Advertisement
Cathal Noonan/INPHO
The Jerries

Meet Ireland's Olympic team: Fiona Doyle

This Canada-based Limerick woman knows her way around a medal presentation.

Event: 100m breaststroke

Who is she? The 24-year-old is Ireland’s leading swimmer these days with her name next to six national records.

Where’s she from? Doyle hails from  Raheen in Limerick, but don’t listen for the accent. She’s been competing from Calgary since moving there to study in 2012.

Olympic CV: This will be Doyle’s first time at the Games. She missed out on qualifying for London 2012 by half a second. Her big breakthrough came a year later when she won silver in the 100m breaststroke at the University Games.

Fiona Doyle

Road to Rio: Doyle was the first Irish athlete to qualify for the Olympics, the Universiade again proving a happy hunting ground as she claimed bronze and qualified for Rio with a time of 1:07.15. The same week, she won silver in the 50 metre breaststroke, which is not among the Olympic disciplines.

When does she start? Doyle’s event goes to blocks on day two of the Games, the morning session (from 5pm Irish time) on Sunday 7 August.

Where can I follow her? You can find Doyle on Facebook here, but she’s most active @FionaMDoyle on Twitter.

What she says:

“I push myself a lot. I’m not okay with just being okay and I want to push myself to do better every time I train, every time I race.”

Fiona Doyle on her way to finishing fourth

Medal chances:

Doyle’s national record PB is almost two seconds off Lilly King’s world leading time and her early-season prep was badly hampered by a concussion picked up in a car accident. But after coming home fourth in the European Championships, the Limerick woman will be growing in confidence. And she has shown that handy knack of producing her A game when there’s a sniff of a medal.

Three out of five on The42‘s scientifically-developed, patented Jerry Kiernan scale…

jerry3

And here’s something you probably didn’t know…

Doyle has a twin sister, Eimear, who she always thinks of when standing on the blocks.

download RTE, Road to Rio. RTE, Road to Rio.

The42 is on Snapchat! Tap the button below on your phone to add!

Meet Ireland’s Olympic team: Scott Evans

A day in the life of swimmer Fiona Doyle as she prepares for the Rio Olympics

Your Voice
Readers Comments
1
    Submit a report
    Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
    Thank you for the feedback
    Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.