Now in what seemed just the blink of an eye, she’s already the past – or at least swimming for her is.
That Gráinne Murphy never got to really be or have the present is something of a sporting and personal tragedy that only she and her family and inner circle will truly know and feel.
But it is a story and lesson that needs to resonate further, because the retirement of 22 of such a talent must also be seen as a failure of sorts by Irish sport – and Sports Ireland – and especially her own sport’s national governing body.
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