UQ Swimming Club star ready to lap up Paralympic opportunity
By Michael Jones
Jack Ireland knows how much it hurts to miss out on Paralympic selection.
The UQ Swimming Club member had just made his Australian Dolphins debut in 2019, finishing 8th in the 200 metres freestyle S14 final at the World Para-swimming Championships in London.
It was the highlight of Ireland’s swimming career at the time, but it wasn’t enough to earn the then-20-year-old a ticket to Tokyo in 2021.
Ireland has since used that disappointment as motivation, winning a silver medal in the S14 Mixed 4x100 metres freestyle relay at the 2022 World Para Swimming Championships, a bronze medal in the S14 200 metres freestyle at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, and smashing his own world record (1 minute 51.55 seconds) in the same event at the Australian Short Course Championships in 2023.
And after a strong performance at the Paralympic Games trials in Brisbane last month, the 24-year-old will finally make his Paralympic debut in Paris, where he will line up in the S14 200 metres freestyle.
Jack Ireland after booking his ticket to Paris for the Paralympics. Image: Wade's Photos
Jack Ireland after booking his ticket to Paris for the Paralympics. Image: Wade's Photos
“Being selected for my first Paralympics is a dream come true,” Ireland said.
“I’ve been on Australian teams for world championships and competed at the Commonwealth Games, but to be a Paralympian is what I’ve been working towards for many years.
“I got a taste at the 2016 Rio trials in Adelaide – I was 16 and won my first open men’s Para national medal; a bronze. The Paralympic team was announced later that night while I was in the stands, and I thought: I now know I really want to be a Paralympian.”
“I know how it feels to miss Paralympic selection, having missed Tokyo in 2021, and I wanted to put myself in the best position to be able to make Paris this time around.”
Main images: Delly Carr and Quinn Rooney/Getty Images
Main images: Delly Carr and Quinn Rooney/Getty Images
Ireland, who has a congenital intellectual impairment, followed his older sister Jasmine into swimming at the Swansea Sharks club in New South Wales, where he began swimming competitively in 2009.
It wasn’t long before he represented his club and school at State and National championships.
His family later moved to Perth and then to Gladstone in Queensland, where Ireland was selected for his first Australian Global Games team in Ecuador in 2015.
“My swimming started to get really serious when we were living in Gladstone and all of the big meets were 600 kilometres away in Brisbane,” Ireland said.
“Even our regional carnivals were either at Bundaberg, Rockhampton or Emerald, so we were always on the road and Mum would drive me back and forth from Gladstone all the time.”
Jack Ireland with UQ Swimming Club coach David Hayden. Image: Wade's Photos
Ireland credits his national and international success to his long-time UQ Swimming Club coach David Heyden, who will be one of 4 Queensland coaches on Australia's Paralympic team in Paris.
“I met Dave in Adelaide at the Rio Paralympic Trials in 2016, while I was still swimming for the Gladstone Gladiators. I was competing without a coach on pool deck and Dave helped me out with my warm-ups and races,” Ireland said.
“A few months later, my family moved to Brisbane, and I have been with coach Dave and the UQ Swimming Club ever since.
“Dave has been the best coach for me and has helped me progress. In 2017, I went on my first Australian Dolphins tour to Indianapolis for the Para World Series to be internationally classified. In 2018, I competed at the Para Pan Pacific Championships in Cairns in the Australia A Team. And in 2019, I made my Australian Dolphin debut. I couldn’t have made those early teams without his guidance and belief in me.
“He’s also helped me through the bad times, like missing the 2021 Tokyo Paralympics. He has produced Paralympians and Commonwealth Games representatives before me – all from the UQ Swim Club – so I knew not to give up after missing Tokyo.”
As he turns his attention to Paris, Ireland said he’s not getting distracted by the prospect of winning a medal.
“It’s great to win medals, and I’m really proud of the ones I’ve got, but it’s not what I think about going in,” Ireland said.
“My goal for Paris is the same as all my other big meets, and that’s to swim fast.
“I want to put together a race that reflects all the work we do in training and all the work that people have put into me. And I really want to swim the best that I can for Australia.”
Jack Ireland with UQ Swimming Club coach David Hayden. Image: Wade's Photos
Jack Ireland with UQ Swimming Club coach David Hayden. Image: Wade's Photos
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