Victoria Catterson: 'We’re not just there to make up the numbers. It’s special what’s coming'

“I wished at 16 I’d said, ‘now I want to be an Olympian, I want to have that stamp on my name forever’."

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.