AFTER a very successful Olympics, Swim Ireland’s Head of Physical Preparation Paul Talty is back visiting his native Lahinch this week.
It was a great Olympics for Ireland in the pool with three medals won, while Paul is keen to stress that there were other successes besides Daniel Wiffin and Mona McSharry, as the Irish competitors fulfilled their potential.
“The success is above and beyond anything Ireland has ever achieved at an Olympic Games with the exception of ‘96. But what I thinks gets lost in the excitement about what Daniel and Mona have achieved, is what the rest of the team achieved. For the first time ever all of our individual qualifiers made it out of the first round in their key event. We also had another athlete, Ellen Walsh, make it into a final at the Olympic Games. When she made that final she was only the second Irish person, after Mona, since ‘96, to make it into an Olympic final.
“In addition to that we had three relay teams compete at the Games for the first time ever. Of those three relay teams, two of them moved up the rankings from where they qualified and they set national records in the process. It’s a very successful Games, with Dan and Mona being the cream on top of a very successful period.”
Now living in Armagh, Paul got to see his home county and adopted county win All-Irelands on back to back weekends, before seeing athletes he works with delivering their best possible performances on the greatest stage.
“It was really an exciting, whirlwind three weeks. You have the excitement of the build up, in the middle of that you have Clare winning the All-Ireland. Then you have the excitement of the transition into the Olympic village. I live in Armagh now and I’m involved with a football team there, and a number of players were involved with the Armagh squad. All of that was going on while the Olympics were kicking off.
“Then you have the excitement of the success we experienced, not just with the swimming team, but with Team Ireland as a whole. It was really something to behold. The buzz and the excitement around the whole team was really something I hadn’t experienced before, it was a fabulous thing to be involved with.”
After graduating with a degree in Sports and Exercise Science from UL, he worked at Coventry University, before going to the Northern Ireland Sports Institute as a Strength & Conditioning coach.
“During my time there I was supporting the performance swimmers that were based in the North. My predecessor in my role with Swim Ireland left and when he did I was asked to come down and take on the Strength and Conditioning component of his role directly for the governing body in Dublin. I started in 2018 and have been there since.”
His main focus is to deliver Strength & Conditioning services to the full time training group in Dublin, while he also makes sure that support services are in place there and at other national centres in Limerick and Bangor in the North.
Some of the top Irish swimmers, including the two medallists, are based abroad, and he has to work with their trainers to make sure they reach their peak for the biggest competitions.
“We have what would be called a semi-centralised system.
“We pull in some of our best athletes into our national centres in Dublin, Limerick and Bangor, but athletes can also choose to base themselves in programmes overseas. Daniel is based in Loughborough University full time and Mona is based in the University of Tennesse full time.
“To take this Olympics as an example, we came together for training camp before the competition. We came together around July 15 and I liaise with the trainers in their home programmes to find out what their needs are and we accommodate those needs when they come into camp. I facilitate them in executing their normal training as much as possible, and when we go to competition then I support them through their preparation and routine on race day as well.”
Of course the Olympics are the greatest focus, and he is thrilled that the Irish swimmers did as well as they did at the right time.
“When we go to these type of competitions our aim is always for our athletes to deliver the best performance they can in the moments that matter. You’re looking for someone like Mona to progress through rounds and deliver a lifetime or a season’s best in the final round of competition.
“She actually set a personal best and national record in the semi final and delivered her best performance ever in an Olympic final. Daniel Wiffin set a personal best which was a national record and an Olympic record in the final of the 800.
“Tom Fannon, on the morning of the 50m freestyle set a significant personal best, which isn’t always the easiest thing to do in the morning of competition. Then he bettered that again in the evening, in the semi-final. That’s the kind of performance that you’re always looking for. We felt going over that the team we had selected was capable of delivering these types of performances in that type of environment, and so it proved. You’re always going over hoping they can do it and you’re just waiting to see if they can deliver on what we believe they are capable of.”
On a day to day basis he is responsible for looking after a group of talented and driven athletes, as they try to get the best out of themselves.
“The main thrust of my role is to deliver the strength and conditioning support to our full time athletes in Dublin. We have a training group in Dublin and the number fluctuates from season to season, but it’s usually between nine and 12 athletes. They will do between two and five gym sessions a week depending on their event, the stage of the season, the stage of their development.
“You’re making sure that the plans are set out and aligned with their swimming plan and aligned with what their goals and aims are at a particular juncture of the season, but also with a view to the longer term aims around the Olympic Games and an Olympic cycle. You’re in the gym, you’re coaching and providing delivery in that regard.
“There’s also time spent poolside, making sure that you have a clear understanding of what the swim coach is doing, what they’re targeting and the workload that is being put on the athletes ih that environment.
“In the poolside environment you are also supporting the athletes in their warm ups and cool downs on dry land, so before and after they are in the pool you help them to prep to train and to cool down after training.
“The other key parts of my role are to liaise with the Sport Ireland Institute and the Sport Northern Ireland Institute and to make sure that the service support that is required is available to the athletes as and when they require it. That’s thing like physiotherapy, sport psychology, nutrition and physiology support. Just making sure that we are addressing the gaps that need to be addressed and that we’re doing it in a timely fashion.”
Most of the swimmers are working part time or in education, and have to balance that with a really intense training programme.
“They’re in the pool eight to ten times a week, then they have two to five gym sessions a week depending on the specifics of their event. Almost all of them are in college or doing some part time work as well. There’s a lot of demand on their time and energy, so you’re always just trying to support that and making sure they’re getting what they need.”
Famously, Ireland’s preparations for the 2002 World Cup were a disaster with the captain going home after a huge row over inadequate facilities. It showed how important planning and logistics are, and part of Paul’s role is to make sure that the Irish swimmers do have everything they need when they are on the brink of the biggest competitions.
“One of the big things that comes into play for me at that point is to make sure that we have organised all of the kit and equipment that we require at the competition, make sure that is in place, is packed up and ready to go, and is transported safely. That’s things from sport supplementation, through to ice baths, even their swimming caps, spare racing suits and stuff like that. I have to make sure all of that is in place.”
There is work for him to do, almost until the moment the swimmer enters the water. “When we’re at the competition on race days you’re setting out their preparation areas beside the warm up and swim down pools, you’re supporting the athlete. They’ll do a warm up in the pool, which will finish between 45 and 60 minutes before the start of the race. That’s quite a big gap in time.
“They come out of that and they have to put on the racing suits that are quite hard to get on, and they have to be at the call room ready to go between 15 and 20 minutes prior to their race. Just before they go to the call room the main part of their warm up is done in the prep area, on dry land, and that’s where I come in. I help them to make sure that what they require is in place, and help them go through that process.
“It could be something as simple as holding a resistance band while they do some exercises with that, or it could be throwing a medicine ball at them or something of that nature, just to help them warm up and get ready to race.”
Helping swimmers to trim fractions of seconds of their times isn’t always easy, but he really loves the work.
“Oh God yeah. It’s hard, it’s demanding, because the margins are so fine everyone is working very hard and is attuned to the need to be doing the right things as much as possible. But I would much rather be involved in this than being sat behind a desk in a bank or something of that nature, I can tell you that much.”
Daniel Wiffin and Mona McSharry wrote themselves into history with their fantastic performances in Paris, but Paul says the difference between taking home a medal and losing out is miniscule.
“Prior to the Olympics Mona McSharry had missed out on medals by less than a second. On this occasion she came out on the right side by .01 of a second. Dan Wiffen came fourth in two races last year where he missed out on third by a second or two, that was the difference between glory and pain.
“It’s very fine margins that determine success and failure across every sport, or perceived success and failure across every sport.”
His own skills in Strength and Conditioning are transferable across sports, and having worked with a number of the Armagh All-Ireland winning team, does he notice a big difference between those in team sports and individual sports? “Ah yeah, there definitely is a difference across the different sports. Every sport has its culture and ways and means of doing things. Fundamentally there are more similarities across sports than differences, but the personaliteis are obviously different.
“If you’re involved in a team sport compared to being in an individual sport there are a lot of very obvious differences there in terms of where your focus and attention is likely to lie. For individual athletes, by the nature of what they do they have to be more selfish than your average team sport athlete.”
It was his second Olympics and he says that staying in an Olympic Village is a fantastic experience. “You’re surrounded by five to ten thousand of the world’s best athletes, they’re of a diverse range of shapes and sizes, from so many different sports.
“The energy and excitement that exists in that space is like nothing I’ve experienced before, particularly in the days prior to the opening ceremony, because nobody has lost yet. Everybody is excited, but is nervous, there’s just this nervous anticipation of what’s ahead.
“You also have this variety from millionaire professional athletes like Rafa Nadal all the way down to a number of our swimmers and track and field athletes who were working full time jobs while trying to train. That brings an interesting energy and an interesting atmosphere.”
While he was back in Ireland before the closing ceremony in Paris, he went to Dublin for the Irish team’s homecoming earlier this week, which he enjoyed hugely.
“Something like Monday really brings home what we missed by having an Olympic Games in the midst of Covid. Also, no Irish Olympic team as a whole has had a homecoming of that nature before. It really showed the impact that Team Ireland has had on the nation and the national psyche over the last couple of weeks, that something like that was put on and so many people turned out.
“I got home from Paris in the middle of last week so I was able to bring my wife and my daughter with me yesterday, to experience that and to meet the athletes.
“It was a really fabulous day.”
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked with a number of other publications in Limerick, Cork and Galway. His first book will be published in December 2024.