Former US swimmer Shane Ryan hopes to compete for Ireland in Rio

A former member of the USA Swimming national team will arrive in Dublin next month with a view to competing for Ireland and qualifying for the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

Shane Ryan (21), who made last year's USA team after a fourth-place finish in the 100 metre backstroke at the US National Championships, approached Swim Ireland about the proposition.

Ryan will be considered the hottest Olympic swimming prospect in the country. Under international swimming federation (Fina) regulations, he must spend a year in Ireland before he can switch allegiance.

"I've been given the opportunity to train with the Ireland national team and work towards possibly representing them in the Olympics," said Ryan on his Facebook page. "It was a tough decision for me but I've decided that this was an opportunity that I couldn't pass up."

Ryan’s father, Thomas, is Irish and from Portarlington, Co Laois, which gives him the opportunity for Irish citizenship. The last swimming meet he competed in for the USA was in December 2013.

"He has to live here for a year under Fina rules," said Swim Ireland's high performance director, Peter Banks. "He must fulfil Fina regulations and he's aware of that. He asked us what the possibility was and we gave him what he needed to know.

“He’s ranked about fourth or fifth [in the US] and he’d have had to be in the top two in the US trials” for Rio, Banks said. “Over there it’s a sudden death system. It’s a tough decision for him to leave the US, the best swimming country in the world.”

Best backstroke

Ryan’s best time in the 100m-long course backstroke is 53.84 seconds, faster than the national record of 54.44 seconds set by

Karl Burdis

. He is also a top athlete in the 100m freestyle, with a time of 49.27 seconds, faster than Ryan Harrison’s Irish mark of 49.49 seconds.

Ryan’s 100m backstroke time is faster than the “A” standard for the Olympic qualification, and he’s only slightly off the “A” mark in the 100m freestyle.

“When he enquired . . . obviously we’d like to have a swimmer like that,” said Banks. “The times he has puts him up the rankings and he’d be at around 12 or 13 in the world on last year’s times. He has a job still to do.

“There’s no doubt it would add to our system, bring the game up. I think the environment will be good for everybody. It will certainly help [Irish swimming] if he does what he is capable of doing.”

Ryan will arrive in Ireland shortly after the conclusion of the Irish Open championships, which starts on Thursday in Dublin's National Aquatic Centre.