Mona McSharry named Sportswoman for October by The Irish Times/Sport Ireland – The Irish Times

There is no rest for Mona McSharry. As soon as she had caught her breath after winning silver and bronze medals at the third round of the World Cup in Budapest last month, she was back in action for the University of Tennessee. And her workload – and travel – don’t seem to be hurting her form.

From last Friday: “Olympian Mona McSharry picked up two individual victories in Tennessee’s doubleheader against Florida and Kentucky in Knoxville…McSharry won the breaststroke events with a performance of under a minute in the 100 breaststroke with a mark of 2:12, 68 in the 200 breaststroke.” Well done.

It’s been another successful year for the 23-year-old Sligo woman, who has already secured her place at next summer’s Olympics after making her debut in Tokyo 2021, where she exceeded all expectations by reaching the final Reached 100 m breaststroke.

Back in August, she won a hat-trick of gold medals at the U23 European Swimming Championships in Dublin, ending her final year in this age group in style. By this time she had secured Olympic qualification when she set an Irish record in the 100m breaststroke at the World Swimming Championships in Japan.

Suddenly she missed bronze in the final by just 0.13 seconds as she sought to become the first Irish swimmer to win a medal at the Long Course Championships, having won bronze at the Short Course World Championships in 2021. The company she had was some consolation, however , because the four swimmers who finished ahead of her were all Olympic gold medalists.

“It’s all a learning experience,” she said, “and when I look at the people I finished behind – world champions, record holders, Olympic champions – then being up there and competing against them and making it so close “It’s a great race.” That’s a big confidence boost for me.

“I think it’s great to be able to practice racing against these people for next year’s Olympics because that’s the main goal for me. It’s all about training and preparing for this meet, so look, it’s a great result, fifth in the world, I can’t be too upset about it.”

She also couldn’t get too upset when she was beaten to second place in the 50m breaststroke in Budapest by the winner, Italy’s Benedetta Pilato, a former world record holder in the discipline. Pilato also won the 100m breaststroke, McSharry took bronze, finishing 0.03 seconds behind Dutchman Tes Schouten. The finest edges.

And then it was back to Tennessee, where her work continued in and out of the pool. The coming months will be no less busy, there is still the small matter of the Olympics to prepare for.

Previous monthly winners (awards run from December 2022 through November 2023): December: Eilish and Roisin Flanagan (athletics); January: Rhasidat Adeleke (athletics); February: Orla Prendergast (cricket); March: Rachael Blackmore (horse racing); April: Thammy Nguyan (weightlifting); May: Lucy Mulhall (rugby); June: Leona Maguire (golf); July: Katie McCabe (football); August: Katie-George Dunlevy (cycling) and Hannah Tyrrell (Gaelic football); September: Ciara Mageean (athletics) and Siobhán McCrohan (rowing).