Other Sports

Niamh O Sullivan - Kerry's Golden Girl of Swimming

January 4th, 2011
by Weeshie Fogarty

St Stephens Day last week and I am sitting before a beautiful glowing coal fire in the home of Niamh o Sullivan Kerrys golden girl of swimming.  Niamh lives with her parents Cliona, Michael and family in Knockasartnett Aghadoe high over Killarney town. The scene from the room window is spectacular.  The big taw has just begun and huge drifts of snow are still clearly visible dotted through out the panoramic view stretching for miles before us.  It's over two years since I last had the pleasure of chatting to Niamh. Now completely relaxed and totally focused on what is going to be a massively busy sporting year in her life this very articulate and lovely young lady jets out to Florida the following day. She is a member the Irish High Performance swimming team and will spend over two weeks in Florida undergoing extensive training and coaching.  

A lot has happened in her life since we last met. She now has a scholarship to UCD and this was a huge change for her from her original training base in Limerick. She began. "When I first move to Limerick in 2006 I was just sixteen years old. My mom took a career break from her nursing career in St Finans, came to live with me in Limerick and that was brilliant. I was just a regular teenager back then and changing school was a big thing in my life. With mom there dinner was always on the table, lunch was prepared and I relied on her support a lot. I was able to concentrate on my training and improving my times. Now I live in Dublin with my cousin from Galway who is also a swimmer and she and I prepare the meals between us. Our diet is very important as you can imagine".

Niamh explained how things had not gone so well for her since 2009 but now the change of cities has made a massive difference to her whole approach. "After the 2009 World Championships training was going OK but I knew I was not getting 100% out of myself in Limerick. I was unhappy. It was a difficult time for me and for my parents because aside from swimming they really only want me to be happy. But I love where I am now and I am hightly motivated and hightly disciplined. My parents support for me is incredible. Really the one important thing for them is to see me happy and allow me to pursue my dreams and allow me take this journey. It's great Weeshie to have this opportunity to thank them publicly for all they have done for me".

And this exemplary Kerry girl is certainly pursuing the greatest dream of all. So what will it take to achieve the ultimate dream of competing in the London Olympics? "My plan to achieve this", she continues, "is, next year 2011 the World Championships are on in China and the qualifying standard for that are the Beijing Olympic times in 2008. Now if I want to qualify for London I have to break it down step by step and the World Championships are the first marker. I want to qualify for them and then 2012 is just around the corner and my times will be quite low then and I will be close enough to London. I am off to Florida to morrow, the National Championships are on in April and that's the qualifying opportunity for the Worlds, and the World Student games are also coming up. I have qualified for them so I am definitely going to China one way or the other".

Niamh is fully focused on what lies ahead and made it very plain how absolutely vital it is that only people with positive attitudes are working with her. "I live in a kind of bubble" she says"  and it is made up of people that can only help me in my swimming career and anyone that might be negative I would disassociate myself with. Positive thoughts and positive energy are vital. Swimming is a very selfish sport and my parents understand that I need to be selfish to push on". At times we hear other sports people talking about the vast amount of time they spend training for their sport, but this exemplary Kerry lady's training regime is full time, grueling and punishing. "My coach is Paul o Donovan and I probably see more of him than anyone else in my life. He is great for me. Noel Murphy is my strength and conditioning coach and then there is Peter Banks the high performance director. He has coached a previous Olympic Gold Medal winner so I am surrounded by only the best and most positive people". 

The life of Niamh o Sullivan Olympic hopeful is all based on being highly disciplined, motivated with complete tunnel vision and 100% positivity in all her daily routines. I have found this unbelievable one dimensional and I must admit almost frightening focused sporting attitude a part of the mind set of all great sports people. Recent Kerry Olympians Gillian o Sullivan, Sean Casey, Paul Griffin and Cathal Moynihan all possess this X factor and any time I was privileged to interview them it came shinning through. Like them Niamh is courteous, pleasant, a joy to interview and that hightly disciplined totally focused attitude is there in abundance.  Up in the morning at 4-30 pm, swimming from five to seven, college for a few hours, a light lunch and then back to the pool gym until 5-30 pm and its more swimming until 7pm. Dinner and early to bed and early to rise.  A mischievous little smile and a laugh when I questioned her about a man in her life. A little pause and then "not at the moment but I hope it will be a Kerryman" was her response.

So this is the Killarney girl's routine, six days a week, fifty two weeks a year and will remain so for the next twelve months.  She broke her first Irish record at just sixteen years of age, has taken part in the European and World Championships, broke Michelle Smiths Irish record, and only last November won four gold medals in the National Championships held in Galway. Her swimming has taken her all over the world. To Rome, Turkey Croatia México and many other distant places.  Niamh o Sullivan has not yet reached her peak in her chosen sport. Her whole life is consumed in her pursuit of her Olympic dream. She is an amazing young lady and all of Kerry should be so proud of her. The time I spend in her company was special. So articulate and forth coming she is a credit to her parents and county.  One thing is absolutely certain, win, lose or draw as the saying goes Niamh is giving her sporting dream her very best shot. She deserves to join the greats from Kerry who have gone before her and written their names into history's pages as Olympians. We wish her well as she continues her magnificent sporting odyssey.



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