A nation held its breath this evening as Irish swimmer Mona McSharry claimed an Olympic bronze medal in thrilling circumstances in the women’s 100m breast-stroke final in Paris.
The 23-year-old from Sligo is coached by Grace Meade, whose mother Mary (nee Bloomer) was originally from Mountmellick.
Mary Bloomer, whose family name is synonymous with Laois athletics, was married to Sean Meade, the former three-in-a-row All Ireland winning Galway footballer of the 1960s.
Sean worked in the ESB in Portarlington for a while in the late 1960s before being transferred by the ESB to Ballyshannon in Donegal. Sean married Mary Bloomer, who had spent more than ten years working as secretary to long-serving Laois Fine Gael TD Oliver J Flanagan.
Sean and Mary’s daughter Grace was an all-round talented sports performer who played football for the Donegal and Ulster ladies team.
She is the manager of the Central Hotel Donegal Town’s Leisure Centre, and coaches the Donegal Dragons watersports club and Ballyshannon Marlins Swim Club.
And it was at the Ballyshannon Marlins club where she first coached Mona McSharry, who was from just down the road in Grange in Sligo.
While McSharry is now based in Tennessee in the USA, Meade remains a close confidante of McSharry’s and is in Paris for the games. She complements the work donw by McSharry’s US-based swim coach Matt Kredich.
“Grace, she is an angel that’s walking on earth,” Mona’s mother Viola told Paul Fennessy of the 42.ie.
“She has that unbelievable connection with Mona and they understand each other so well … I couldn’t imagine a better coach for her.”
There were joyous scenes in La Defence Arena in Paris when McSharry, competing in her second Olympic Games, took bronze in exhilarating circumstances.
The race was won by Tatjana Smith from South Africa while McSharry was just .05 of a second off winning silver behind Tang Qianting from China and just .01 of a second ahead of Benedetta Pilatto from Italy and Lilly King, the world record holder from the US, who were tied fourth.
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