Swimmer Fiona Doyle has an Olympic dream

In Ireland, there is only one currency that trades at a profit when it comes to minority sports, so Fiona Doyle was front and centre with the general public last month when she won silver and bronze medals at the World University Games in Gwangju.

She enjoyed the ripples that flittered out from her efforts in the pool and particularly the heartwarming welcome from her team-mates and coaches when she returned to the Athlete Village after each podium visit.

Ultimately, none of it disguised the true worth of the meet.

When she was 12, Doyle was mesmerised by the action from the Athens Olympics.

The Limerick swimmer vowed she would not only compete at that level one day, but that she would go there and do it even better.

The waters have been choppier than expected.

Attempts to qualify for Beijing in 2008 and London four years later both fell short, which meant that the ‘A’ time she recorded in South Korea for the 2016 Games in Rio meant more to her than any podium presentation.

“Qualifying for the Olympics was definitely up there,” she says with a smile at the National Aquatic Centre in Dublin prior to the Fina World Championships in Kazan where she first hits the water in the 100m Breaststroke heats on Monday.

“To actually get it done in that semi-final was really, really nice because although I had an idea that, all going well, I was going to qualify, it was a relief to get it over and done with. After that, I could just focus on swimming and trying for a medal.”

The knock-on effects of that time will be felt again this week as she seeks to climb another rung on the career ladder by making a world final. Now 23, there is an unmistakeable air of calm about Doyle, but it wasn’t always that way.

She was born into a family at ease in the water. Her grandfather was among a group who established the St Paul’s Swimming Club in Limerick and his belief that water skills were a vital life lesson to be learned was passed down through the generations.

It was when she moved into the elite grade that her rhythm suffered. Doyle was unhappy with the coaching staff that operated out of Limerick at the time. She felt as though the help she needed wasn’t forthcoming and this was not the type of athlete to bite her lip.

“I was very hot-headed when I was younger,” she admits. “Very much straight through the front door if there was an issue. I was definitely one that would highlight or make something known to somebody if I had a problem.” Something had to give so the switch was made to Dublin where she came under the wing of Peter O’Brien at Portmarnock Swimming Club around about the same time Peter Banks returned from America to become National Performance Director.

Doyle heaps praise on the work of both men, as well as the current High Performance structures around the country, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that the damage had been done by then and decided to take up a place at the University of Calgary.

“I wouldn’t have said (at the time) I was running away from issues I had here, but in reality I was doing that. You can’t run away from problems because they will chase you, but what sealed the deal for me over there after I arrived was the support I got.” Mike Blondell, her coach in Canada, was on her wavelength, but she took time to find her place in and out of the pool. She has been in Calgary five years now, swimming and studying kinesiology and pedagogy, but it was only in her third year everything began to click.

Canada suits her. She loves the people and the place. Calgary is known as ‘Cowtown’ or the Texas of the North and the Rockies are only an hour away to the west. It is a place with plenty to offer as long as Arctic cold and snow from November to April doesn’t bother you. Outdoor sports are big and, like any university town, there is always a party going on somewhere amidst the population of just over one million, maybe even in the famous Ranchman’s bar where line dancing lives on as a craze long after the rest of the world got sniffy with it.

Doyle wasn’t immune to those charms. She wasn’t by any means a regular on the party circuit, but it took some time, her failure to make London 2012 and a stern talking-to from her parents to realise that even the one or two nights a month that she allowed herself were holding her back.

“When you go out it does take a toll on your body and the older you get the more of a toll it takes. Yeah, it is nice socialising, but you don’t have to drink or drink a lot in order to socialise. I don’t drink anymore. Some of that is to do with swimming and some of it isn’t. I’m happy enough. You don’t need to be drinking. Everybody always says you have had to sacrifice so much to get to the Olympics, but it’s as big as you want to make it. I’m sacrificing a night out, but I get to go to the Olympics. How many people can say that?”