It came from Daniel Wiffen, who congratulated the 18-year-old Galway swimmer and called him a “beast”. “It’s always nice to have an Olympic champion call you a beast,” smiles Shortt. “So I can’t complain. It’s been really, really cool getting texts from all sorts of people.” On Monday evening, Shortt attended a homecoming at Galway Corinthians rugby club, where he’d spent much of his sporting youth before deciding, as an U-16, that the time was right to focus on swimming. “I didn’t expect so many people to show up,” he says of the welcome back. “I think half the town was there. It was great seeing everybody and I was just very proud.” It had been a stressful week, with Shortt targeting three events at the World Juniors in Otopeni, Romania. In the 100m backstroke final on Wednesday, he hit halfway in third but produced a scorching last 50 to touch the wall first in 53.86, his second-quickest time after the 53.80 he’d done in his semi-final. It added to the European Junior title he’d won in the same event last month. Then, last Friday, he lined up for the 50m backstroke final, winning bronze in 25.06. Earlier that day, his mother had checked his Leaving Cert results and texted him: “UL is secured. Go out and race hard tonight.” “I was like, ‘OK, that’s perfect, I can kind of relax now and focus on the swim’. It was a bit of an emotionally-wrecking few days.” Last up was the 200m backstroke final on Sunday, where Shortt broke his Irish senior record to win with ease in 1:56.19. Two global golds, one bronze, and personal bests in three events. Weeks don’t come much sweeter. “I don’t know if I’ve really processed it. The next while, I’ll try and digest it more but I’m just super proud and really, really happy to come away with not just a few golds, but personal bests.” He only found out his Leaving Cert points score on Monday, having spent last week “trying to stop myself from spiralling” about it, and he hopes to soon enrol at the University of Limerick to study sports science. He’s been based there for the past two years, having moved from Galway at the age of 16 to work under coach John Szaranek at one of Swim Ireland’s national centres. “My coach has expectations for me all the time,” says Shortt. “I think I have actually finally met his expectations.” The only other Irish swimmer to have won a World Junior title? Mona McSharry, who claimed 100m breaststroke gold in 2017. Seven years later, she won bronze in the same event at the Paris Olympics, having endured many struggles in the intervening years. Shortt knows McSharry well. The big thing he took from her journey? “You just can’t give up. There will be some really hard moments and you’ll be tested. You’ll always be tested physically, but the mental side is where the real winning of it is done, and she’s proved that. She’s managed to get up every single time she was knocked down.” McSharry reached out to Shortt last year and they talked about the pros and cons of the US scholarship route and the possibility of him following her path to the University of Tennessee. Shortt paid a visit there and was “very tempted” but decided to stay put. “I can see why she is there and she was giving me very, very good advice. It is very hard to go out there. You’re very far away from home and it’s a completely different culture and environment. “The team in Tennessee is fantastic but I just love it so much in Limerick. It’s definitely something that I would like to do in a few years’ time maybe, but right now Limerick is the place where I want to be. My coach and my teammates are really what made me stay.” He’ll have a few weeks out of the pool now but training will continue on dry land, with Shortt laying foundational fitness through rowing, running, core work and circuit training before getting back in the water for twice-a-day sessions as he looks to the European Short Course Championships in Poland in December. “There’s a lot of shouting, and a lot of cursing, in those training sessions when it gets rough,” he says. “But we really do enjoy those moments.” It’s under three years to the Los Angeles Olympics, when Shortt will be 21. Having just missed out on qualifying for Paris last year, that dream is not only alive, but now looming into view. “It’s in the back of my mind all the time because you’re working towards this one goal of this one competition during this one year,” he says. “But the main stuff that goes through my head is all the small bits in between. “It’s all these competitions that matter the most because they’re momentum-building, they’re confidence-boosting. They will all benefit me coming in towards LA, and hopefully then we can produce the best performance we can.”