MY PATHWAY

Hello I’m Ciara! I would like to share with you my pathway in swimming. I started swimming when I was 5 years old. By the age of 8 I was competitive swimmer in the pool. I progressed through the various levels in Irish swimming culminating in being invited to join the High-Performance Center when I was 13. In 2014 I represented Ireland in Canada. I am asthmatic and swimming was recommended to help increase my lung capacity. It was very beneficial to me & it gave me a love for water. 

I did 10 training sessions per week. My typical day involved getting up at 3:30am, leaving home at 4am and in the water by 5am. Training again in the evenings from 4.30pm to 6pm. This was not a sacrifice, it was a life choice which enabled me to win National Titles. 

In 2014 I ventured into Open Water as I trained with Christopher Bryan who was the Irish International Open Water Swimmer. My first swim was in Glendalough, Co. Wicklow in 1500m. My parents were concerned as this was a step into the unknown for them, as it would be the first time I would be out of their sight & I was only 14 years old. Being the complete novice, I didn’t have a racing wet-suit & made do with a cheap surfing wet-suit. This was so different to pool swimming as there was no warm-up, no starting blocks & no lane ropes. The biggest shock of the day was the cold water, as all my swimming up to this was in a heated pool. The night before the swim I searched Google on ‘how to sight in open water?’. I was not used to starting a race with over 150+ swimmers all starting together. It felt like a battle zone, people grabbing my feet, getting the odd thump in the back & head. My first thought was ‘what have I got myself in for?’ This was a new type of physical & mental challenge that strangely enough I found myself enjoying. I took the lead from the start and finished 1st overall. The following day there was a 3.9km race & I had no intention of swimming that distance until the race organizers invited me to do so. I had said ‘yes’ without a second thought. Later that evening I questioned my sanity as I had never swam this distance competitively. Conditions has changed overnight; this is where I learned that conditions can change from one day to the next (I will cover this in more detail in upcoming posts). To my delight I finished fourth overall but 2nd female. Not bad for a newbie!  

After 4 years of open water swimming I was asked if I would consider Ice Swimming. I thought they were mad! It became a running joke, but the seed had been planted & in December 2018 I declared my interest & started training in a cold lake. In January 2019 I won the 1000m Irish Ice Swimming Championships setting a new Irish Record in the process. In March 2019 I traveled with the Irish Team to Murmansk, Russia to compete in the 3rd World Ice Swimming Championships. The pool was cut out of a frozen lake and water temperature was subzero. I finished second in the 1000m race, breaking my own Irish Record by over 59 seconds. In the Arctic Cup I won Gold in the 200m Freestyle and Bronze in the 50m Freestyle.

Hope you enjoyed my post, stay tuned for my upcoming posts! Don’t forget to hit the follow button.