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Nicholas Quinn could have been playing GAA with Mayo. Gary Carr/INPHO

Meet Ireland's Olympic team: Nicholas Quinn

The Mayo swimmer will be going to his first Olympic Games.

Event: Swimming; 100m and 200m breaststroke

Who is he? Quinn is one of three Irish swimmers to have qualified for the Olympics, along with Fiona Doyle and Shane Ryan.

Where’s he from? The 23-year-old is from Mayo but does most of his training in Edinburgh, where he is in university, with Olympic silver medallist Michael Jamieson.

Olympic CV: As with all the swimmers, this will be the first time Quinn has represented Ireland at the Olympics.

Road to Rio: Quinn set a personal best and meet-record when he swam 2:11.24 in the 200m breaststroke in Eindhoven in April.

He was the last of the three swimmers to hit the A qualification time and make the plane to Rio.

When does he start? Quinn’s heat will take place at 5pm on Tuesday 9 August.

Where can I follow him? You can catch Quinn on Twitter: @NicholasQuinn_

What he says:

Well, first of all I was relieved but I was delighted as well. I’d targeted that meet in Eindhoven since last September and that A standard has been a goal of mine for the last two years and everything I’ve done has built towards that swim. I was quite happy with my heat swim and knew that I could get (the time) there in the final. You’ve got to have fun and just race and I knew I was capable of doing the time but you never know until you actually get in the pool.”

The42 caught up with Quinn earlier this year, and you can read the full feature here.

Medal chances? Quinn firmly believes he can get at least a second swim and from there, who knows. However, a personal best might be a better goal for the Mayo man.

Still, Quinn would be an outside bet to make the final so he scores two out of five on The42‘s scientifically-developed, patented Jerry Kiernan scale…

jerry2

And here’s something you probably didn’t know: Quinn went to St Gerald’s College in his native Castlebar, a GAA-mad school, which he attended at the same time as some of the current Mayo football panel, including Aidan O’Shea

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