When John Shortt won his second gold medal at the World Junior Swimming Championships on Sunday evening, adding to the bronze medal also won last Friday, he single-handedly placed Ireland ninth on the final medal table.
Shortt was the sole Irish competitor in the six-day championships, staged in Otopeni on the outskirts of the Romanian capital Bucharest, and his near complete domination of all three backstroke events turned plenty of heads in international swimming. His style and execution of performances were particularly impressive.
After first winning the 100m backstroke gold last Wednesday, the 18-year-old from Galway won bronze in the 50m backstroke on Friday – the same day as he got his Leaving Cert results – then added another gold in the 200m backstroke, his favourite event, this time winning by almost two seconds.
With over 100 competing nations, his double gold and bronze placed Ireland ninth among the 25 countries that won medals, ahead of some traditional swimming powerhouses such as Australia (who finished 12th), and also Germany (17th) and Canada (21st).
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Shortt also became only the second Irish swimmer to win a World Junior title, the biennial championships staged since 2006, after Mona McSharry won the 100m breaststroke gold (and the 50m breaststroke bronze) back in 2017. Last summer, McSharry graduated to the Olympic medal podium, winning the 100m breaststroke bronze in Paris.
In winning the 200m backstroke, Shortt grabbed the lead from the starting gun and never relinquished it, his time of 1:56.19 breaking his own Irish junior and senior record, the 1:56.61 which he posted to win the Irish Open in April. In winning the 100m backstroke, moving from third to first in the second 50m, he added to the European title he also won in that event in June.
Shortt’s backstroke success in Otopeni may be unprecedented for Irish swimming, but it’s no surprise whatsoever to anyone who has closely followed his rise in international swimming over the last two years. He’s already well used to hearing Amhrán na bhFiann being played after his medal successes.
The World and European Junior Championships are for swimmers aged 14-18 and last year Shortt also won the European Junior 200m backstroke title in Lithuania, and silver in 100m backstroke.
That breakthrough came after Shortt made the big commitment at age 16 to move away from his home in Roscam, near Oranmore in Galway, to join the Swim Ireland National Training Centre in Limerick, under the guidance of head coach John Szaranek.
His move from Galway to Limerick also meant enrolling in a new school for the Leaving Cert cycle, Shortt attending Castletroy College by day, while also training twice a day at the pool at the University of Limerick, alongside other Irish international swimmers such as Evan Bailey, Jack Cassin, Eoin Corby and Ellie McCartney.
Although there was no notable swimming background in his family, Shortt was encouraged to join the tryouts at Bluefin Swimming Club, located in Clarinbridge, and soon began making an impression in competitive events.
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Last season he was determined to chase qualification for the Paris Olympics, and fell just .40 short when clocking 1:57.90 for the 200m backstroke at the Irish Olympic trials in Dublin in May 2024.
Watching McSharry win her Olympic bronze, then Daniel Wiffen win gold in the 800m freestyle and then bronze in the 1,500m freestyle, provided Shortt with some added inspiration going into last year’s European Junior Championships, where he first announced himself on the international scene after winning that 200m backstroke gold.
Juggling his twice daily swimming training sessions along with his Leaving Cert was a tough burden for 2025, but Shortt also gained some more senior experience earlier summer when he qualified for the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, where he finished 15th overall in the 200m backstroke (1:57.30), and also helped Ireland to 14th in the 4×200m freestyle relay.
Shortt will now move into the senior ranks proper for 2026 (he turns 19 next February), and despite several offers of a scholarship to attend a US university, including the University of Tennessee which McSharry attended, he has decided to continue to base himself in Limerick, aiming to study sports science at the University of Limerick.
After each of his three medal wins in Otopeni, he also paid tribute to his coach Szaranek: “The strategy that my amazing coach [John Szaranek] put into place was we had to be out with the guys,” he said after his 100m backstroke gold.
“Because they were out so much quicker than me last night, and you know they were beating me to the first 50m, so you know as long as I went with them, I knew I had a chance to come back quicker than they did. And that’s exactly what happened, so all part of my brilliant coach’s strategy.”
He also believes his World Junior success will provide the ideal foundation for further success, ideally on the next Olympic stage in Los Angeles in 2028.
“It’s everything, because, once you get to those really big finals, like Worlds or the Olympics, you need to be able to call on these experiences and know that you can perform under pressure.”
