DCU Alumni Brendan Hyland helped make Olympic history over the summer as he swam in the 4×200 meter relay event for Ireland. He and his team, made up of Jack McMillian, Finn McGeever and Shane Ryan, managed to slot themselves into 14th place by the end of the final event.
The four men freestyled their way towards a new milestone for Ireland and the nation’s Olympic reputation as they are the first male Irish team to take part in a relay event since 1972, moreover they are the first Irish team to take part in the 4×200 meter relay event ever! Quite a claim to fame for our DCU man, Brendan.
Hyland however is no stranger to over performing. He’s made more than a name for himself in the Irish circuit. In 2019 he was named the country’s High Performance Swimmer of the Year. He found his way to the 2019 and 2021 European Championship finals. He crushed the Irish 200 meter record in the butterfly stroke in 2019, taking it from 1 minute 57 seconds to 1:56.55. He’s the 7 time national 100 meter butterfly champion and 8 time 200 meter butterfly national champion. To top all this he is the Irish Senior record holder of the 100 meter butterfly as well as the 200 meter butterfly. This may be where you’d think his list of Irish records and achievements end, but he also claims the Irish Senior record for the 200 meter Individual Medley(I.M). For those unfamiliar, an Individual Medley involves the swimming of all four strokes, butterfly, backstroke, breast stroke and finally freestyle(front crawl) in that order all in the one swim.
Hyland brings all this prestige, experience and knowledge back to DCU as he is currently a coach in the DCU swimming club. He’s an amazing asset and coach to have helping and advising the other athletes that are currently swimming and competing in intervarsity’s for DCU. It’s an incredibly lucky thing to have an Olympic level athlete coaching and advancing others.
Hyland has achieved a lot in his career and there is certainly more to come as the man is only 26. We’ll be keeping an eye on this DCU man and his career as he goes on to break more records (maybe some of his own). Hopefully we’ll be seeing Hyland in an Olympic stadium again in four years.
Luke Carton
Image Credit: Getty Images
