The Making Of An Irish Olympian

From Portarlington to Pennsylvania – the making of an Irish Olympian

Shane Patrick Ryan is an American-Irish swimmer who competes internationally for Ireland.

With a name like that, it probably comes as no surprise that Shane's father Thomas is from Ireland, from Portarlington in County Laois, to be precise. Thomas left Ireland in the 1980s to live and work in the United States, where Shane was born, growing up in Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania. Shane took time out of his busy schedule to tell his story at the Think Global Awards, which took place virtually in April of this year. Whilst his story centers on his life as an athlete, it also has a lot to say about focus, resilience, and a winning mindset.

Shane is a firm believer in learning from your past experiences and using these to move forward and mature from them. "That's one thing I am good at, being able to take a helicopter view of a situation, evaluate what's good and not so good. I challenge myself to answer the question of how do I learn from this, to make me stronger both as an athlete and a person."

Growing up in the Philadelphia suburbs, Shane got picked on a lot by his peers. The reason for this – he has ADHD. Although this is not something he talks about openly very often, he does describe himself as being quite a "hyper individual." He is naturally talkative, something which cannot but draw you to him, but he is also, in his own words, "super-pumped." He is ready to go from when he wakes up in the morning, focusing on what needs to be accomplished that day. It is why he has achieved so much in his life, despite some of the obstacles that have presented themselves along the way.

In the early days, however, channeling his ADHD was particularly difficult for Shane. He describes it being like "my mind just didn't know what was going on".

To add to the challenges ADHD presented, Shane also had a speech impediment. It took more than three years to overcome and required a lot of hard work and discipline, including having to take extra classes and attend summer school. The additional pressure of having both ADHD and a speech impediment was difficult for Shane and his family. But being the resilient person that he is, he learned to adapt to his situation. He also realized that he understands things a little differently from other people. This realization allowed him to accept that was the way it was going to be, and it allowed him to focus on learning in a way that worked best for him.

Shane's hard work and determination, traits that have stood to him as an elite athlete, paid off handsomely as he graduated from high school and received a scholarship to Penn State University, graduating with a degree in Event Management. Shane was known as the swimming guy during his childhood, demonstrating his talent from an early age. It was not only his talent that caught people's attention; however, it was also his clear focus and determination. "For as long as I can remember, I knew I wanted to compete on the Olympic stage, and nothing or nobody was going to stand in my way."

Success followed as Shane was selected to be part of the US junior national team, something he did for two years before progressing to the senior squad.

Things didn't work out quite as planned; however, in 2015, Shane decided to move to Ireland and compete for his father's country. His goal remained the same. He wanted to compete on the highest international stage – the Olympic Games. As Shane describes, moving to Ireland was "a big eye-opener."

Having come from the environment of Penn State, with a 50,000 undergrad population and a big college team of 60 male and female athletes, he arrived in Dublin. It was an unfamiliar environment, and he was away from family, friends, and all that he knew.

Shane credits Swim Ireland, however, with making the transition so much easier and speaks very highly of his coaches, his teammates, and the entire performance set-up.

It was a lonely time for Shane as he was living on his own, so during the week, his life revolved around getting himself to training and returning home to an empty house, where it was up to him to ensure he was eating correctly and fuelling his body. However, the weekends brought some respite, as it was then that he got to reconnect with his extensive Irish family. His father was one of ten siblings, nine of whom still reside in Ireland either in or close to Portarlington.

The loneliness was challenging, however, and Shane describes enduring a period of depression. Just like the experiences of his childhood, this was not enough to break his resolve. He didn't let this detract from why he had moved to Ireland and his ultimate goal. The reward came in the form of qualification for the Olympic Games in Rio, less than a year after his move to Ireland. 

The Rio Olympics was the incredible experience Shane had hoped for but again required him to focus on what he was there to achieve. It wasn't good enough to be there. Shane wanted to show the world what he could do. He set himself the task of swimming his fastest time in the heats to ensure that he produced a time good enough to bring him to the next stage.

Shane's determination saw him reach the semi-finals of his discipline and finish 14th. In listening to Shane talking about Rio, you can sense just how much it meant to him. He describes how proud he was to walk out for his first race, feeling as though all the sacrifices made by himself, his family, and friends, together with the faith put in him by his coaches, finally paid off. Fast forward to March 2020, three months before the Olympic Games were due in Tokyo. Shane and his teammates were in the airport, waiting to board a flight to Scotland. Word came through that all Irish schools across the country had been closed in response to the Coronavirus. The team coach decided that the team would not travel.

Shane describes how the situation effectively snowballed from there, with more and more places shutting down. The following week, the Irish Olympic trials were canceled, and whilst this was not the news that any of the athletes were expecting, the bigger question was, what about the Olympic Games?

In Shane's mind, there was no way they're going to cancel the Olympics; surely not. The following week the team had their final training session for many months in the pool on Thursday. The next day, Ireland went into complete lockdown. A week after this came the news that the Olympics would not take place in 2020.

It was an extremely perplexing time for Shane and his teammates – what did it mean? Everything at this point was entirely up in the air, and nobody had the answers. It was at this time, though, that "you question the previous four years of training and sacrifice and what now?"

Lockdown lasted a full three months. Shane was still living by himself and needed to retain his steely focus to ensure that he would come out of the situation mentally and physically stronger.

So, just as in his childhood, Shane took a step back and asked himself some serious questions. He wouldn't let this situation ruin his career or his chances of competing on the international stage once again.

Shane focused on the things he could control and got himself some weights and a stationary bike to keep training and work on his fitness. Although he couldn't replicate the pool environment, it allowed him to have daily goals. He also benefitted from having a solid team around him. The Swim Ireland performance team checked in with each athlete daily from both a training and welfare perspective. This interaction with the team created some degree of normality when everything else was far from normal.

Shane also turned his attention to his nutrition – making small changes to make sure that he was eating the right things consistently, rather than falling into the trap of comfort eating. He began working out 4 hours a day and doing little things daily, which cumulatively made a big difference.

Shane lives by the saying, "if you can do it in 60 seconds, then do it". Even simple tasks such as making the bed – that was one task he could tick off daily. Each day he tried to be better than the previous day.

"To tell you the truth, I came out of the quarantine 2kg heavier with muscle and only ten percent body fat which was pretty great. So I'm over the moon with that."

But he missed not being in the water. "Swimming is my baby. That's what I'm good at, so I was out of the water for like three full months. It is the longest I have ever been out of the water in my entire life. It was very, very challenging." (Irish Independent, July 24th, 2020).

Unfortunately, whilst Shane was in Dublin, he received the news that his immediate family had contracted Covid-19. Naturally, this was a very worrying time for Shane, especially being so far away from them and not knowing whether they would be okay. He describes how he was "freaking out" at the time, not knowing what to do. Thankfully, they have all made a full recovery since – something Shane is exceptionally grateful for, and since his return to pool/training in the summer of 2020, things have looked up for Shane. He was selected to represent the Toronto Titans at the International Swimming League, breaking six Irish senior records in the process. Shane will represent Ireland again at the Olympic Games, and he is in the best shape of his life!

Whilst he is looking forward to Tokyo, he is still as determined as ever and won't be stopping any time soon. Shane hopes to become a three-time Olympian, competing in Paris in 2024. "Sure, it's only another three years!"

Onwards and upwards, Shane! We look forward to watching you compete for Ireland in Tokyo.