After concluding a historic Short Course World Championships for his nation of Ireland, 24-year-old Shane Ryan will be making a big training home move. The 50m backstroke bronze medalist in Hangzhou has announced he will be leaving his present base at Pinnacle Racing under Coach Sergio Lopez, stationed at Virginia Tech,and instead move to Ireland.
Under Lopez, Ryan was alongside other foreign athletes such as Wu Chun Feng of Chinese Taipei, Isabella Paez of Venezuela and breaststroke bronze medalist in Hangzhou, Felipe Lima of Brazil. Egyptian National Record holder Farida Osman also joined the training group just last month.
“After doing a lot of hard thinking. I have decided to move back to Ireland in January,” the former Penn State University athlete stated via social media today.
“I believe with the coaching staff and with the support of @sportireland and @swimireland I could come home with a Olympic medal in 2020.
Thank you so much to @sergiolopezmiro for being the best coach and friend for the past year and thank you to everyone who has been part of the journey with me.”
Not only did Ryan take home Ireland’s first-ever senior World Championships medal with his 50m back bronze, but the sprinting ace was also a semi-finalist in the men’s 100m free, where he became the first Irishman ever to dip under 47 seconds in 46.97. Ryan was also a critical component of his nation’s record-setting 4x100m and 4x50m medley relays.
As Ryan was training in the United States, his name was left off of the 2018/19 Swim Ireland National Squad roster announced this past October.
Updated: Swim Ireland confirmed to SwimSwam that Ryan will join relaymates Conor Ferguson, Darragh Greene and Brendan Hyland at the National Centre Dublin under Coach Ben Higson and will be added to the National Squad official roster.
Does seem strange that Shane should leave at this point in the cycle, when having such success. I guess IRE are wanting him to focus on LC swimming, where he will in the national training centre. 1 eye on qualifying a mens 4×100 medal team for 2020 the aim perhaps.
Wish him the best of luck. Sometimes I wonder why people change when they are doing very well. In this case I wonder how much it has to do with being left the national roster?
R how much money he will get to train in Ireland
It’s all about the Benjamins BABY !
Seems weird to leave a coach when you’re swimming at your best? Good luck to Mr Ryan!
A couple questions:
1. Does any financial support make it mandatory to train at the Ireland Center?
2. His times are good scm but are they better than his best scy or LC Times? He probably hasn’t swum any big scm meets that often.
He was told he would lose half of his financial support if he stayed with Lopez, that is from a close source.