Event: 800m freestyle.
Who is she? Gráinne Murphy is Ireland’s 19-year-old medal hope in the middle-distance race.
Her preferred event would appear to be the longer, 1500 metres, as she won silver at the European Championships in 2010. However, that race is not an Olympic event for women.
Road to London: The Wexford native – by way of Limerick – sealed her place in the Olympic village in December. Her third place finish in the Dutch Open Championship was timed at 8:31.14, over 2.5 seconds inside the required A standard.
What she says about herself: “I have been doing a lot of my preparations at the University of Limerick and get to do a bit of training alongside the Munster players. The advice and support that I get from the players, especially someone like Paul O’Connell, has been a great help.”
Medal chances: In March, Murphy recorded a time of 8:29.5, but has since had her preparations hampered by a virus.
If she can keep on top of her personal bests then a place in the final is possible. Once there she will be up against (amongst others) home favourite Rebecca Adlington. Though the Olympic champion has been unable to come close to her world record of best of 2008 without a full-length suit.
Three Jimmies.
If you meet her at a bar, ask her… About the strain of moving across the country to at the age of 13 to train for a life of swimming.
If she was a YouTube video, she would be... We can only assume that her chats with big Paulie aren’t quite as expletive-laden as this one, but surely a motivating factor none-the-less.
YouTube credit: markoconroy
