Gráinne Murphy (born 26 March 1993) is a former swimmer who represented Ireland at international level. She qualified for the

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

in London, though due to illness only swam the heats of the 400m Freestyle. She was forced to withdraw from the rest of the meet, including her focus event (the 800m Freestyle), where she would have been in contention for a place in the final.

Career

Murphy hails from Ballinaboola,

New Ross New Ross (, formerly ) is a town in southwest County Wexford, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, on the River Barrow on the border with County Kilkenny, northeast of Waterford. In 2022, it had a population of 8,610, making it the fourth-largest t ...

County Wexford County Wexford () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. Named after the town of Wexford, it was ba ...

. An accomplished junior athlete, she won three gold medals and one bronze at the 2009 European Junior Swimming Championships and was awarded Texaco Young Sportstar Award 2009.

Murphy Murphy is an Irish surname meaning "Sea Warrior". Origins and variants The surname is a variant of two Irish surnames: "Ó Murchadha"/"Ó Murchadh" (descendant of "Murchadh"), and "Mac Murchaidh"/" Mac Murchadh" (son of "Murchadh") derived ...

has also been successful at senior level, winning a silver medal in the 1,500 metres

Freestyle Freestyle may refer to: Brands * Reebok Freestyle, a women's athletic shoe * Ford Freestyle, an SUV automobile * Coca-Cola Freestyle, a vending machine * Abbott FreeStyle, a blood glucose monitor by Abbott Laboritories Media * '' FreeStyle'', ...

at the

2010 European Aquatics Championships The 2010 European Aquatics Championships were held from 4–15 August 2010 in Budapest and Balatonfüred, Hungary. It was the fourth time that the city of Budapest hosted this event after 1926, 1958 and 2006. Events in swimming, diving, synch ...

, ahead of Erika Villaécija García and behind '09 World Championship

Silver Medal A silver medal, in sports and other similar areas involving competition, is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, ...

list,

Lotte Friis Lotte Friis (born 9 February 1988) is a Danish competitive swimmer from Allerød Municipality. Career Friis was born in Blovstrød. Finishing third in the 1500 metre freestyle competition at the European Championships 2008 in Eindhoven she w ...

. She is also the current holder of the Irish record for that event.

then competed in the

2010 European Short Course Swimming Championships The 2010 European Short Course Swimming Championships was held 25–28 November 2010 at Pieter van den Hoogenband Zwemstadion in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The meet featured competition amongst national teams from Europe, in 38 Short course (swimmi ...

Eindhoven Eindhoven ( ; ) is a city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, located in the southern Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant, of which it is the largest municipality, and is also locat ...

. She took bronze in 400 m freestyle behind

Melanie Costa Melania Felicitas Costa Schmid, (born 24 April 1989), also known as Melani Costa, is a Spanish competition swimmer.Ágnes Mutina Ágnes Mutina (born 19 April 1988 in Miskolc Miskolc ( , ; ; Czech language, Czech and ; ; ; ) is a city in northeastern Hungary, known for its heavy industry. With a population of 161,265 as of 1 January 2014, Miskolc is the List of cities ...

. She also claimed bronze in the 800 m freestyle, behind

Federica Pellegrini Federica Pellegrini (; born 5 August 1988) is an Italian retired swimmer. A native of Mirano, in the former province of Venice (Metropolitan City of Venice since 2015), she won a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. At the 2009 World Cha ...

and

Boglárka Kapás Boglárka Kapás (; born 22 April 1993) is a Hungarian retired competitive swimmer. She is the world champion ( 2019 Gwangju) in 200 m butterfly and a bronze medallist at the Olympic Games ( 2016 Rio de Janeiro) in 800 m freestyle. Career Ka ...

. She was shortlisted for

RTÉ Sports Person of the Year The RTÉ Sports Person of the Year Award is the titular award of the RTÉ Sports Awards ceremony, which takes place each December. The winner is the Irish sportsperson (from the island of Ireland) judged to have achieved the most that year. The ...

in 2010. On 3 December 2011, she qualified for the

in London. However, on 31 July 2012, after swimming in the heats of the 400m freestyle, she revealed that she had been suffering from

glandular fever A gland is a cell or an organ in an animal's body that produces and secretes different substances that the organism needs, either into the bloodstream or into a body cavity or outer surface. A gland may also function to remove unwanted substances ...

and it forced her to withdraw from the rest of the competition. She had been a contender to make the final of her favoured event, the 800m freestyle, and had withdrawn from the 200m Freestyle earlier in the meet to conserve her health and energy for that race. Prior to London 2012 she was based at the High Performance centre at the

University of Limerick University of Limerick (UL) () is a Public university, public research university institution in Limerick, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Founded in 1972, as the National Institute for Higher Education, Limerick, it became a university in Septemb ...

. However, in the aftermath of the games she has returned to her hometown of

to continue her training after her coach Ronald Claes was fired from his post of High Performance Coach. She retired from swimming in 2015 due to a combination of lung infection and tonsillitis.

References

1993 births Living people Alumni of the University of Limerick European Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming Irish female freestyle swimmers Olympic swimmers for Ireland People educated at Castletroy College People from New Ross Swimmers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Irish female medley swimmers Sportspeople from County Wexford 21st-century Irish sportswomen {{Ireland-swimming-bio-stub

Career

See also

References