Olympic bronze medallist Mona McSharry says her break from competitive swimming will allow her continue in the sport for another "two or three years".
Speaking ahead of this weekend's Irish Open championship at the National Aquatic Centre (NAC) in Dublin, the Paris Games 100m breastroke bronze medallist also announced that she is staying on at Tennessee University for the rest of the year.
"We just finished our college season, but I just started with my Masters," she told RTÉ Sport. "It's only one year, but I'm going to be here until December completing that."
"I'll be training here until then."
"After that, I'll make a decision of whether I want to stay or leave, but I'm not in any rush to get out of here. I haven't really been thinking about it."
Following her Olympic exploits, the Sligo native had toyed with the idea of retirement as the now 24-year-old has been competing at the elite end for more than a decade, becoming the world junior 100m breaststroke champion in 2017.
She has added World and European short course medals and also reached the Tokyo Olympic final where she placed eighth in the 100m breaststroke.
After her tearful success in Paris, McSharry said: "Knowing that this is most likely my last Olympics, I am really happy to come away with a medal."
However, after her complete break from swimming over the winter, McSharry will be back in the pool at the NAC this weekend, a meet that is a 2025 World Championship qualifier.
"It was the best decision (taking the break) I could have made," she said.
"I think if I skipped that part, I would have been very mentally and physically drained trying to come back and swim. I took five months off completely from sport and just kind of enjoyed not having a schedule.
"I didn't have any school to do, so I really was just road tripping around the west coast of America and not on any sort of timeline, which was great. I am so glad I did it.
"I travelled with my dog, and I had my friend from Ireland come over as well and the two of us rented a van. I also did some skiing and then hung out in Knoxville for a little bit too, so it was a good combination of everything."
McSharry said it gave her a new perspective on swimming and on life.
Now she is enjoying training once again and is now getting back up to speed. McSharry has already qualified for this year’s Worlds in Singapore, but must register a qualifying time at the NAC meet.
"I still train the same as I used to for like a big meet, I just don't have any huge goals at the moment," she said.
"And I think that's allowing me to be free of kind of those pressures and still be able to train and push myself.
"Finishing eighth in an Olympic final in Tokyo was something I did not expect was going to happen at that competition.
"I kind of came out of it and went, OK, well, now I have to be the best in absolutely everything I do. To win everything. That was a lot of pressure and honestly, a little bit unrealistic. I think that that kind of put me in a downward spiral.
"Coming out of the Paris Games, I allowed myself a little bit of a breather knowing that I worked towards that and was able to achieve the podium and that it's OK right now to maybe not have a specific goal.
"While I'm in it, swimming is absolutely everything and it's my whole life, but there's going to be life after it."
Her goal for the Irish Open is to make the qualifying time, one minute and seven seconds. Only back in the pool three months, she admits there is a question mark whether she can achieve that target.
"It's going to be tough because it's not going to be the way that I normally go into these races. (Beyond that) I'm not going to commit myself to Los Angeles (2028) like I did for Paris and push through.
"Maybe if I'm a year out from Los Angeles then I'll be, OK, I'm going to LA."
The Irish Open gets under way at the NAC on Saturday and run for five days, with 400 swimmers from over 50 clubs competing for national titles in 34 individual events.
Up for grabs are places on senior national teams, including the World Aquatics Championships (50m), World Para Swimming Championships and World University Games, as well as a number of age-group competitions.
McSharry will be joined by fellow Olympians in 800m freestyle gold winner Daniel Wiffen, Ellen Walshe, Tom Fannon, Danielle Hill and Shane Ryan.
For the World Para Swimming Championships, also taking place in Singapore, four Paris Paralympians, Barry McClements, Dearbhaile Brady, Deaten Registe and silver and bronze medallist Róisín Ní Riain have already achieved the qualification standard and are joined by Síomha Brady.
