Nicholas Quinn – Swimming

Age: 23. Event: 100m/200m breaststroke. Hometown: Castlebar, Co Mayo

Gaelic football was always in the backdrop of Quinn’s childhood years in Castlebar, but he found himself drawn to the swimming pool, where he soon proved successful too, making the semi-finals at the European Juniors in 2011. Only after moving to the University of Edinburgh, to study psychology, did the senior breakthrough come, and after deferring his studies this year to give himself every chance of making Rio, Quinn got his just reward when clocking a lifetime best of 2:11.24 at the Eindhoven Swim Cup in April, half a second faster than what was needed to make his first Olympics. r

Ian O'Riordan

Ian O'Riordan

Ian O'Riordan is an Irish Times sports journalist writing on athletics