018 [...]
Jack McMillan
BIOGRAPHY Part of Irish team who broke national 4x200m record twice at this year’s European Championship, finishing fifth in final when they lowered it to 7:12.00. He set an Irish 200m SC freestyle record of 1:42.74 at the 2019 Europeans and smashed that with 1:42.18 in December 2020. Jack won gold in 200m freestyle and [...]
Mona McSharry
BIOGRAPHY Mona McSharry is an Olympic bronze medalist from Paris 2024. A two-time Olympian, at Tokyo 2020 she reached the final of the 100-meter breaststroke, finishing eighth with a time of 1:06.94, and placed 20th in the 200-meter breaststroke (2:25.08). McSharry's career highlights include winning the World Junior Championship in the 100-meter breaststroke and European [...]