May 23, 2016
LONDON -- Penn State men's swimmer Shane Ryan broke a pair of Irish national records at the 2016 European Aquatics Championships in London, May 16-22. The Nittany Lion will compete for Ireland at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
Ryan was raised in Havertown, Pennsylvania, but his father is a native of Ireland, so Ryan redshirted this past season and spent a year in residence in Ireland to become eligible to compete for the country in international meets.
Ryan became eligible on Saturday, May 14, and submitted his first entry into the Irish record book two days later, as he broke the nation's 100-meter backstroke record in the preliminaries of the 2016 Euros, touching the wall in 54.21 seconds. On the competition's final day Sunday, Ryan led two record breaking efforts in the 400-meter medley relay. In the preliminaries, his quartet finished in a record time of 3:38.40. The team then shaved nearly a second off its initial time in the finals to place seventh in 3:37.47.
Ryan owns Penn State's records in the 100-yard backstroke and the 50- and 100-yard freestyles. He finished third in the 100 back at the 2015 NCAA Championships and second the year prior. The All-American was also the 2014 Swimmer of the Big Ten Championships. He plans to return to Penn State this fall.