Olympic medalist Mona McSharry only returned to the pool three months ago, but her schedule has quickly filled up. After using the last of her NCAA eligibility with the Tennessee Volunteers, McSharry is now in Dublin, Ireland for the Irish Open Championships.
And though McSharry hasn’t shared any firm plans for the rest of this Olympic quad, ahead of the competition at the National Aquatic Centre, she confirmed to RTE Sport she will remain training in Knoxville, Tenn., at least through the rest of this year.
“We just finished our college season, but I just started with my Masters,” she said. “It’s only one year, but I’m going to be [at Tennessee] until December completing that.” McSharry confirmed she plans to train while finishing her Masters. “After that, I’ll make a decision of whether I want to stay or leave, but I’m not in any rush to get out of [Knoxville]. I really haven’t been thinking about it.”
McSharry was a surprise bronze medalist in the 100-meter breaststroke at the Paris Games, winning Ireland’s first swimming medal at the Olympics since 1996 by a hundredth. After her success, the 24-year-old called the Paris Games “most likely [her] last Olympics.”
Still, McSharry is keeping her options open as she returns to the long-course pool. She credits her five-month break from the pool during the fall as the reason she’s open to staying in the sport.
“It was the best decision I could have made. I think if I skipped that part, I would have been very mentally and physically drained trying to come back and swim, I took five months off completely from the sport and just kind of enjoyed not have a schedule.”
During the break, McSharry took a road trip around the west coast of the United States. She shared some of the highlights of her trip with RTE, including having a friend from Ireland—and her dog—join her on the trip.
McSharry first returned to competition in the short-course yards pool. During the NCAA postseason, she helped the Tennessee women to a third-place finish at SECs and fifth at the NCAA Championships. She swept the women’s breaststroke events at the SEC Championships, winning her fourth-straight 100 breaststroke conference title. Then, McSharry placed second in the 100 breaststroke at the NCAA Championships for the second year in a row and added a fifth-place finish in the 200 breaststroke.
Now, her attention is back on the long-course pool as the preparations for the 2025 World Championships heat up. McSharry is one of several swimmers assured of a spot on the roster because of their performances at last year’s Olympic Games and World Championships. However, these swimmers still need to compete at the Irish Open and hit their qualifying times to ensure their slots.
McSharry admits that after being back in the pool for only three months, there’s a bigger question mark than usual about whether she’ll be able to hit the qualifying time this weekend. But, the break has also given her a new approach to big meets.
“I still train the same as I used to for like a big meet, I just don’t have any huge goals at the moment and I think that’s allowing me to be free of kind of those pressure and still be able to train and push myself.”
She continued, “Coming out of the Paris Games, I allowed myself a little bit of a breather knowing that I worked towards that and was able to achieve the podium and that it’s okay right now to maybe not have a specific goal.”
Not having a specific goal also means Los Angeles 2028 is an open question for McSharry. “I’m not going to commit myself to Los Angeles like I did for Paris and push through. Maybe if I’m a year out from Los Angeles then I’ll be ‘okay, I’m going to LA.’”
But for now, the focus is the 2025 season and the Irish Open Championships. The meet runs from April 12-16th. McSharry is entered as the top seed in the 100 and 200-meter breaststroke.
A great person and a great Vol. All the best to Mona as she moves forward with her life.