Liam Ball

Breaststroke swimmer Liam Ball won the Ulster Boys Under-11 title in 1961 and went on to dominate schools’ swimming in Ulster between 1963-68. He won the senior 110 and 220 titles at the age of 15 and was just 16-years-of-age, and a student at St. Columb’s College in Derry, when he went to Kingston, Jamaica, for the 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. That year, Ball held nine Ulster and Irish breaststroke records. He also enjoyed four podium finishes at the British ASA Championships at Blackpool, finishing second in the 220 breast in 1968 and 1969, and third in the 110 in 1968 and second the following year.

Ball went to his second Commonwealth Games at Edinburgh in 1970 and also went to the 1968 and 1972 Olympics, unfortunately never progressing beyond the first round in each of his four Olympic races. At the time of the 1972 München (Munich), Ball studied at Arlington University, Texas, where he was midway through a course in journalism and psychology. After four years in America Ball returned to Ireland and started coaching at his old club, Derry SC. He announced his retirement from international swimming in 1975.

Ball met fellow breaststroke swimmer Ann O’Connor at the 1966 European Championships at Utrecht, and they married in 1976 and had three daughters. They moved from Londonderry to Castlebar, Mayo, in 1981, where Ball managed a new swimming pool. Sadly, shortly afterwards he was diagnosed with a brain tumour that would eventually claim his life, and he died in 1984 at the age of 33. At the time of his death, he had been the Irish 200 metres record holder for 12 years, having swam 2:29.3 in 1972. The record stood for another two years after Ball’s death. Ball’s memory lives on in Derry with the annual staging of the Liam Ball International Triathlon.