Shane Ryan says he had to put his relay team-mates first in deciding to pull out of his best event, the 100m backstroke.
The 27-year-old would have hoped to have competed well in the event but, after breaking the Irish 100m butterfly record in the heats in Tokyo tonight, he revealed that injury issues with both of his shoulders had forced him into a corner.
“Yeah, leading up to the Olympics, I’ve been really struggling," he admitted. "It's actually both shoulders, really, really struggling.
"We couldn’t put in any work on fast tempo stuff, freestyle or backstroke - but backstroke, mainly, because it’s orbital above head and the force you put down is really excruciating pain.
"So it was a really hard decision to make but we had a chance to make history in the relay and we did with the first men’s relay ever and first relay ever since 1979 or something crazy (it was 1972).
"I had to put those guys first. If I did hurt myself in 100m back that could jeopardise those other swimmers so I had to put the team first and I would do it all over again.
“With my shoulder injuries, I got the Olympic A standard backstroke with those injuries so I know how fast I am plus my time would have made semi-finals so that put me a little bit at ease about how fast I am and once I am free of these injuries imagine how fast I can be."
In fact, Ryan broke the 100m butterfly record held by one of his relay team-mates, Brendan Hyland, reducing the mark by six hundredths of a second to 52.52.
He finished fourth in his heat and won't be qualifying in the last 16 for the semi-finals.
But the 27-year-old said: "It was really good. I haven’t swam that event since December.
"I haven’t trained butterfly at all. It was just an event where I had the time and the opportunity so I might as well do it on the biggest stage and enjoy it.
"This was a stress-free swim. I knew I could do something pretty fast in it. I just executed the race really well and I’m really happy with the time. I was quite surprised by it. It’s just great, I’m happy."
The swimmers have broken national records and recorded PBs throughout the week and the icing on the cake was Mona McSharry making the final of the 100m breaststroke, the first time in 25 years that an Irish swimmer has reached that level of performance.
“The atmosphere is just great, everyone’s just bouncing off each other," Ryan said.
"There’s not negativity whatsoever, even if someone does have a bad swim, that just goes out the window and they’re just so supportive no matter what they’re there.
"They’re here, I could hear the guys supporting me and I was always giving them a little look because I’m not just swimming for myself but for them as well and everyone back at home as well.”
