After three months of waking up in near solitary confinement, an Olympic swimmer feeling like his weight had ballooned in near direct proportion to his lightening of heart and spirit, Shane Ryan had some choices to make.
Did he want to be the best swimmer he could be, not just for himself but for his country, build on the four international medals he'd won already, including a first ever for Ireland in a World Championship event, or, as Ryan deftly puts it himself, be just another "leaf floating down the river".
Is this why six years ago he left the family home in Havertown in the suburbs of west Philadelphia, his Irish parents the proudest fans of him now representing his adopted country, firstly in the Rio Olympics where he made it to the semi-finals of the 100 metres backstroke, sacrificing all he's ever really known to live in a small concrete house in a far corner of the National Sports Campus at Abbotstown?
These were his choices, not questions, and it was only after three months living alone in that isolated house during the first lockdown of 2020 that he took his pick: in January of this year, the same month he turned 27, Ryan was nominated for the Tokyo Olympics (along with Darragh Greene in the 100m/200m breaststroke), now his enthusiasm for swimming has never been greater.
There was no one turning point, only breaking six Irish records at the International Swimming League in Budapest last November as proof he made the right choices: Ryan now holds nine Irish records, three in the long course pool (50m), six in the short (25m), his medal count of four including bronze in the 2018 World Short Course Championships in China, gold in the World University Games in 2017, and European bronze in the long course in 2018, and short course in 2019.
“For the last Olympics I was 84kgs, toothpick young, didn’t have much experience with racing,” he says. “Now I’ve been to Worlds, I’m a World medallist, European medallist, and been to the Olympics so I don’t have that stress of not knowing what I am going into.
"In 2019, when I went to the World Championships in South Korea, I was not in a good spot. I was 99kg. I'm 6' 6", I'm a big guy so that doesn't seem like a lot, but that wasn't good weight. I just felt like a slug going through the water. So I really, really struggled, because I wasn't hitting the times, I wasn't fast at all, it was one of the worst meets I've ever been at. In my own head, I was like 'what's going on? Do I need to stop swimming?'
“It was really, really hard. But I made the decision I can’t be like this anymore, I’m a very happy, chirpy guy, I need a switch. So I sat down with my coaches, had a hard talk with them, and it slowly started getting better and better.”
Or so he thought anyway: his ideal swimming weight is 92kg, and just when he was getting back there the pandemic took care of everything: “Basically what happened was, during the first big lockdown, I lived by myself for three months, in this house, with no human contact. And that was pretty hard, because I’m a very social person.
“I would work out four hours a day, but had to take a step back. The Olympics got postponed, the Irish trials got postponed, we’re in a lockdown where we can’t go past 2km, I’m living by myself, what can I do to make myself better?
“I can come out of this in a really good position, in a good head space, be on top of my game, or say like I’m done, just be an elite floating down the river, and not do anything about it. So I made that decision, came out of quarantine even stronger.
“And if you need to go talk to someone, go talk to someone, that’s really important; and especially now, it you are struggling, you have to go talk to someone, that’s helped me to understand what’s the best approach, what can you do.
“As athletes, that’s all we train for, the (Olympics) are one of the most anticipated events in the whole world, and to not have that is devastating.
“So I think the Olympics should definitely happen, and it’s the right call, because it gives some sense of hope, a glimmer of inspiration, these Olympics could inspire people who are down, who aren’t in a good mental state, who could see ‘wow they did that’, and inspire them as well.”
Shane Ryan is an ambassador for Circle K, supporting Team Ireland athletes in the road to Tokyo.
