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Gary O'Toole

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Gary O'Toole
Personal information
Full nameGary Charles O'Toole
NationalityIrish
Born (1968-08-06) 6 August 1968 (age 56)
Ireland
Height1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight73 kg (161 lb)
Sport
SportSwimming
StrokesBreaststroke, Medley
Medal record
Men's Swimming
Representing  Ireland
European Championships - Long Course
Silver medal – second place 1989 Bonn 200 m breaststroke
Summer Universiade
Gold medal – first place 1991 Sheffield 200 m breaststroke

Gary O'Toole is a retired Irish Olympic swimmer. He represented Ireland at the Seoul and Barcelona Games.[1]

While studying at University College Dublin, O'Toole won a 200 m breaststroke silver medal at the 1989 European Long Course Championships in Bonn. He also won a gold medal at the World University Championships in 1991 when representing University College Dublin and UCD. He helped to break 5 National relay records, including Short Course and Long Course.[2]

As a prominent member of the Irish Amateur Swimming Association, O'Toole had been approached to make representations on behalf of the victims of the George Gibney scandal.[3] Gibney, who coached O'Toole until he became aware of these allegations, criticised O'Toole publicly during the 1992 Olympics. His complaints were ignored and led to a major investigation into the incidents and ultimately to the disbandment of the IASA and the creation of Swim Ireland.[4]

Since his retirement from professional swimming, O'Toole has been a practising Orthopedic surgeon with a specialist interest in adult arthritis (both hip and knee) and knee sports injuries. He also has a keen interest in musculoskeletal cancer (bone and soft tissue tumours).[5] He continued to provide expert analysis for RTÉ Sport's Olympic swimming coverage.[6][7]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Gary O'Toole". Sports Reference. 2014. Archived from the original on 24 September 2013. Retrieved 25 March 2014.
  2. ^ "Irish Records". Swim Ireland. Archived from the original on 24 September 2008 – via WayBack Machine.
  3. ^ McCarthy, Justine (7 February 1998). "The Drowning of the Truth". Independent.ie.
  4. ^ "Swim Ireland move to prevent early release". Independent.ie. Archived from the original on 5 October 2008. Retrieved 20 September 2008.
  5. ^ "Mr Gary O'Toole". Beacon Hospital.
  6. ^ RTÉ's Olympic TV coverage until 2012Archived 12 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ "Darragh Maloney interviews Gary O'Toole (2012)". RTÉ Archives. 2012.