Sycerika McMahon (born 11 April 1995) is a retired

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

from

Portaferry Portaferry () is a small town in County Down, Northern Ireland, at the southern end of the Ards Peninsula, near the Narrows at the entrance to Strangford Lough. It is home to the Exploris aquarium and is well known for the annual Gala Week Flo ...

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

. McMahon won a bronze medal in the 400m freestyle at the 2010 European Junior Swimming Championships in

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with a time of 4:15.92, an Irish junior record. In the 2011 Championships in

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she won gold in the 400m freestyle with a time of 4:13.85 (more than 2 seconds faster than her time the previous year), another gold in the 50m

breaststroke Breaststroke is a swimming style in which the swimmer is on their chest and the torso does not rotate. It is the most popular recreational style due to the swimmer's head being out of the water a large portion of the time, and that it can be s ...

with a time of 32.00 (0.2 seconds faster the previous year's winner Lisa Fissneider), and a silver medal in the 200m freestyle with a time of 2:00.61, 0.11 seconds behind Russian Ksenia Yuskova. At 17 she became the youngest Irish medal-winner in a major event when she took silver in the 50 metre

at the

2012 European Aquatics Championships The 2012 European Aquatics Championships were held from 14 to 27 May 2012 in Debrecen, Hungary and Eindhoven, Netherlands. The 2012 European Swimming Championships were to take place in Antwerp, Belgium, but were reallocated to the City of Debrec ...

Debrecen Debrecen ( , is Hungary's second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the largest Hungarian city in the 18th century and i ...

, where she also set a new Irish record. She competed for Ireland at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, finishing 26th overall in the 100 metre breaststroke and 22nd overall in the

200 metre individual medley The 200-metre individual medley is a race in competitive swimming in which swimmers compete in all 4 strokes (butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle) in one race, with each leg being 50 metres in length. The stroke order is different ...

, where she came third in her heat. In the

2012 European Short Course Swimming Championships The 2012 European Short Course Swimming Championships The European Short Course Swimming Championships (variously referred to informally as the "Short Course Europeans" or "European 25m Championships") are a swimming meet, organized by LEN. The m ...

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she won bronze in the 50 m breaststroke behind Petra Chocová and

Rikke Møller Pedersen Rikke Møller Pedersen (born 9 January 1989) is a Danish competitive swimmer specialising in breaststroke and from 2013 to 2021 world record holder in the 200 m breaststroke (2:19.11).

. In 2013 McMahon took up a scholarship to study at

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

. In her Freshman year she became the second-fastest A&M Aggie ever in the 100 yard breaststroke when she finished fourth in the event at the

SEC Championships The Southeastern Conference (SEC) sponsors nine men's sports and twelve women's sports. This is a list of conference champions for each sport. Also see the list of SEC national champions. Members The SEC was established on December 1932, when t ...

with a time of 59.35 seconds. McMahon announced her retirement from the sport on

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in June 2017, aged 22.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McMahon, Sycerika Female swimmers from Northern Ireland Swimmers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic swimmers for Ireland 1995 births Living people European Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming Sportspeople from County Down