Paris 2024: Joy for Mona McSharry in taking 100m breaststroke bronze

Mona McSharry delivered Ireland's first medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics, winning a bronze medal at a packed La Defense Arena.

Competing in her second Olympic final, the Sligo swimmer touched out third by the very slimmest of margins, beating Italy's Benedetta Pilato and world record holder and 2016 champion Lilly King of the United States both by 0.01 of a second in a time of 1:05.59.

South Africa's Tatjana Smith took gold in 1:05.28, with China's Qiantang Tang second in 1:05.54.

At the age of 15, McSharry was just under a second shy of the time required to make the Rio Games. A European junior champion at the age of 16 in the 50m breaststroke, and then shortly after her 17th birthday, she became a world junior champion in the 100m breaststroke.

Another global gold came in the latter event in 2021, some five months after McSharry's name gained a wider prominence at the Tokyo Olympics. She became only the second Irish swimmer ever to make an Olympic final when taking her place in the 100m breaststroke.

And now she can step on the podium that matters the most.

A product of Ballyshannon Marlins SC, who honed her talent at the University of Tennessee, the 23-year-old said afterwards: "I could see the Chinese girl beside me so I knew that she was ahead of me so I was like, 'I need to try and catch her' because if she's ahead then I don’t know what’s going on, on the other side – I can’t see that.

"I had a bad first fifty – my goggles filled up with water a little bit, so not a perfect race but it just shows you’re in it until the end and you just have to keep going – I was like 'I’m not giving up, I’m going, I’m going’ and I think it was 0.01 between me and the next swimmers so that’s kind of crazy, but that’s what racing is about