Tokyo Olympian and double Irish record holder Brendan Hyland has announced his retirement to start a new chapter of his life in Australia.
The 28-year-old represented Ireland at the World and European Championships as well as at the 2020 Games where he was a member of the 4×200 quartet as Ireland competed in an Olympic relay for the first time in 49 years.
Hyland also contested the 200m butterfly, coming in 23rd in 1:57.09, 0.53 outside his Irish record of 1:56.55 set at the 2019 worlds in Gwangju where he narrowly missed the final.
He set the national 200IM mark of 2:01.52 that same year at the Irish Championships.
Now, Hyland has moved to Perth, Australia, and is working with recruitment company, The Andersen Partnership, while also acting as an athlete mentor with Swim Ireland.
He said on Instagram:
“Proud to announce my retirement from the Sport I’ve loved and the beginning of an exciting new chapter out here at The Andersen Partnership in Perth. Massive thank you to @swimireland @team_ireland_olympic and every single person along the incredible journey. Lived it, loved it. ❤️🇮🇪
Ps connect with me on LinkedIn people, transactional finance roles to be filled 🤝😎”
His retirement comes after Jordan Sloan also hung up his goggles after a career that spanned World and European Championships and Commonwealth Games.
Swim Ireland performance director Jon Rudd said:
“Brendan has been the heartbeat of Irish National swimming teams for so long now and we were all thrilled when he finally achieved that which he had always strived for – to become an Olympian and deliver for his nation at the highest level of the sport.
“Brendan is another experienced senior athlete that will work with us in an Athlete Mentoring role going forwards and our up and coming talent will benefit greatly from all that he has learnt over his time in an Irish cap. He will be missed on the team – but is still very much part of the team in other ways!”
