SPLASH CASH THE
Victoria hopes fame will tempt investors to take the plunge
VICTORIA CATTERSON hopes success in the pool at Paris 2024 will prompt the powers that be to splash the cash on badly needed new and improved Irish venues.
The Daniel Wiffen (inset) effect has brought the sport massive publicity, with his sweep of European and World gold medals pushing swimming into the public’s consciousness.
Allied to that, Mona Mcsharry made three Worlds finals in Doha while Ellen
Walsh has also been making headlines.
Wiffen’s Swim Ireland colleague Catterson experienced the phenomenon last week.
She smiled: “Definitely, I was out for dinner with my friends and one of them asked me, ‘what about Daniel?’
“It’s absolutely crazy people know these names now on the swim team, that’s the level that we’re pushing for.
“We’ve had Mona and Ellen at such high levels for a few years now but to have people winning gold medals and setting world records is absolutely insane.”
Catterson herself is expected to make it to Paris as part of the 4x100m relay team currently ranked 13th in the world, with the top 16 qualifying, as long as a minimum of two of the team have achieved individual qualification. Mcsharry and Walsh did so last year.
Catterson, the Irish record holder for the 200m Freestyle, said: “There has been a lot of investment – almost a regeneration of Irish swimming for a few years.
“And to be seeing the results now, every time it’s on Twitter, there’s a new article, our names are in the headlines, it’s crazy what has gone on.”
But she knows there is such a long way for the sport to go in terms of facilities. The tiny number of Olympic size pools here is put in stark contrast when the Belfast woman competes internationally.
She recalls that, after moving to the Ards club as a 15-year-old as she sought to maximise her potential, the members had to travel to Bangor if they wanted to use a 50m pool.
The 22-year-old added: “Hopefully this new era of Irish swimming will generate more of a buzz around swimming.
“But coming off Doha where in the one centre they had three 50m pools, 25m pools, diving pools – in a country where swimming isn’t one of their major sports – to go to countries like that even in Europe, it’s just 50m pools galore.
“It just goes to show how far we have come as a country to reach these levels and to be aiming so high without major, major investment in swimming.
“Hopefully after Paris that will just generate more investment in the sport from grassroot levels right up to elite sport to get more young people, to get more females, more adults swimming and just being water safe in general.”