Latest news with #ErinRiordan
The Irish Sun
24-05-2025
- Sport
- The Irish Sun
I swam for Ireland at the Olympics, now I've thrown myself into a completely different pool sport
HER wrist bears the sign that she is an Olympian. The mental scars are elsewhere. Given Erin Riordan did not have the best Olympics experience, returning to the place where she spent most of her time trying to qualify and prepare for the Games might seem an odd choice. Advertisement 3 Riordan represented Team Ireland in the women's 4 x 100m freestyle relay at the Paris Games Credit: Sportsfile 3 She's now turned to a totally different sport 3 She hasn't found the transition to water polo too tough Credit: Inpho But, so far, it is working for the former swimmer turned water polo player, who helped St Vincent's win the Irish Senior Cup this month. The daughter of Irish parents, Riordan was born in Japan and has lived in Switzerland, Hong Kong and the UK. College brought her back to the ancestral home as swimming kept her there. Tokyo was targeted and missed. So, too, it seemed, had Paris, when the 4x100m freestyle relay team of which she was a member of came 17th in the World Championships. Advertisement Read More On Irish Sport Riordan quit but returned when they were bumped up the list because Japan had not met their own national qualifying criteria. It was a far from ideal build-up to competition. She reflected: 'The few months leading up to Paris were probably the most emotionally strained I've been in my life. "Along the way you kind of forget why you're doing it and it becomes, 'I want to make the Games, I want to do this', as opposed to I used to love the sport and I loved getting up at 5am.' Advertisement Most read in Other Sports On the qualification reprieve, she said: 'I think that I had already grieved the loss. 'I had decided, 'OK it's not happening for me, I'm not going to the Olympics'. Wild scenes in Naples as fans celebrate after Scott McTominay wins Serie A for Napoli 'And then two weeks later it was, 'Get back to Dublin, you might be going'. It was a big toll on the mind more so than the body. 'It's not a few months of prep, it's years and years of prep. We tried to get to Tokyo and didn't get it. Advertisement 'I said, 'I'm sticking it out, I'm doing it again', trying to get to Paris. "That was all taken away in one moment and then all given back in one moment, peaks and troughs, and a rollercoaster.' Ireland finished exactly where their qualification ranking suggested they would — in 16th. But the overall experience did not exactly live up to the hype. Advertisement Riordan, 25, said: 'You build it up in your head a little bit and then you get there and you're like, 'Oh my goodness the food is not nice, the hotel is not nice'. 'You walk out and you're like, 'This is it, this is the moment'. And then you're also like, 'Oh this is it?' Two edges of a sword I guess. 'I got Covid when I was over there. I was not well when I raced. 'I tested negative before I raced and tested positive after I raced so I got sent home immediately.' Advertisement NEXT CHAPTER She got the five-rings tattoo soon afterwards and it was not long before she took up a new sport. She said: 'That was something we worked on with the sport psychologist — a plan for after Paris. 'We knew it was going to be my last race, she advised me, 'The Olympic blues, you have to be careful. You're so used to getting all these endorphins from doing sport so if you stop, that's all going to drain out of you plus you've just completed the goal of your life'. 'So she was like, 'You need to have a plan'. The two sports I was looking at were triathlons or water polo but triathlons don't seem that fun. Advertisement 'So I decided to go into water polo which was a weird transition because I'd never done any ball sports, I'd never done team sports. 'It was a bit humbling at the beginning, going from the Olympics to being the very worst on a team that has 14-year-old girls on it but good fun all the same.' St Vincent's are based out of the National Aquatic Centre which meant returning to a venue where she put in the hard yards in pursuit of a dream that did not quite live up to expectations. She said: 'It's fine now but the first time I was walking in I was like, shudders, post-traumatic stress disorder from all the training. Advertisement 'I didn't even want to do the swim sessions with the water polo team. I managed to force myself to do it. 'It's good now, I guess. It's kind of like home even though I didn't want to be there for a while. I get a home feeling from it.' DIFFERENT OUTLOOK That may in part be down to bumping into former team-mates. She said: 'Yeah every now and then and I'd still keep in touch with them. It's funny seeing them do their 6km sessions, enjoy!' Advertisement Training twice a week nicely dovetails with her full-time job with pharmaceutical firm Grifols, although she is also training for the Lisbon marathon in October. She said: 'Before I used to work my life around my sport, whereas now I'm working sport around my life. It's a different dynamic for me. 'I started off not being able to catch the ball. There's a lot of skills you get from doing a lot of sports that are really transferable so I've picked it up a lot quicker than most people would pick it up. 'It's different, even learning tactics and stuff. Advertisement 'I've never really done anything like that, it was just, 'Swim in a straight line and hope for the best'. 'I ended up getting called up for the Irish Senior Cup team. I had more of a minor role. 'I got a bit of game time but we ended up winning which was great. In the next few seasons I'm going to keep going, see where we go.'
RTÉ News
24-05-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
From Paris to polo, Erin Riordan keeping head above water
The 'post-Olympic blues' is a well-discussed topic. The anxiety, depression or other mental health issues that athletes can suffer from after the high-stakes competition wraps up is widely acknowledged. Team Ireland were no different to other countries in setting up support structures, with many athletes discussing their own strategies before jetting out to Paris. For former swimmer Erin Riordan, the months leading up to the Games were among the most draining of her life. The endorphins she anticipated never arrived, and she quietly slipped away from the sport afterwards. 2024 was a rollercoaster of emotions. Born in Japan to Irish parents, Riordan had spent time living in Switzerland, Hong Kong and the UK. Her first time experiencing daily life in Ireland came in 2017 when she started college here. After missing out on Tokyo, she gave it another shot to realise the Olympic dream as part of the 400m freestyle relay team that competed at the World Championships in Doha in February last year. Ireland finished 17th in the rankings, agonisingly one place outside of qualification for Paris. When the dream appeared to be over, she decided enough was enough, and retired at the age of 24. However, Japan's decision not to travel opened the door for Riordan, Victoria Catterson, Grace Davison and Danielle Hill to become the first Irish women's relay team to represent Ireland at an Olympic Games in more than half a century. For Riordan however, the memories are bittersweet. Playing catch-up in the pool, the team finished eighth in their heat. "Along the way you kind of forget why you're doing it and it becomes 'I want to make the Games, I want to do this', as opposed to 'I used to love the sport and I used to love getting up at 5am'," she tells RTÉ Sport. "It was difficult for sure. I think I kind of had a sour taste in my mouth from swimming even though I had this amazing experience and I'll never forget that. "I think I had already grieved that I wasn't going to the Olympics. And then two weeks later it was 'Get back to Dublin, you might be going'. It was a big toll on the mind, more so than the body. "You walk out and you're like 'This is it, this is the moment'. And then you're also like, 'Oh, this is it?' Two edges of a sword I guess." The second swimming retirement was a final one, though the sporting void has been filled in different ways. She works full time as a documentation specialist with a pharmaceutical company and has signed up to run her first marathon later this year. "I'm in the mind space of 'I want to enjoy sports'" Competitive sport, and indeed the water, drew her back in however. Triathlon was considered, but once water polo came across her radar, she soon found herself back in the pool. Having never played ball sports, or team sports, the curiosity and challenge proved too hard to resist and she threw her lot in with the St Vincent's club. "It was a bit humbling at the beginning, going from the Olympics to being the very worst on a team that has 14-year-old girls on it, but good fun all the same," said Riordan. "I'm in the mind space of 'I want to enjoy sports', first and foremost to be doing it because I want to be there. The Olympics was a heavy mental and emotional toll on me. I wanted to take a break from that." She was called into the senior cup team, a member of the side that recently got the better of Galway's Tribes in a cup final decided by penalties. "I was more of a minor role, but I got a bit of game time and in the next few seasons I'm going to keep going, see where we can go. "I didn't realise how physical the sport was. People are wrestling each other in the water but it's almost refreshing to see that in a women's sport because that's not how we're 'meant' to behave I guess. But it is very physical, very aggressive in the water." There is now a contentment she could only dream of 12 months ago, a balance she struggled to get right during her swimming career. Water polo and running are her hobbies now, but there is a willingness to try out others. "Something I always knew coming out of swimming is that I can't just stop activity altogether," she says. "I think I get quite down if I do. So I picked up all these sports, I'm just trying everything out. "Before, I used to work my life around my sport, whereas now I'm working sport around my life. It's a different dynamic for me."
Irish Examiner
24-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
From Paris Olympics to water polo, Erin Riordan finding the joy in sport again
The iconic five rings are hard to miss on Erin Riordan's wrist. For a generation of Olympians, the tattoo has become a rite of passage. It's a symbol of a mountain climbed. What it doesn't, can't, say is how the peak was reached. Or what came next. Even the placement is interesting. Some get the Games' mark on their hip, or an ankle, or half-hidden on the inside of a bicep. Somewhere it will rarely be seen. Riordan's will catch her eye multiple times a day, but what does she think when she thinks of Paris? 'You do build it up in your head a little bit and then you get there and you're like, 'oh my goodness, the food is not nice, the hotel is not nice'. I got covid when I was over there. I was not well when I raced. 'I tested negative before I raced and I tested positive after I raced, so I got sent home immediately when I tested positive. You walk out and you're like, 'this is it, this is the moment'. And then you're also like, 'oh, this is it'. Two edges of a sword I guess.' Her visit to the French capital had already been shaped to no little degree by a lead-in of what she termed herself as peaks and troughs. In January she thought her opportunity had passed her by. By the spring she was back on track. A member of Ireland's 400m freestyle relay team, it looked as if they had missed the boat after being edged agonisingly into a ranking of 17th, one place outside the qualifying mark, on the back of the World Championships in Doha. Riordan had already fallen just short of Tokyo three years earlier so that, she thought, was that. She went to Portugal, where her mum lives, to 'grieve the loss', took up running and detached herself, mind and body, from her existence as a swimmer. SOMETHING IN THE WATER: Erin Riordan during Team Ireland Paris 2024 Aquatics team training. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile Then the call came that the Japanese would not be sending a quartet and Ireland had a green light. What followed was a scramble, mentally, physically and geographically, as she returned to Dublin and plugged back into the system. 'The few months leading up to Paris were probably the most emotionally strained I've been in my life. Along the way you kind of forget why you're doing it. It becomes, 'I want to make the Games, I want to do this', as opposed to, 'I used to love the sport'. 'And I used to love getting up at 5am.' She knew pre-Paris that the La Défense Arena would be the stage for her last ever swim. The idea of ever being in a pool again seemed anathema at one point, but then the thought of parking all that skill and experience struck home. She looked at triathlons and decided that, no, they didn't look much like fun. The other possibility was water polo, which wasn't a simple transition given she had never tried any team sports again. But try it she did. 'A bit humbling at the beginning, going from the Olympics to being the very worst on a team that has 14-year-old girls on it.' She laughs as that experience is shared, and that's the really important bit here. This, she explained, was fun. For so long her life has revolved around her sport. Now that was going to be reversed: she wasn't back from Paris a month before starting a full-time job as a documentation specialist at a pharmaceutical company in Dublin. Erin Riordan with St Vincents WPC teammates in the Irish Water Polo Senior Cup final versus Tribes WPC. Pic: INPHO/Laszlo Geczo A member of St Vincent's water polo club now, training is a twice weekly affair, and if the sheer physicality of what is renowned as one of the most physically demanding of Olympic sports is a challenge then it's one she's comfortable with. Maybe the hardest part of it all was the fact that St Vincent's are based at the National Aquatic Centre (NAC) in Abbotstown where she had spent so many hours doing so many laps of the 50m pool in what is now her former life. 'It's fine now but the first time I was walking in I was like - [shudders] - post-traumatic stress disorder from all the training. It's good now, I guess. It's kind of like home even though I didn't want to be there for a while.' She keeps in touch with her swimming friends and colleagues, and even bumps into a few of them at the NAC, but she smiles when she thinks of them ploughing through those six-kilometre sessions and one word comes to mind. 'Enjoy!' she laughs. Water polo isn't Riordan's only new pursuit. She has a marathon to run in Lisbon as well later this year so that's one foot in the pool, the other out. It's a different dynamic and, for her, a better balance.
RTÉ News
10-05-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
St Vincent's ladies win Irish water polo cup on penalties
The Irish ladies senior water polo cup final turned into a nail-biter which had to be won and lost in the cruellest way this evening. It took penalties to decide the game - the All-Ireland final in water polo - as nothing separated Galway's Tribes and Dublin's St Vincents for a gruelling hour in the university pool in Limerick. Tribes led the game all the way, but Vincents ladies kept after them and went a goal ahead in the final two minutes to lead 10-9. Tribes came back after they were awarded a penalty in the last minute and although both teams called time outs with 12 seconds and one second to go respectively, neither could get the winning goal and it ended 10-10. St Vincent's ladies then won the cup on penalties, 3-2, a particularly cruel blow for a skilful and brave Tribes team in their first ever senior cup final, but either team could have been national champions. St Vincents also beat them last week on penalties in the league decider and are now league and cup champions Laura Casserly from Tribes was named most valuable player of the tournament. Erin Riordan, who swam for Ireland in last year's Olympic Games in Paris, only took up the sport when she retired in September and has won her first Irish Senior Cup medal with St Vincent's at her first attempt.
