I have just come back from the Olympics games in Beijing china 2008, which was one of the best experiences of my life. There were 57 Irish athletes and I was one of three swimmers who were privileged enough to swim and represent my country in the games.

I am 20 yrs old, studying sports science full time in my second year. It is a strong belief of mine for athletes to receive an education along with their sporting career, not only for academic reasons but also to relief the pressures commonly associated with full time training.

My aspirations are to make the 2012 Olympics in London, my goal is to move forward and make sure I remain one of the Irish swimmers who make the team again. But starting at the beginning because this is my biography... I started swimming when I was nine years old in a local swimming club called new northern. It was a little club which my friend Emma Campbell asked me to go along to with her. Its interesting looking back on it now because all my friends used to beat me and all got moved up into higher squads before me, yet I stuck with it and at the age of twelve I won my first Ulster championship medal. My coach Pearse McGuigan-forecasted to my parents and myself then that he saw a talent in me and thought I could achieve a lot in the sport. The real reality of training at 5 o’clock now had a meaning, when I started to continually win competitions and break records I started to believe in myself that I could do whatever I set my mind to.

I think it’s fair to say the life of a swimmer is pretty brutal; there are not a lot of sports where training starts at 5am before school most mornings and after school as-well. But it paid off, and at 13 I was Irish open champion in the 200m backstroke, which was between both junior and senior swimmers. Being ranked no.1 in Ireland in my main event came with a lot of pressures... I attended my first international swim competition in 2003. The short course Europeans is a major meet where very talented top class swimmers compete in... So at 13 for me to be a part of this was a big eye opener.

I’ve been Irish national champion every year since apart from last year, where I lost to my swimming rival, yet good friend Aisling Cooney who also went to Beijing. It was being beat in may 2008 for the first time in Ireland which gave me the shock I needed and in July I made my qualification standard for the Olympics and am determined to keep improving to reach my goal of reaching London 2012....