Shortt’s year of success honoured by award as RTE’s Young Sportsperson of the Year

John Shortt, who enjoyed an escalatingly successful 2025 in swimming, has been named by RTE – Ireland’s public broadcaster – as Young Sportsperson of the Year.

The 18-year-old from Galway won European and world junior titles before earning his first senior international gold at the European Aquatics Short Course Swimming Championships in Lublin, setting a world junior record for the 200m backstroke.

Reflecting on his year of success, Shortt – who rounded his season off by winning five titles at the Irish Winter Nationals – told RTE:

“A week or two later I’m still trying to really grasp that I’m the fastest junior ever in the short course back. I think it was all part of an amazing week for the team and I’m just glad I could contribute in that way.”

Shortt added that he had only started to take swimming seriously two years earlier, moving to Limerick to train with the national squad.

“I think everybody kind of has a similar enough story where they start lessons very young and then I moved through to lane swimming and then I eventually joined a club because one of my friends is in it,” he said.

“I’m kind of only really coming into the kind of big competitions now… I’d made a few teams that summer of 2023. And then it gave me a bit of a spark of confidence.”

The Sportsperson of the Year trophy went to golfer Rory McIlroy, also named as BBC Sports Personality of the Year, who completed his career grand slam by winning the Masters and then helped Europe retain the Ryder Cup in the United States.

Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics

The post Shortt’s year of success honoured by award as RTE’s Young Sportsperson of the Year first appeared on European Aquatics®.