The backstroke of Haverford’s Shane Ryan is taking him back to his Irish roots — and to the Olympics.

The 22-year-old Penn State student whose family immigrated to suburban Philadelphia and who maintains dual citizenship with Ireland has made quite a splash over the past year by switching from Team USA to Team Ireland for a better shot at qualifying for the trip to Rio.

“I was happy just being there, even if I didn’t qualify for the Olympics,” Ryan said of reconnecting with Irish relatives in an Irish Central report by Frances Mulraney. “It was great. I got to connect in a different way than by the phone or Skype. I got to be there, to do things with them and to get to know who they really were.”

But Ryan did qualify as an Olympian and one of three Irish swimmers to compete in the Rio games, and he set a new Irish record for the 100-meter backstroke en route to a 16th-place finish in that event. Ryan is also competing in the 50-meter freestyle and 100-meter freestyle, according to the Delaware County Daily Times.

On Team USA, he faced an uphill battle against five other top swimmers just to earn a trip to Brazil.

Read more about Shane Ryan’s journey to the Olympics in Irish Central here.