The first week of the Olympics is always dominated by events in the pool and the heroine of last night was a 15 year old girl from Lithuania called Ruti Meilutyte.  The motto of the London Games is to inspire a generation and it is possible that her swim rather than the efforts of chiselled giants from the USA will have the greatest impact on what is already among the most popular participation sports around the world.
In Ireland 9.8% of us have swum in the past seven days according to the Irish Sports Monitor.   The figure is even more impressive for women with 10.6% making it the second most popular sports activity after personal exercise.
The growth of Olympic standard pools has been impressive in recent years with University College Dublin now added to the roster of full Olympic standard pools alongside the University of Limerick and the National Aquatic Centre at Abbotstown.
The sport is also proving popular as a promotional vehicle for companies.  Yesterday the major US deals website Living Social announced a partnership with USA Swimming which will massively expand the reach of its popular Swim Today programme launched in March.
In the UK British Gas is heavily promoting its link to the sport and offer of a free swimming session to every family in the country.
Swim Ireland has also been active with a deal with Kelloggs that has run since February and will last to at least the end of the year.  TV advertising in the spring and on pack promotion on popular cereals prompted redemption of a voucher for a free swimming session at a wide spread of pools across the country.
Ireland’s own teen swimming star Sycericka McMahon took almost a second off her personal best time in yesterday’s individual medley but just missed out on a spot in the semi finals.  The 17 year old is already being spoken of as a star for Rio.  Ireland’s three remaining swimmers in Olympic action Grainne Murphy, Melanie Nocher and Barry Murphy will be back in action on Thursday.
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