Olympics 24: ‘Hopefully it will be a different experience for me’ – Ellen Walshe
Ellen Walshe from Templeogue Swim Club has been in impressive form in the lead up to the Olympic Games

Olympics 24: ‘Hopefully it will be a different experience for me’ – Ellen Walshe

ELLEN Walshe of Templeogue Swim Club is currently preparing for her second Olympic campaign having competed at Tokyo 2020.

Ellen will swim in the 200 and 400 metres individual medley events and she will be hoping to improve on her results at the last games.

In 2021, with the games having been delayed for a year due to the Covid pandemic, she placed 24th in the 100 metres Butterfly and 19th in the 200 individual medley.

The absence of family and friends at the games due to covid-related restrictions meant that her first Olympics wasn’t the happiest of experiences.

Shortly afterwards though, she took a great leap forward when claiming the silver medal at the World Short Course Championships in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Her time of 4:26.52 lowered her own Irish record.

A successful stint swimming for the University of Tennessee followed, and a bout of glandular fever, a horrendous affliction for any athlete, meant she made the decision to come home to Templeogue to recuperate.

Happily recovered and settled back home, her training schedule returned to the necessary intensity and after many strong showings in 2024, she heads to Paris in the form of her life.

In January, she completed the astonishing feat of winning two titles within fifteen minutes at the Flanders Swimming cup.

She took the 100 metres Butterfly prize in a time of 1:00.57 before diving straight back in to win the 200 metres individual medley in 2:13.47.

At the same meet she also took golds in the 50m Fly and the 400IM, along with silver in the 200m Breaststroke and bronze in the 100m Backstroke.

If that weren’t enough, she was part of the victorious 4×100m Medley and 4×100m Freestyle relay teams.

As a result of these tremendous performances, she was named the Active South Dublin Sport Star of the Year in association with The Echo, South Dublin County Council and The Plaza Hotel in January.

In May, Ellen broke a huge barrier by setting a new Irish record in the 400m Individual Medley at the Leinster Championships.

She swam an incredible time of 4:37.94, knocking over a second off than the previous record of 4:39.18, set by Michelle Smith at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

Ellen qualified for Paris in the 200IM with a time of 2:10.92 at the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan as far back as July 2023.

All that remained was meeting the qualifying time for her favoured event, the 400IM.

This she did in some style, clocking 4:38.05 at the Irish Open Championships and Olympic Trials in May of this year.

In the run up to her tilt at glory in Paris, Ellen told The Echo: “Last time I only had three weeks to prepare and then I was on the plane.

“It was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster for me.

“This time I’ve had a whole year of preparation knowing I was going so hopefully it’ll be a different experience for me.”

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