Mona McSharry won Ireland's first Olympic medal in almost 30 years when she produced a gritty, brave finish in the 100m breaststroke final in Paris.
The first Irish swimmer to make an Olympic final this century when she made the 100m breaststroke final in Tokyo, the 23-year-old has now taken her place on the podium.
At the age of 15, McSharry was just under a second shy of the time required to make the Rio Games. A European junior champion at the age of 16 (50m breaststroke), and then shortly after her 17th birthday, she was a world junior champion (100m breaststroke).
Another global gold came in the latter event in 2021, some five months after McSharry's name gained a wider prominence at the Tokyo Olympics, taking bronze in the World Short Course Championships.
The ticket to Paris was secured last summer after the Sligo competitor smashed her previous Irish record for the event at the World Aquatics Championships in Japan.
This is the record she lowered again to 1:05.51 in Sunday's semi-final, which saw her qualify second fastest for tonight's final. For context, she swam 1.06.94 in Tokyo for eighth place.
The University of Tennessee graduate also holds the Irish 200m breaststroke record. She will tackle the aforementioned event in the French capital, as well as the 400m medley relay, when she comes down from the high of making history.
McSharry was born in the north Sligo village of Grange, just a stone's throw away from the Atlantic Ocean, and is a product of Ballyshannon Marlins Swimming Club.
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She would like to live by the sea eventually. Moving back to her birthplace is an option, as is staying in the States for a few more years, or moving to Europe.
"I can't live without the sea. It's the one thing I really miss", she told RTÉ Sport ahead of the Games.
However swimming became a burden rather than a passion in the wake of that World bronze in 2021.
"I got third in the 100m breaststroke but I really wasn't that happy which doesn’t make sense. I came back, completed the college season up until March, I kept training into the summer. I stayed here over the summer, I was living by myself, training at the pool but not really enjoying that.
"It just came to a head some Sunday in the middle of summer. I remember waking up and I was really upset, crying, I didn’t know why I was crying. I was really unhappy. I called my friends from home, I was talking to them anyway, we talked through it and they helped me realise what was going on and I didn’t realise it stemmed from swimming."
She came back, thanks to those closest to her. McSharry did not seek professional help; she did not reach out to a sport psychologist.
"My circle's really small so I find it hard to open up to a lot of people and, for me, I felt a lot more comfortable to speak to someone who knew me well," she outlined to RTÉ Sport at the time.
"A trained professional would also have been really helpful but the way my mind works, it was a lot easier for me to talk to those people."
Away from the pool, McSharry likes to keep things pretty chilled.
McSharry told RTÉ Sport: "I love to be outdoors and I have my dog (American pitbull terrier called Luna) so I try and go on a lot of walks and adventures. I like a certain amount of alone time. I'm very much an introvert, so it's nice to be able to go on long walks or chill with her, be alone but not all alone.
"I love to do stuff like that that's pretty chilled, nothing crazy. Sometimes we go on longer hikes on the weekends if we have the time.
"I love knitting, I’m pretty obsessed with it right now (laughs), that’s a pretty good hobby for swimming because I can just sit and knit and recover. Being outdoors is something I really enjoy, I’m probably going to work in something outdoors related when I’m older, I’m not going to be stuck inside."
