According to Tennessee Athletics, In a race that saw the top five swimmers separated by 0.32 seconds, Tennessee Lady Vol Mona McSharry battled in the 100 breast, touching the wall in third to win a bronze medal for Ireland during day three of Olympic competition.
McSharry’s performance marked the first-ever medal in a breaststroke event for Ireland at the Summer Games, and she joined Michelle Smith as the only Irish swimmers ever to win a medal. Smith brought home four medals—three gold—during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Clocking a time of 1:05.59, McSharry touched the wall just 0.01 seconds ahead of Olympic Champion Lilly King (USA) and World Champion Benedetta Pilato (Italy), who finished tied for fourth. By winning the bronze, McSharry became just the second Lady Vol ever to win an Olympic medal in an individual event, joining Christine Magnuson’s silver medal performance for Team USA at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Tennessee swimming has now won two medals this week in Paris, as Erika Connolly helped the U.S. 4×100 free relay to a silver medal. It marked the third medal of her career. In total, UT boasts 17 Olympic medals between its men’s and women’s programs.