The performance director of Swim Ireland John Rudd has hailed the efforts in the pool at the European Championships in Glasgow this week, arguing that a formula has been found to enable the country to potentially deliver at the Olympics.
During the week, Shane Ryan took bronze in the 50m backstroke, while Conor Ferguson made semi-finals in both the 50m and 100m backstroke, narrowly missing out on the final in both.
Darragh Greene came agonisingly close to reaching the final of the 100m breaststroke, narrowly losing in a swim off.
Brendan Hyland swam a national record in the semi-final of the 200m butterfly, coming close to qualifying, while 17-year-old Mona McSharry also made the semi-final of the 100m breaststroke.
Rudd is very happy with the team's performance so far and says they are in a good place two years out from Tokyo.
"We're delighted with the way the vast majority of the team have performed here," Rudd told RTÉ Sport.
"The key target we talked about was being resilient and focused and being able to swim best times in the competitions that mattered.
"And in 2018, it's this competition here.
"In terms of where we're going for the 2019 World Championships and ultimately the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, that's what we're going to need. Our swimmers are going to need lifetime best performances in those arenas.
"A medal in any event. You grab them with both hands and we're delighted for Shane and what it does for Irish swimming.
"We haven't been in that position before where so many athletes have been knocking on the doors of finals. Ninth is as much a frustrating position as fourth. If we could have just found an extra tenth of a second out of those guys and converted those into finals, the statistics that we're raving about now would leave us with even more to celebrate.
"There's no doubt in our minds that the national coaching centre in Dublin is one the best coaching centres in the world now. It would be the envy of any swimming nation.
"What's most encouraging going into the Olympic Games is that we've found a formula that allows a large part of our team to deliver at the major championships."
