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THE HOME OF Top 14 rugby team, Racing 92, hosted Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour on 15 May 2024.
Once the Swifties had departed La Défense, the Paris 2024 Organising Committee swept in to transform the arena into a Olympic swimming venue, complete with a 50m-long, 2.3m-deep pool, media centre, athlete zone and broadcast areas.
The makeover is magnificent. While there are no physical remnants of Gaël Fickou or Swift (although we could probably find a friendship bracelet if we looked closely enough), the noise and atmosphere their fans bring have been repeated during every swim session of the Games so far.
“I’ve never heard a crowd like that for swimming ever in my life,” Olympic debutante Erin Riordan said after her race on Saturday.
“What an incredible experience for a start, I had a French girl in my heat and the noise was deafening. They wouldn’t go silent at the start of the race, it’s something I’ve never experienced,” her relay teammate Danielle Hill – who will race in the 100m backstroke semi-final tonight (7.57pm Irish time) – said today after her first individual heat.
“I think coming from a small nation we’re going to enjoy every second of it and take it in as we don’t get it very often. Everyone from all nations can agree that this is possibly the loudest crowd that’s been at swimming, maybe London (2012) would argue that. This has been incredible. We’ve went from Covid times to this.”
Riordan and Hill’s experiences were during heats-only sessions but the French swimming fans raised their own performances to mythical levels last night as their aquatic hero Leon Marchand smashed the field in the 4x100m medley, taking gold and breaking the Olympic record.
“I’ve never competed in a crowd like this,” Mona McSharry said after racing a personal best time in the 100m breaststroke, making the final with the second-fastest time across competitors. That semi-final came less than an hour after Marchand wowed the crowd – during one of his lengths, the 15,000-strong audience screamed ‘ALLEZ’ every time his head emerged out of the water.
“Tokyo was very different,” she explained, also referring to the Covid restrictions on crowds. “So on one hand, I feel a little like a newbie but having these two races under my belt now has definitely helped.”
Although her pre-race routine is about blocking everything else out, she said she was able to maintain composure during the Marchand Madness, even to the point of enjoying it.
“The prep area is so close to the pool so we do hear all of that but it’s very exciting… to hear the home crowd cheering and supporting him is unbelievable,” she told reporters after leaving the pool area.
“And I have quite a few fans, friends and family up there as well,” she pointed out.
So it’s great to know that they’re cheering for me.”
Her dozens-strong squad can be spotted around the city of Paris wearing their Mona McSharry t-shirts and carrying Team Ireland paraphernalia. They all hold quiet hopes for a medal tonight.
The Sligo woman’s 1.05.51 time across the 100m lands her in a middle lane for the final (8.25pm Irish time), giving her the best chance of staying in the medal mix.
Calling it last night, she said: “There’s eight of us. We’ve all got a chance and, you know, it’s exciting to be up there and being in the middle lane is going to be great because I’ll be right in the middle of it.”
Going a little bit further on her own hopes, she adds, “I mean that’s what I’m here to do. So I’m definitely very excited.”
Excitement and relaxation seemed to be an ideal concoction for her as she progressed through the heats and semi-final over the past three days.
“I definitely think I swam my race better without kind of focusing on too much around me. And I did go out a little bit slower the first 50 and that was probably being more relaxed which is not necessarily a bad thing because I came back back faster,” the 23-year-old said last night.
“But hopefully I can, you know, put together the 50 from this morning and 50 from tonight tomorrow and see what happens.”
The personal best time has given her confidence that she is on the right path.
“I think roughly about 5% of people do actually PB at the Olympics and I’m glad to be on that side of it because it shows that my prep was right,” she explained.
L’un des plus beaux trucs depuis le début de #Paris2024, la Marseillaise pour Léon Marchand avant sa course pic.twitter.com/VcUeoFmKwg
— Michel Bezbakh (@mbezbakh) July 29, 2024
With 24 hours to kill before taking the blocks for the race of her life, McSharry will be found eating and sleeping alternately. She also was out cheering on her Irish teammates this morning, one of whom – Ellen Walshe – will join her in a final tonight.
Two finalists competing in the same Olympic session is a sign of where Irish swimming is, and how McSharry (along with fellow finalist Daniel Wiffen) has been a key component in that rise.
Can she take it to the next level?
“I always love to say, I think I can go faster and, you know, that means pulling everything together and it being perfect. And so that’s kind of sometimes hard. But, you know, I’m just gonna do the best that I can and hopefully I can shave a little bit more off that 1.05.”
McSharry’s times aren’t a shock to the rest of the swim community. Asked last night about the Irish woman’s performance, world record holder Lilly King said, “She was 1:05.7 in January, so not in the slightest bit surprised. She’s been putting up really good times all year, so no reason not to be a medal contender.”
Not only is King the world record holder, she is a two-time Olympic gold medallist. McSharry finished ahead of her last night.
“I was thinking about it today like, sometimes I still feel like the new kid on the block which is weird… I’ve been racing [them] a long time and they probably all know me and I know them so it’s definitely not but, yeah, it’s it’s crazy to think you know, like Lilly King is the world record holder and she’s there in the lane beside me or like two or three lanes over. Insane. But it’s also really exciting to know that I’m racing against the best and you know holding my own.”
A reporter informs her what King says about her medal chances.
“Oh, that’s very nice,” she says with a smile.
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