Buoyant Róisín Ní Riain building on positive Paris

With 2024 drawing to a close, swimmer Róisín Ní Riain is finally able to take stock of an incredible 12 months.

The Limerick teenager began the year with a five-medal haul at the European Championships and closed it out as the RTÉ Young Sportsperson of the Year, primarily for her achievements at the Paralympic Games.

A silver and bronze in Paris meant the Drombanna woman accounted for a third of Team Ireland's overall haul, backing up the pre-Games talk of being a leading medal contender.

That brought the curtain down on a gruelling 54-week season and the University of Limerick science student says a complete break was required after such physical and mental exertions.

"I took about five weeks off," she tells RTÉ Sport. "That's the longest I have been off since I was a child.

"It was difficult at the start, going from that high-performance pressure to studying. All I wanted to do was stay in bed."

After getting her head back in the books, it wasn't long before the pool routine resumed. The early part of the week is the most intense – 5.30am start times with double sessions and gym work thrown in – but the disciplined approach is second nature.

A midweek break means a return to the pool Thursday evening and a programme planned out until Saturday morning. Juggling studies, never mind a social life, is down to stringent time management.

"We don't have the stereotypical college life"

Located on campus with six other swimmers, Ní Riain is part of the sports scholarship programme with the college accommodating academic commitments around the swimming schedule in order for the athletes to excel.

"We don't have the stereotypical college life," she says. "That's what's so nice about living with other swimmers and like-minded athletes, you have people to hold you accountable. We are not your typical students, but we don't mind.

"Our joy comes from the smaller things, the Wednesday afternoons off, going for coffee or lunch."

All three of the Irish medallists in Paris, Ní Riain, sprinter Orla Comerford and and cyclist Katie-George Dunlevy, are vision-impaired athletes.

Dunlevy, in particular, spoke emotionally in the French capital about inspiring children with vision impairment.

Ní Riain, fully blind in her left eye and with very limited vision in her right, says the impairment is all she has ever known.

"I've grown up with my disability, I've learnt how to deal with it. I only know my version of it," she says.

"Your coach would always say 'Swim your own race', but as a vision-impaired athlete, we really have to do that."

The impairment means she has no idea how her fellow competitors are doing alongside her in the pool. Her measurement of performance comes down to counting strokes and utilising her strong back-end finish, something evident during the Games.

In taking silver in the 100m backstroke in Paris, the 19-year-old held off Italy's Carlotta Gilli to take second with a final 50m surge, while her bronze four days later was even more dramatic, going from fourth at the final turn to a podium place with a blistering last leg.

The drama however was contained within the stands of the boisterous La Defense Arena rather than the water as the vision impairments create a different vibe

"We always joke about if there was a microphone in the pool after we swim. We are all hugging and happy, but no-one really knows what is going on."

Organisers had lights on the blocks - one light for gold, two for silver and three for bronze – but the Irish swimmer forgot her bearings when she claimed Ireland's first medal of the Games, and was only informed of her silver during the poolside interview.

"That's something that is normal for me."

Just 16 when she travelled to the Tokyo Games, Ní Riain has now featured in nine Paralympic finals. Throw in World Championship success and a bag full of medals from a couple of Europeans and there is a strong body of work to draw on.

"I feel like I matured so much in three years but also I have gained so much confidence as a swimmer. I feel like I know what I'm doing, even in dealing with the media and speaking in front of the cameras."

The afterglow from Paris is still bright. The swimmer was careful not to publicise any official targets ahead of the Games, but climbing the podium was always there at the back of her mind.

Always a strong contender in the backstroke (silver), a fourth-place finish in her final event, the breaststroke is now providing motivation.

Gold was never a realistic ambition given Great Britain's Rebecca Redfearn's supremacy in the event, yet at the final turn she was locked in a battle for third, touching the wall at the same time as American Colleen Young.

Her strong kick failed to deliver a third medal however, and immediately afterwards Ni Riain described the final 50m as "very bad".

"It's almost easier to pick out where you didn't do as well," she says. "That makes you better, you always strive to do better.

"It was my worst (breaststroke) swim of 2024 and that was what frustrated me.

"You have to turn that into motivation for the next year. That's what I aim to use in training now. Proving to myself I can do better.

"When the sessions get tougher, that will be running through my mind."