Given her rapid progress through the ranks, it’s easy to forget just how new onto the international scene Katie Shanahan actually is.
Her youth is brought into sharp focus, however, when she admits the first Olympic Games of which she has real memories are Rio 2016.
This is no exaggeration from Shanahan; London 2012 took place when she had just turned 8 years old and while she has vague memories of those Games, it was Rio in 2016 which really caught her attention and fuelled her ambition of becoming an Olympian herself.
During Tokyo 2020, watching the Olympic swimming became something of an obsession for the Glaswegian – she was regularly setting her alarm for 2am to watch the finals - but it wasn’t until 2022, when Shanahan won silverware at both the Commonwealth Games and the European Championships that becoming an Olympian herself transformed from a dream to a realistic goal. And now, she’s just weeks away from it becoming a reality.
Shanahan is one of five Scots who are included in the 33-strong GB swimming team headed to Paris this summer with Duncan Scott, Kathleen Dawson, Lucy Hope and Keanna MacInnes are also included. As for Shanahan, the prospect of making her Olympic debut is a welcome reward for the raft of sacrifices she chose to make as a schoolgirl at Bishopbriggs High School, with her teenage years not always, she admits, plain sailing when it started to become more apparent just how different her life was compared to so many of that of her friends.
“Looking back at my schedule when I was younger, it was crazy,” Shanahan says.
“I’d swim at 5:30am then go to school, and then swim again at night – I don’t know how I did it because now, I can barely manage without a nap never mind go to school all day.
“There were times when I wasn’t enjoying swimming – especially when I was younger and I’d see my friends doing things that I couldn’t because I had to swim, that was hard.
“My mum sacrificed so much too – she was a single parent and was getting up at 4:30am three times a week to take me to training and also having to work as a teacher.
“When I phoned her to say I’d got the email about being selected for the Olympics, she was really proud.
“So all the sacrifices have been worth it and I wouldn’t change anything.”
(Image: Reuters Connect)
Shanahan has aspirations of following in the footsteps of one of her Scottish swimming heroes, Hannah Miley, who is a three-time Olympian and who specialised in one of Shanahan’s best events, the 400m individual medley.
20-year-old Shanahan admits it feels somewhat surreal to now be in regular contact with Miley, who she admired from afar for so long.
“Hannah has really inspired me – she is probably Scotland’s best female swimmer and so she was a real role model for me when I was growing up,” Shanahan says.
“She’ll message me saying well done if I do well, which feels insane because 12-year-old me would be screaming at that happening. She keeps up with how I’m doing which is really nice.”
Triple-Olympian Miley, however, for all her successes in the pool, failed to make it onto an Olympic podium and so while Shanahan is wary about making any grand predictions about her medal prospects in Paris - a fourth-place finish in the 200m backstroke at last year’s World Championships was an indication of her ability to compete with the world’s very best – she’s well aware that if she can produce some of her best-ever form, she has every chance of fighting for the medal places in Paris this summer.
“My coach (Steven Tigg) and I have spoken about what time I’d need to swim to be near the medals so I know roughly how fast I’d need to go and it’s not completely out of reach,” she says.
“Sometimes I let myself think about winning a medal – obviously that’d be amazing. So while it might potentially be within my reach, I’m also well aware that I might not manage it so whatever happens, happens.
“I just try to focus on myself and in Paris, as long as I stick to my own race plan and don’t get too stressed by what other people are doing, I think I’ll be fine.”
Shanahan has recently relocated to the University of Stirling, where she trains alongside the likes of Olympic gold medallists Scott and Dawson, who will be aiming for yet more Olympic success this summer.
For Shanahan, who remains relatively inexperienced on the international stage and entirely devoid of experience on the Olympic stage, having such heavyweights to tap into for advice daily will be an invaluable resource over the coming weeks.
“Duncan is one of my really good friends now and training with him every day is great. He’s such an elite athlete and he’s so meticulous in everything he does so training with him in the pool and also being around him outside of the pool is really good,” she says.
“If I needed any specific advice, I’d definitely feel comfortable asking him. I’ve not had to do that so far but maybe this summer I will because the Olympics is different from anything else and he’s very experienced in this environment.”
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