PARIS, France — Tennessee Lady Vol Mona McSharry is now sporting bronze as she finished third in the women's 100m breaststroke at the Paris Olympics.
According to Tennessee Athletics, she is the second Irish swimmer ever to win an Olympic medal. Her performance marked the first-ever medal in a breaststroke event for Ireland. She joins Michelle Smith as the only Irish swimmers ever to win a medal.
Smith brought home four medals, three gold, during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
McSharry was in a race that saw the top five swimmers separated by 0.32 seconds. 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, according to Tennessee Athletics.
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 Athletics said.
