Olympian gives inspirational talk to eager young Offaly swimmers

AN Olympic swimmer gave eager budding stars from Offaly an inspirational and revealing talk about what needs to be done to excel in the sport when he attended a training session at Clara Swimming Pool last week.

Nick O'Hare, a former resident at Tinnycross. near Tullamore but now living in Kildare, represented Ireland in the 50 metre free-style at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

The Dubliner was a top class professional swimmer during his competitive career. Nick O'Hare was a top class, international standard swimmer in the 1990s. He was a professional from 1995 to 2000 and represented Ireland eighty times. He won 43 All-Ireland titles, set 27 Irish records and the last of them was only broken last year. His speciality was the 50 metres freestyle and he swam at this in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, where he exited in the heats but ranked 27th out of the 98 competitors.

He retired from competitive swimming at 28 years of age in 2000, gaining prominence as an analyst at big events with RTE and he spoke with great passion before last week's Tullamore Swim Club session.

O'Hare told the young swimmers about what needs to be done to fulfil their potential in the sport. He told them about how they could get something out of every session, even the ones where they are a bit off and not feeling the best in.

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He stressed the importance of giving themselves every chance by their lifestyle choices – the role that diet and welfare habits have: Going to bed early, staying off their phone for the two hours before they go to bed.

O'Hare explained that some people will tell them about the “sacrifices” they have to make but he said they shouldn't look on it in that light – that the decisions they make are “choices” and it is up to them whether they want to pursue the sport or not.

He talked about racing and doing your best every day, stating that he had just one perfect race in his career: that was the day he qualified for the Olympics while he recalled winning a World Cup bronze medal in Sheffield in 1995 when he reached for the line a fraction of a second early and this cost him the gold.

He told them to engage in repetitive practice, perfecting their technique, to work on their abs and stomach muscles which are the most critical for swimmers and that this will yield dividends over a period of time – the large gathering grinned as he revealed that he still does 1,000 sit ups each day.

He showed them the ring he received for competing in the 1996 Olympic Games, inviting them to hold it but only if they wanted to get one themselves in the future. And he finished off with a very nice gesture by presenting each young swimmer with a memento provided by the Olympic Council of Ireland.

O'Hare then watched the young swimmers go through their paces in the pool, speaking to each individually and offering nuggets of advice.

Tullamore Swim Club has been very active for several years, providing several provincial and national champions across the underage disciplines.

Swimming takes huge commitment at a high level, requiring a lot of hours in the pool and work outside it. Tullamore Swim Club was established in 2013, catering for junior swimmers – getting them in at a young age, giving them the best early instruction and preparing them for competitive swimming.

There are approximately members in Tullamore Swim Club at the moment, ranging from 8 years of age up to 15, though they cater for up to 18, and beyond if someone wished to stay on.

They have been going from strength to strength in recent years and the work by head coach Roman Horodetskyy has helped bring the current swimmers onto a different level. He has put in huge work on the “fifth stroke”, dives and turns and this technical improvement has seen performances improve at galas while gym sessions, specifically geared for swimmers, have also helped.

They train at Clara Swimming Pool and the other coaches are: Orla Morris, Pearse Reynolds, Luke Healy, Conor Kinnarney.

They are preparing for a busy 2026 season and hope that a couple of swimmers will make the national championships – they will be young, competing in a higher age so it will be for experience but the swimmers and coaches are ambitious about what they can achieve.

Last Wednesday evening, Nick O'Hare gave the young swimmers one nugget of encouragement, telling them that everyone of them were recording faster times at their age than him – his message was clear: if they put in the hard work, wanted it enough and lived the right lifestyle, it could also lead them to the Olympic Games!

Tullamore Swim Club can be contacted by email on: tullamoreswimteam@gmail.com