A night of incredible noise and drama at the La Defense Arena and Mona McSharry was there in the thick of it, the Sligo swimmer’s PB in the women’s 100m breaststroke delivering her a prime lane in Monday’s final at this brilliantly boisterous venue.
This was a night when the French golden boy, Leon Marchand, the face of this Olympics on home soil, won the first of what his adoring public hopes to be four gold medals across eight days. He did it with an imperious destruction of the 400m individual medley field.
The man from Toulouse finished almost six seconds ahead of his nearest challenger, he broke Michael Phelp’s 16-year old Olympic record (though not his own world best) and he lapped it up in a way that utterly belied his 22 years and the weight on his shoulders.
It was a night which saw GB’s own superman, Adam Peaty, beaten out by two-hundredths of a second in the final of the men’s 100m breaststroke by Nicolo Martinenghi of Italy, and a potential PR disaster avoided in the women’s 100m butterfly final.
Zhang Yufei was one of the Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned substance at a domestic meet in early 2021 and then allowed to compete at the Toko Games later that year after an investigation found that the results were due to accidental contamination.
Had she won here it would have caused an almighty stink but Zhang came in third behind the USA’s winner Torri Huske and her teammate Gretchen Walsh, the latter having raced an Olympic record time on the Saturday and set a world record mark only last month.
This place bounced like a rock concert and the music was heavy metal.
Marchand’s medal presentation happened just minutes before the second of the women’s 100m breaststroke - McSharry's - and the singing of the national anthem and the reverberations filled every nook and cranny of this crazy, space-age stadium.
“Yeah, the prep area is so close to the pool that we do hear all that so it just makes you smile,” said McSharry. “It’s very exciting to be here, the whole crowd cheering for him and supporting him is unbelievable and I have quite a few friends and family up there cheering for me as well.” They had plenty to cheer.
Her time of 1:05.51 was a personal best, breaking a mark set 12 months ago by four-hundredths of a second. It was so good it left her second in the field of 16 swimmers with the top eight progressing to the big one.
Behind her in third was the USA’s Lilly King, the world record holder (1:04.13) and the American said afterwards that the quality of McSharry’s swim came as absolutely no surprise to her.
“She’s been putting up really good times all year, so no reason not to be a medal contender,” said King who won gold in this race in Rio eight years ago and has won 19 major medals to her name.
This was a field stacked with Olympic and World Championship pedigree and the Irishwoman, who made three finals at the Worlds in Doha earlier this year but came away disappointed not to medal, fit the occasion like a hand would a glove.
“I was thinking about it today, sometimes I still feel like the new kid on the block which is weird,” she explained. “I’ve been racing and they probably all know me. I know them. I’m definitely not new.
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“It’s crazy to think Lilly King is the world record holder and she’s there in the lane beside me, or two or three lanes over. That’s insane, but it’s also really exciting to know that I’m racing against the best and holding my own.”
Olympians make for a small club. Olympians who produce their best at the Games are an ever rare species. She was clearly more relaxed than in her opening heat as she followed King onto the deck and waved calmly to the crowd.
Her first 50m was, if anything, too relaxed but it left her with a kick on the way home. The plan now is to try and put her two best 50s from her opening two efforts together and shave a few more edges off that new PB.
She was absorbing all this remarkably well but that equanimity came from a prep which she knew was spot on and an understanding with it that, whatever the result, she had done everything to maximise what was in her.
The plan after was simple. Chill, eat, sleep, repeat. There were a few phone calls to be made, to her family first. She may even support some of her Irish teammates here on Monday morning before returning in the evening.
She’s there now, in the mix. Who’s to say she won’t medal?
“Look, one in eight, we’ve all got a chance,” she said three years after finishing eighth in the Tokyo final. “It’s exciting to be up there and being in the middle lane is good because it means I will be right in the middle of it.”
One way or another.
