There was no fairytale ending. Mona McSharry had crashed through barriers to reach the final of the 100m breaststroke, but she was the eighth-ranked swimmer in the field, and in the race she couldn’t come up with a different number. Two of the swimmers who had finished just ahead of her in Monday’s semi-final reached the podium, but McSharry had spent her speed, and there was nothing in reserve.
The final outcome, though, subtracted nothing from McSharry’s staggering performance at these Games. A sport that had laboured under doping and abuse scandals in Ireland since before McSharry was born, now has a star in whom everybody can believe.
She was 12 years of age when she announced to her parents that she was going to
