McSharry moving Stateside shortly
2020 has taken on a much different complexion than might otherwise have been the case for Mona McSharry, but her goal remains the same: make the Olympics, whenever it might take place.
The Tokyo games - postponed from 2020 to 2021 - are still uppermost in the Grange swimmer’s mind ahead of a move to the United States later this year when she will begin college at the University of Tennessee.
McSharry will, however, be required to return to Ireland next year to swim the necessary time in the 100-metre breaststroke to book her Olympic place. It is anticipated that the Irish Open Swimming Championships, which were due to take place in Dublin last April, will be pencilled in for April next year ahead of the Olympics in July and August of 2021.
Like every elite athlete, McSharry’s schedule has been discarded in 2020 and it has been a waiting game as they searched for certainty as to when sporting life may resume. On Friday, the Government announced the easing of travel restrictions for elite athletes from yesterday, June 8th, meaning they can resume training.
Although away from the pool for a number of months, the Grange athlete has still kept up a strict fitness regime. “I’ve been training away and trying to do the best I can with what I have,” McSharry told The Sligo Champion of her exploits over recent months.
“We have a home gym, my gym coach lended us some equipment so we’ve been working from home, we’re in a zoom call with a class which we’ve been doing and it works out really well. We do it with Sean Flannery, we used to do a circuit class with him once a week before lockdown and now we do the full five times a week, me and my brother.”
The break away from the water can, in some cases, be viewed as a positive for McSharry: it allows for focus on other training areas, and it also provides a mental break from the rigours of competitive action.
She says: “I’m getting a lot of work done, there’s endless ideas being flooded on the internet and there is a lot you can do, at the moment of course I’m not swimming but I don’t see that as a huge problem as I am keeping my fitness up in other ways. My feel for the water will take a while to get back but I don’t think that’s the worst thing ever, a break from the water is probably better than anything.
“I’m trying to keep up the aerobic fitness as well as strength because I think it is sometimes harder to go out for your runs and your cycles because they’re your more painful sessions so I have been trying to keep those up as well so when I get back into the pool it won’t be a huge hit to your cardiovascular system, but it’s going well.”
The training schedule for the north
Sligo woman is pretty packed - five circuit sessions a week, plus aerobic and strength work means there is certainly no chance of her losing her fitness during this time. “Monday-Friday it’s a circuit class in the morning,” McSharry explains.
“That’s about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes; then I do two gym sessions a week and I try to fit in two to three cycles or running sessions so that’s what I’m doing at the moment, it’s not crazy hectic but it’s enough to keep me going.”
The easing of restrictions introduced to help suppress the coronavirus is now taking place at a quicker pace than many had anticipated. This, for many sports and athletes, is encouraging and offers hope of a return to the competition sooner than might have been expected.
On a return to competition, McSharry says “it’s a bit unclear, I don’t think anything will be happening before October/ November time, there might be a competition in December but we don’t really know yet, everything could be postponed until next year so it’ll be interesting to see how that plays out, at the moment I don’t really have any competitions in my mind for the upcoming future.”
No competitions on the mind for the moment; but the big one down the line certainly is.
McSharry is aiming to don the green of Ireland at the Olympics - the pinnacle of any athlete’s career - and that is what is motivating her work.
A move to the United States inside the next two months will also provide a new environment for McSharry, as she competes within the NCAA structure.
“I personally like to give 100pc all the time, I don’t feel good if I haven’t so even though it is difficult because there’s no immediate goals and targets, you’re still working towards the Olympics so for me, that’s just my main focus at the moment and just keep as much fitness up as I can so to be honest training hasn’t really changed.
“I should be leaving at the end of July start of August so I’ll be heading over there for the next year to the University of Tennessee.
“I’ll be entering into the collegiate competitions next year, when going to college in America so there’ll be the whole NCAA and all that, and that’s a completely new system.
“I’ll be targeting different goals there, but my main goal is still going to be the Olympics,” she added,