Irish swimmer
Sycerika McMahon (born 11 April 1995) is a retired Irish swimmer from Portaferry, County Down.
McMahon won a bronze medal in the 400m freestyle at the 2010 European Junior Swimming Championships in Helsinki with a time of 4:15.92, an Irish junior record.[1] In the 2011 Championships in Belgrade she won gold in the 400m freestyle with a time of 4:13.85 (more than 2 seconds faster than her time the previous year), another gold in the 50m breaststroke with a time of 32.00 (0.2 seconds faster the previous year's winner Lisa Fissneider), and a silver medal in the 200m freestyle with a time of 2:00.61, 0.11 seconds behind Russian Ksenia Yuskova.[2]
At 17 she became the youngest Irish medal-winner in a major event when she took silver in the 50 metre breaststroke at the 2012 European Aquatics Championships in Debrecen, where she also set a new Irish record.[3] She competed for Ireland at the 2012 Summer Olympics,[4] finishing 26th overall in the 100 metre breaststroke[5] and 22nd overall in the 200 metre individual medley, where she came third in her heat.[6] In the 2012 European Short Course Swimming Championships in Chartres she won bronze in the 50 m breaststroke behind Petra Chocová and Rikke Møller Pedersen.[7] In 2013 McMahon took up a scholarship to study at Texas A&M University.[8] In her Freshman year she became the second-fastest A&M Aggie ever in the 100 yard breaststroke when she finished fourth in the event at the SEC Championships with a time of 59.35 seconds.[9]
McMahon announced her retirement from the sport on Instagram in June 2017, aged 22.[10]
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