How Munster alternative knocked for Scottish swimming coach John Szaranek – The Irish Occasions

Sports open doorways. Some are apparent, others obscure, however when John Szaranek introduced his sons to coaching at their native pool, years on from representing Scotland in his youth, little did he know {that a} door unlocking that will lead him to Munster.

“We’ve got two boys who both swam and that sort of brought us back into the sport,” he says, explaining that he known as time on his personal swimming profession in his late teenagers. “My wife [Wendy] and I both were doing master swimming at that point, and then just one thing led to another, where I ended up helping out at the local swimming club, as a sort of poolside helper.

“Then, before I knew it, I did my teaching certificates and coaching, and all of a sudden, I was involved in coaching.”

The development from helper to full-blown coach is a slippery slope that has caught many mother and father unaware, however for Szaranek, it’s led him to a pivotal position in Irish swimming – head coach of Swim Ireland’s National Centre on the University of Limerick.

With his sons having left for the University of Florida on swim scholarships, the job with Swim Ireland got here up at exactly the precise time.

“I was really frustrated in Edinburgh,” he says of his earlier position as a efficiency coach on the University of Edinburgh. “We had potential there to do something special, [but] it was as a coach having an ambition which probably wasn’t matched by the organisation at that point.

“So, I decided to look for something else, and at that point Swim Ireland were looking to recruit for the national centre in Limerick, so I applied for that process and … We’ve been here for eight years now.”

Since his appointment in 2018, Szaranek has been on the coalface of efforts to carry Irish swimming alongside. Efforts which, significantly of late, have borne fruit.

“In 2025, we won 16 international medals. Now that’s quite unprecedented … in swimming in Ireland,” he says, crediting the likes of Olympic medallists Daniel Wiffen and Mona McSharry, who’ve represented Ireland with exceptional success in current seasons.

Another of Team Ireland’s shiny stars is certainly one of Szaranek’s personal fees in Limerick, John Shortt, who gained gold on the European Aquatics Championships in December.

[ Irish teenager John Shortt wins European 200m backstroke gold medal in stunning fashionOpens in new window ]

At a time when lots of our high Olympic athletes have taken alternatives to coach abroad, most notably within the US, Shortt is an attestation to one of many key goals of Szaranek’s position – that Irish swimmers can compete with one of the best on this planet with out having to go overseas.

“John’s a fine example of that,” says Szaranek of the Galway 19-year-old.

“One of the big jobs that I was given here was to develop athletes and get them up to a level where we could start making an impact both at national level and then international level.

“We want to try and give athletes the best opportunity to succeed here. I don’t want them going away to America, I don’t want them going away to university in Loughborough or Stirling or places like that.

“[Now] they understand that they can actually be successful here.”

And so, the Scot now champions Limerick, working to carry as a lot expertise as potential to UL – Róisín Ní Riain, Ellie McCartney and Evan Bailey amongst them.

And in return, Szaranek says life within the midwest has been good to them. “We live in Ballina, north Tipp. We look right on to the river on Lough Derg and we really enjoy it. It’s a great place, a great town, the people are so good.”

He admits his spouse is the more durable of the 2 in terms of open-water swimming, which was a positive strategy to endear her to the locals.

“I’m at the university every day and I’m engaging with people, but it’s much harder for my wife. We moved across and it could potentially have been quite isolating [for her].” But swimming additionally supplied her an in, and, having received concerned with improvement work and the native open water programme, “she knows more people in the town than I do”.

“And it’s the one thing that struck me,” he provides. “How active people were in terms of outdoor life. Even the local GAA club’s down the road and the amount of kids that are coming and going all the time.

“People walking, running, cycling. It’s a very active town, there’s no doubt about it.”

Szaranek acknowledges that whereas his job offers him a duty in direction of Irish swimming as an entire, he’s “territorially committed” to the centre in Limerick.

“I’ve been committed to this. I wanted to try and make it a success, and we’ve had real good success over the years.

“It’s just been building and building and building … I’m fortunate that I’ve got some really good staff here who have made a big impact, people that are really committed and really driven to be successful.

“I got asked a question about ‘what is success’. Success is showing that people can come here and stay on the island and be successful. That’s what we’re really looking to do.”