How Finn became an Olympian
By Thomas Conway
Chinks of dawn light appearing just above the horizon, the crimson hue of a majestic sunrise slowly illuminating Lough Derg as the darkness of the night meets the bright light of a brand-new day.
That is the kind of image which occasionally greeted the McGeever family over the past twelve or so years, as they rose to embark the early-morning training routine which elite swimming has become universally famous for. Idyllic - a fitting way to start any day, rising at the crack of dawn and setting forth from their house high above the shores of Ireland’s largest inland lake.
Now picture this. An alarm howling at 4:10am, barely audible above the even louder howling of the wind and rain, battering the window, and daring you to come out and brave the sub-zero temperatures of a dark November night. You’d think twice about getting up this time, wouldn’t you? However reluctant their three kids, Ruairí, Donnacha, and Olympian-in-waiting Finn, might have been, Róisín and Charlie McGeever have always resisted that urge to stay in bed, eventually bouncing up and dragging at least one of their kids with them.
That’s not to suggest that the family’s devotion to swimming has been imposed from the top down - Ruairí, Donnacha and Finn have always approached the sport with what is now a lifelong sense of enthusiasm, but even the most dedicated of athletes would need a bit of coaching at that hour of the morning. The youngest of the three brothers, Finn, is now on the cusp of becoming an Olympian - a remarkable feat, placing the 20-year-old on an historic pedestal alongside Matt McGrath, the venerable US hammer-thrower who, until now, has been the only individual from Ballina to compete at an Olympic Games. Whether, like McGrath, in one-hundred years’ time, there will be a bronze statue of McGeever standing outside Nenagh Courthouse, remains to be seen. If there is, there should be a bust of his parents alongside it, given the time and dedication which they too have invested over the years.
Deprived of the opportunity to travel to Tokyo, Róisín and Charlie plan to watch their son and his relay teammates navigate the waters of the Tokyo Aquatics Centre in the company of friends. Covid restrictions may have put an end to their hopes of venturing to the Games, but truth be told, the prospect of Finn featuring in Tokyo only really emerged in recent times. His sight have always been set on Paris 2024, and as Róisín explains, things weren’t exactly going swimmingly for him up until a year-and-a-half ago, when coronavirus lockdown suddenly halted an excessive and exhausting routine of training and study.
“To be honest with you. When lockdown started last year, it wasn’t happening for him - his times weren’t great,” Roisin McGeever said.
“And then the lockdown, and the obvious rest period which that imposed on everybody, just gave him a chance to rest and get his energy levels back up. So then his speed came back, everything came back, and then in terms of college, everything was online, so he could train in the morning, then come home and go to bed for a few hours. Then he could get up and do his college work, in his own time.”
Rigorous training regime
Prior to that, a broken arm had halted his progress from a swimming perspective. More significant however, was the additional strain of the Leaving Cert - supplementing an already rigorous training regime with an equally arduous study routine. The notion exists that high-calibre athletes have an innate advantage in terms of productivity and work-ethic. That may be true, but Róisín’s account of her son’s Leaving Cert year is slightly startling. Time was not just of the essence, it was non-existent.
She revealed: “To give you an idea of Finn’s schedule the year that he did his Leaving Cert. He was up at 4:30am, into UL to train, eat in the car on the way in, then more breakfast in there, back into school, school all day, out to training straight after school, back to the school after training - where one of us would meet him with dinner - and then he went into after-school study for the rest of the evening. Saturdays were spent training in the morning, and then into Julie Gilmartin’s study-centre for more or less the whole day. So that was what the year was like.”
Support was vital in allowing him to persevere with swimming over the course of that year, and fortunately, his school, St. Anne’s Community College, were not found wanting. The Killaloe-based college consistently did all they could to contribute in the most possible manner possible, even if that meant allowing their former student to inadvertently power-nap at any opportune moment, as Charlie explains.
“The school was great. The teachers were always helpful, as much as they could be. I mean, they would let him have a snooze in class - Finn would fall asleep regularly in class, he would doze off, but they would just leave him,” Charlie said.
Common misperceptions
One of the most common misperceptions surrounding young elite-level athletes is that success is predicated on the attainment of a professional career at the very highest echelons of the sport. Put simply, this notion is flawed. In the context of swimming, the benefits of being a highly competent and capable swimmer are evident, serving as a lifetime asset to the person.
All three McGeever brothers - Ruairí, Donnacha, and Finn - are fully qualified lifeguards and swim instructors, and although the youngest sibling may be about to fulfil his Olympic dream, his older brother have each forged accomplished careers, both within swimming and outside of it. Their Dad also makes a powerful observation, noting that all those years of diligence and sacrifice have broader dimension to them, translating into a sense of self-belief, as well as the audacity to confront any challenge.
“When you’re doing that intensity of training, you understand how much work is required, just to improve your time by say, a quarter or a half of a second. They know how much work is required to that, so they’re not scared to climb a mountain to get something done, to take on something - if you know what I mean,” Charlie added.
Prospects and competition
Finn’s 4x200 metre relay team have already created history by becoming the first male relay team from Ireland to compete in an Olympic Games. In doing so, they’ll also bridge a 49-year gap since the last quartet of Irish swimmers participated in an Olympics. So, what are the prospects for this particular Irish team, and what competition awaits them in the 15,000 capacity Tokyo Aquatics Centre, where the seats will be vacant and the atmosphere surreal.
Ireland’s performance in last May’s European Championships in Budapest proved crucial, earning them qualification for Tokyo following a somewhat convoluted selection process. They registered a new national record in that final, finishing fifth in a time of 7:12:00, marginally ahead of Spain and behind gold medallists Russia, Great Britain, Italy, and France (which made up the top four in respective order).
The Irish time is still a considerable distance off the current world record, 6:58:55, registered by the USA in 2009. That US team included a certain Michael Phelps (now the most decorated Olympian in history), as well as Ryan Lochte (the second most decorated Olympic swimmer in history). While neither of that duo will splash through the water in Tokyo, the US remain overwhelming favourites to win their fifth consecutive gold medal in the 4x200 relay - a run which began all the way back in Athens 2004.
Regardless of the outcome, Tokyo 2020 is set to be an experience like no other. His maternal grandparents - Nenagh native Patsy Moylan and her husband Paddy Healy - probably never envisaged their grandson becoming an Olympian, but those summers spent camping in Grace's Field, beside the lake in Dromineer, honed their family's love for the water.
For Charlie, A childhood spent swimming in the River Clyde, in the Scottish town of Clydebank, was an influence which would shape his son's journey. All very far away from the agony and ecstasy of an Olympic Games, but every sporting fairy-tale has a starting point, and for Finn McGeever, the story began before he was born.