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Paris 2024: No Day 1 swim semis for Ireland but plenty 'bodes well'

Updated / Saturday, 27 Jul 2024 14:40
Ellen Walshe warms up before the women's 100m butterfly heats at the Paris La Défense Arena
Ellen Walshe warms up before the women's 100m butterfly heats at the Paris La Défense Arena

It was testament to the sheer amount of rainfall since Paris 2024's Opening Ceremony day that La Défense Arena in the western reaches of the city was a case of dry land ahoy.

The atmosphere was building throughout the warm-ups in what looked like a near sellout for the first day of action for the swimmers at this summer's (tell this weekend's weather gods!) Olympics.

Far above in the second tier of seats, a tricolour was draped over the rafters, whilst down in the seats closest to the pool, an Irish rugby jersey with the red sponsor logo was easy to pick out.

From an Irish perspective there wasn't long to wait to see a member of Team Ireland take to the pool in the morning session.

Ellen Walshe entered the fray early, in the second heat, shortly after 11am local time to take part in the 100m butterfly.

In what is her second Olympics, the Templeogue native finished seventh in the heat in a time of 58.70 that was shy of her 57.96 PB over the distance and outside the qualification places for the semi-finals.

But as RTÉ swimming co-commentator and Atlanta 1996 Olympian Nick O'Hare emphasised, the 100m butterfly is not her primary event.

"She didn't do her best time but that's not her best event," he said.

"A huge talent of a swimmer that we have in Ellen, she's been training in Templeogue for the last year, having spent a lot of time in the United States.

"We'd be expecting her to get to a semi-final later in the week."

That is likely to come in the 200m and 400m individual medley which are her strongest events.

Walshe's own feelings reflected that view when she spoke to RTÉ Sport and surmised that "it was nice to get one event out of the way before the main one on Monday".

"I think getting the opportunity to swim that race today ahead of swimming my main events is definitely a positive and just to get used to it I guess and be out there," she added.

The second and final event in the pool for Ireland on Day 1 was the women's 4x100 freestyle relay led out by Danielle Hill, who will have a very busy Games given the number of individual and relay events she is involved in during her time in Paris.

The two-time Olympian is "swimming happier" after coming through a tough time and swam the first leg in 55.61.

Ireland were seventh at that stage before Grace Davison, the youngest member of the team at just 16 - albeit a Commonwealth Games veteran - swam the fastest Irish leg overall in 55.44, although all four were within the 55s range.

Limerick's Erin Riordan and Belfast's Victoria Catterson swam the second half of the relay as they vied with Hong Kong's quartet to try to avoid finishing last, a target which was not successful as they were pipped to by 0.25 seconds.

However, the real success had come prior to the event with the fact that it was the first women's relay event for Ireland in the pool since 1972.

"So 52 years and we had a wide range of ages from 16 to the older ladies in their 20s," said O'Hare.

"They may be slightly disappointed about not breaking the Irish record but it's just fabulous to see them in there and it bodes well.

"It looks good for Irish swimming back home and we got a lot of big performances to come, so that's not the end of Irish swimming here at the Olympics and I'd say watch out for later on in the week, we're going to have some fabulous performances and indeed a couple of medals coming our way."

Watch the 2024 Olympic Games with 14 hours of televised action on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player each day. Listen to extensive radio coverage on RTÉ Radio 1 and 2fm's Game On and follow each moment from Paris on RTÉ.ie, the RTÉ News app and all RTÉ digital platforms. Listen to the daily RTÉ Sport Olympics Podcast.

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