Ellen Walshe Downs Irish 200 Fly Record from 1996 Olympics
Ellen Walshe on Saturday took down an Irish record that had stood in the hands of Michelle Smith since the 1996 Olympics.
Walshe, a two-time Olympian, swam 2:08.42 in the 200 fly on Saturday at the Leinster Aspiring Champions Meet in Dublin. That downs – and by a massive margin – the amazingly enduring record of 2:09.91 set by Smith at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
Smith used that swim to win bronze, one of four medals (three gold) in Atlanta. Those were the last Olympic medals for Ireland until the Paris games, when Mona McSharry won bronze in the women’s 100 breast and Daniel Wiffen paired gold in the men’s 800 free with bronze in the 1,500 free led a resurgence of the program.
Walshe, who made the final of the 400 individual medley at the Paris Olympics last summer, had not swum the 200 fly since the 2021 Olympic Trials, when she went 2:17.32. Walshe’s best time in the event was 2:14.15, from January 2020. The 23-year-old from Templeogue who trained in the United States at the University of Tennessee swam the 100 fly and both individual medleys at the Paris Olympics, finishing 13th in the 200 and eighth in the 400. She also swam on the Irish 400 medley relay. Walshe swam the 100 fly and 200 IM in Tokyo in 2021.
Walshe owns both butterfly and both IM Irish records in LCM. In short-course meters, she owns the 50 and 100 fly, plus the 100, 200 and 400 IM. She’s been in good form of late, nearly lowering her 100 fly record last month. Walsh also owns a silver medal in the 400 IM from the World Short-Course Championships in 2021.
Smith’s lone remaining long-course national record is the 4:07.25 that won her gold in the 400 free in Atlanta. She holds the short-course meters national records in the 200 fly and 400 free. Smith left a complicated legacy, as Ireland’s most decorated swimmer but with a doping suspension later in her career. That sanction did not affect any of her medals or records from the Atlanta games.
