Olympian Ryan ready to adapt to Tokyo postponement
Swimming for Ireland, Haverford’s Ryan accepts Olympic postponement and aims for 2021
By the time the decision came down last week, there wasn’t much surprise left to be felt for Shane Ryan. With the coronavirus pandemic’s sweep across the world, the International Olympic Committee’s postponement of the 2020 Games to 2021 was more a formality, a global body saying what most athletes in their hearts knew.
The swimming community responded with an unusual blend of disappointment and relief. Yes, the Olympics are what many athletes build careers around, years of training timed down to the week. But as movement has been restricted and facilities closed, the demands of training became increasingly dangerous to public health. Removing the carrot of the Olympics resolved the incentive for athletes to risk themselves and brought an unusual sense of calm.
“It’s definitely disappointing, being an athlete,” Ryan said via Skype from his home in Ireland. “But being an athlete, you have to be optimistic. You have to be ready for anything that pops up. You have to adjust and do what you need to do, because everyone else is in the same boat, everyone else is in the same situation. It might not be at the same time, but they’re going to be in this situation in the pandemic.”
There’s a uniquely aquatic flavor to how Ryan is handling the crisis. The Havertown native, a three-time Daily
Times Boys Swimmer of the Year who represented Ireland at the 2016 Rio Olympics and lives in Dublin, has been around the swimming world. Thanks to training bases at Penn State, Auburn and Virginia Tech as well as Swim Ireland’s high performance program, Ryan has been integrated into the world swimming community for the last half-decade.
So when he heard stories of peers (especially friends in hard-hit Italy) who couldn’t train because of the COVID-19 outbreak, his thought process didn’t move toward fear of the Olympics being taken away from him. Like many swimmers, united in the grueling demands of the sport, Ryan worried that if the summer’s competitions continued, others would be disadvantaged by an unfair playing field wrought by the outbreak.
That sentiment is why many swimmers formed the leading edge of the call to postpone, with USA Swimming’s
letter to the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee one of the first dominoes.
“The thing is, everything happened so fast,” Ryan said. “One week felt like a month, and each day feels like one week. There’s so much that’s happening, but I’m glad that everything kind of happened the way it went. Everyone stood up and took charge. With Swim Ireland, we didn’t really have a say in anything. If it (the Olympics) happened, we would’ve been ready. But now since it’s not happening, we’re still going to be ready regardless. And I think that’s what’s going to happen with every single country.”
With the postponement, Swim Ireland moved quickly to cancel the rest of the 2020 season. Those changes have Ryan training mostly at home, with a stationary bike, weights and a schedule of video workout sessions.
“We really planned for this,” Ryan said. “Swim
Ireland and Sport Ireland, they planned well for this. … We still have a routine for this whole week. We have Zoom meetings where we do ab sessions or coaching sessions. So we’re just trying to make it as normal as possible.”
Ryan had planned alternative workouts, buying a wetsuit to take dips in the chilly Irish Sea. But Ireland last week imposed restrictions limiting people to staying within two kilometers of their homes, and even then only leaving for essential reasons (exercise, grocery shopping, medical care) at the penalty of a €1,000 fine. That leaves Ryan unable to visit the large family on his father’s side that lives in nearby Portarlington.
Ryan, 26, competed in three events at the Rio Olympics, making the semifinals of the 100 backstroke to finish 16th and set an Irish record (53.85 seconds). He also competed in the 50 and 100 freestyle in Rio.
He holds national marks in the long-course 100 free
(48.48), 100 back (53.73) and 50 back (24.32), the latter of which is not an Olympic event, plus two relays. He also holds five individual and four relay records over the short-course distance.
Ryan’s path to Tokyo was mostly clear save for a bit of Olympic housekeeping. He attained his automatic qualifying cut in the 100 back within the necessary time range before the Games, but A cuts have to go through national federation and are treated differently if there is one A cut from a nation or more than one. Either way, Ryan’s time in the
100 back made him very likely to be selected, and the IOC stated this week that Olympic qualification times in sports like swimming made for the 2020 Games will be honored for 2021.
Even through Ryan feels he’s “in the best shape of his life,” he doesn’t express much regret at how events have transpired.
With the target moved to 2021, he’s got a new date to focus on. And if the current climate of chaos and fear caused by coronavirus is banished by then, it means Ryan could be a part of a historic and global celebration.
“This is something that I’m always going to remember,” Ryan said. “People are always going to remember this, the Olympics that got cancelled in 2020 and held in 20201. It’s crazy that we are going through such a tough time now but we’re going to persevere through it all, as swimmers and athletes and the world.
“It was the right call to move the Olympics. And it’s going to be great and it’s going to be a celebration. It’s going to be a great honor just to go there and compete, for everyone whose lives were lost from the pandemic and we’re going to be able to represent our county and be there with all the best athletes in the world.”