Olympic Potential for Student Brendan Gibbons - 07 December 2009
Highly rated Athlone swimmer Brendan Gibbons, a member of Athlone Swim Team has now begun training with the Irish High Performance Squad in Dublin every weekend. He will be coached by Swim Ireland's High Performance Director, Peter Banks who also coached Brooke Bennett to double Olympic Gold at the 2000 Sydney.
This outstanding development has come about because of his brilliant gold-medal winning performance in the men's 1500m freestyle at the recent Irish Open Short Course Championships, a feat which saw the exciting 14-year-old starlet, from Garnafailagh, compete against swimmers aged 18 and 19.
Brendan, who was also the overall swimmer at the Summer Irish Age Groups for the third year running, has his sights firmly set on qualifying for the European Junior Championships in three years time. He then hopes to push on from there by joining up with one of the High Performance Centres on a full-time basis, and aim for the 2016 Olympic Games.
Johnny Powell added: "Brendan is a great ambassador for the Athlone Swim Team and is the only swimmer not to have missed one training session this year, and his commitment is an example to all."