Victoria Catterson: 'We’re not just there to make up the numbers. It’s special what’s coming'
FUEL FOR THE FIRE: Ireland's Victoria Catterson at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha. Picture: ©INPHO/Andrea Masini
Funny the small things that make such big impacts. Victoria Catterson was only starting school when she was brought to the local pool for swimming lessons. And that might have been that had her auntie not held out a casual invite when those courses were done.
Her cousin was swimming in another pool in Belfast. The suggestion was that she join him. So she did. Her cousin is James Hume who quit the water in his mid-teens to concentrate on a rugby career that has made him a star with Ulster and an Ireland international.
“He’s actually probably one of the reasons why I’m in swimming,” said Catterson who joins the wider family in the stands for home games at the Kingspan Stadium while continuing on her own sporting path towards this summer’s Olympics.
The Irish record holder in the 200m freestyle, she is also part of two women’s relay teams – the medley and the freestyle – that are bidding to qualify for the Games in the French capital later this year. Her entire life has been repurposed towards that goal.
Originally a member of Ards Swimming Club, Catterson was training with the National Centre Ulster until last May but her peers there were all juniors. So, when she finished an accountancy course in college, she moved to Dublin to link up with the national squad.
There is a modest grant from Sport Northern Ireland, some support from her parents, the use of a house at Sport Campus Ireland where she lives with three other swimmers but that’s it. There is little enough in time or resources to distract from the job at hand.
Like all swimmers, she has already put in years of sacrifice, although the goal for most of her 22 years was not the Olympics but rather the prospect of representing Northern Ireland at the Commonwealth Games.
She did that in Birmingham in 2022, when she made the final of the 200m freestyle and placed sixth as part of a 4 x 100m medley relay but, honour though that was, a thought struck when it was done. Why limit her ambitions to that?
“I wished at 16 I’d said, ‘now I want to be an Olympian, I want to have that stamp on my name forever’. The amount of work, what you’ve sacrificed and choices that you’ve made for all these years, it would mean everything.”
The recent World Championships in Doha were an opportunity to make that dream a reality but the week started disappointingly for the freestyle relay and she describes the meet in general as one of ups and downs.
There was a swim that fell just 0.1 second shy of her Irish record in the 200 free, in only her third time under two minutes, but it wasn’t enough to make a semi-final and her performance in the 100 free left her on the same rank and failing to progress.
You take what you can from these chapters. Her 100 time was faster than last summer and just 0.2 off her best and a few small kinks have been singled out for ironing before the last qualifying opportunity in May, which will be held here in Abbotstown.
“Coming off Worlds and sitting down with my coach, being a bit disheartened with my swims, it’s just more fuel to the fire and getting the head down again after putting in so much work this year and not seeing the results.”
There was a recuperative week taken off on the return from the Middle East but, with just over ten weeks to go until that Olympic make-or-break, there is an understanding on Catterson’s part that there isn’t any time to lose if this is to happen for her.
There is a meet in Edinburgh coming over the horizon and then a warm-weather training camp in Tenerife, which she jokes is a good chance to work on the tan before the last trials, and she will be just one among many looking to nail a time over that three-day event.
None of the hopefuls in May will have to look far for inspiration.
Catterson was part of the same Ireland team in Doha as Daniel Wiffen who won two gold medals, and Mona McSharry who made three finals. Both will be in Paris. So will Ellen Walshe who put in a big training block rather than compete in the Worlds.
The perception of Irish swimming is changing and everyone wants in.
“Yeah, definitely. I think we realised it most at European Short-Course [Championships] in December where we were the loudest cheerers in the stands. We’d the most people there. We would turn up and support people in every race.
“Behind the blocks you realise that so much and then Daniel’s swims, people getting medals, setting records… People are now picking up on our team and we’re not just there to make up the numbers. It’s special what’s coming through.”
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