Darragh Greene is a 24-year-old Irish swimmer who will be competing for Ireland in the upcoming 2021 Olympic Games. Despite the news of the Olympics being postponed, the hard work in training will continue for him.
Darragh laid out his tips and routines to tell us what goes into making an Olympic athlete.
Training
Darragh trains six days a week doing an hour and a half in the morning on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. He then trains again for two and a half hours in the evening on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and also has three gym sessions during the week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He aims to take in around 4,000 calories to fuel this level of work. Darragh also works with a nutritionist but does say that his diet isn’t too strict, and he mainly focuses on trying to eat good and clean food.
For those of you wondering what his gym workout entails, it is based on three main lifts; squatting, benching and chin-ups. Beyond the three primary lifts - movement, core and accessory (primarily shoulder) work are also done to round out the gym session while cardio is primarily reserved for the pool which could entail swimming 6km per session.
While there are concerns around Darragh’s ability to continue to train with pools potentially being closed down, his training could be taking a serious hit in light of recent events. Fortunately, he said that Sport Ireland will be able to assist in providing some equipment for him to maintain his fitness.
Monitoring
Darragh finds swimming to be a very technical sport. When discussing this he mentioned three things he and other swimmers do to monitor their performance and what they do to ensure they’re performing as well as possible. Firstly, they monitor lactate levels at the start of a 3 week training block to find out when they’re most capable of performing at their best. They also use an app called RYPT to monitor how much they should be lifting in the gym. To ensure they’re at the peak of their game mentally they monitor their heart rate in the morning and fill out a questionnaire before they even get out of bed. This is done to ensure that the coaches know how much the athletes are capable of doing and how hard they can be pushed at a given time.
Personal Life
While Darragh is at the top of his game right now, he feels like he was a late bloomer when it comes to swimming. He originally had his focus split between multiple sports but after breaking a leg in third year playing rugby, he ended up coming back to swimming. Since swimming was the first thing he could get back to, he ended up rediscovering a love for the sport.
Darragh credits his success to hard work. Despite the hard work meaning he ends up missing out on nights out or going on a J1 or doing other things he'd enjoy he feels that it's a worthwhile sacrifice and that now is the time in his life to do it.
About the Athlete:
Darragh Greene, Olympic Swimmer
Darragh Greene, is a future Olympian from County Longford. Darragh has secured his qualification for the Tokyo Olympics to now be held in 2021 competing in the 100m and 200m breaststroke as well as the medley relay. Darragh sat down with us to highlight just what is required to succeed at the elite level of international sport and gave an insight into his individual training regime.
Follow Darragh on @darragh_greene1 on Instagram and @GreeneDarragh on twitter to learn more