National Programme Announcement 2024-2025

Swim Ireland have announced a list of 86 athletes who will form their National Programme for the 2024-2025 season, the first iteration of the Programme for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic cycle. Athletes are identified in three specific cohorts: ‘Performance’ for those with a premier focus on the 2028 Olympic Games, ‘Junior Pathway’ for those working towards the 2032 Games in Brisbane and ‘Senior Pathway’ for those who indicate the potential to feature in 2028, whilst having a development profile that also makes 2032 as a realistic prospect for them. Standards were set at a high level to achieve such a status, with such standards based on Swim Ireland’s ‘On Track’ system which profiles athletes against event, gender and age specific data for future Top-16 achievement in World Championship (50m) and Olympic Games swimming.

18 such athletes feature in the Performance section of the Programme, formed of the most familiar names in Irish swimming at this time, with 13 additional athletes named in the Senior Pathway element – both groups kick-starting their relationship with the enhanced services and racing opportunities of the Programme from the beginning of 2025. The Junior Pathway Programme, of which 55 athletes are named, have already completed an on-boarding and orientation camp in Bangor prior to announcement. The National system is underpinned by the Regional Programme, in which the four Provinces of Irish swimming capture a further talent pool, primarily with an age profile focused on 2036 delivery, but also ensuring that potential late developers are provided with additional support and international competition this season.

National Performance Director Jon Rudd was to say, “Having set the inclusion standards for the Programme at what we would consider to be a high level, to have so many athletes achieve this at either the Irish Open or the summer benchmark meets in 2024 is extremely encouraging. With 30 Irish coaching programmes all placing at least one athlete into this system, and from across all four of our Regions, that is a massive achievement for Irish swimming, particularly as we know that many clubs have found their environments to be challenging in terms of pool time access and costs in these post-pandemic times. Once the long course season is underway in January and the highs of Paris have to become our even greater ambitions for LA, this Programme will aid athletes and their coaches to their ultimate ambitions – and that is something to very much look forward to”.

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