Ellen Walshe has done it again.
The Templeogue swimmer won her second gold medal of the European Aquatics Championships in Paris, adding the 200m Individual Medley title to the 400m Individual Medley crown she had already won earlier in the week. She did it in a new Irish record of 2:09.81, lowering the previous mark of 2:10.49 from the 2025 World Championships.
The race was stranger and better than a clean gold-medal line can fully show.
Walshe was in an outside lane, away from the obvious visual cues that come with swimming in the centre of the pool. She was seventh after the butterfly, sixth after the backstroke, and fifth turning for home. Then came the final underwater, the freestyle leg, and the surge that carried her through the field.
It was a championship-winning swim built on control rather than panic.
“I think the middle lanes personally for me can be quite distracting,” Walshe said afterwards. “I knew diving in I was going to have to do my own thing here because you can’t see anyone and they can’t see you.”
No chasing shadows. No wasted looks. No unnecessary movement. Just a swimmer trusting that the work would appear when the race asked for it.
“I knew coming off that last wall I was going to have to do at least 14 metres underwater and try to get myself back up and just go for it,” Walshe said. “I just stuck to my own race plan, stayed really calm on the breaststroke, which sometimes I do tend to rush it and add a number of strokes, and just feel it under pressure, it all worked out tonight.”
Walshe’s championship has now moved from excellent to exceptional. Two gold medals. Two individual medley titles. Two Irish records. A swimmer who came into Paris still trying to make her best racing match her training has found the answer in the most public way possible.
The 200m IM gold also continues the form she had shown before Paris. At the Sette Colli International in Rome in June, Walshe won the 200m Butterfly and took silver in both the 200m and 400m Individual Medley, a strong marker before the European Championships.
Her night did not end with the medal.
Less than an hour after receiving her 200m IM gold, Walshe returned to the pool for the 200m Butterfly semi-final. She qualified in 2:08.57, fifth-fastest for Sunday’s final.
“It was a runoff the podium and straight into the call room to try and find my hat and goggles,” she said. “But that’s just racing under pressure and sometimes that works because you haven’t got time to think about it, just get up and go.”
She also allowed herself to enjoy the podium a little more this time.
“I enjoyed it,” she said. “I think the 400 IM, the stadium was very quiet as it was one of the last events and tonight it was a completely full stadium for that medal presentation, and it was super special. Everyone stood up for the anthem, I did really enjoy it, I probably enjoyed it more than the 400 IM.”
Mona McSharry will also return for a final on Sunday after qualifying seventh for the 50m Breaststroke in 30.43. The double European medallist has already won 100m Breaststroke silver and 200m Breaststroke bronze in Paris.
Before her own race, McSharry watched Walshe’s gold from the call room.
“It was great, thankfully, we had the TV in the call room,” McSharry said. “I was just buzzing for her, I mean, that’s absolutely amazing, again the underwater off that last turn is just unbelievable.”
Tonight’s Irish Swimming Schedule
Mona McSharry — Women’s 50m Breaststroke Final — 17:35 Irish time
Ellen Walshe — Women’s 200m Butterfly Final — 17:47 Irish time
