“Is that you?” The question eventually comes from the four- and five-year-olds Ellen Walshe teaches at Templeogue Swimming Pool. By then, they have spotted the photograph hanging outside the pool and begun to recognise her. “I’d have my hair up in a bun and I don’t really look like the photo any more. I’m a few years older too,” Walshe says with a smile. “Eventually they figure out who I am. Hopefully in 10 or 15 years they’ll be able to say I taught them to swim, and hopefully they’ll have nice things to say about me.”It is a far cry from the intensity of international competition. The 24-year-old returns to that stage next week at the European Aquatics Championships in Paris, carrying momentum from a build-up that has included a national record, podium finishes in Rome and a growing confidence that another level is within reach, as long as she can get out of her own way.“I think it’s just the biggest mental game you’ll play,” Walshe says. “You’ve done the hard work. It was done a week ago, two weeks ago. It’s purely just down to whose mindset is going to be right on the day.”For all her experience – two Olympic Games, World Championship finals and a European short course title – Walshe feels there remains a gap between what she produces in training and what she delivers in competition.Last December she won her first senior international gold medal in the 200m butterfly at the European Short Course Championships, but the race she could not shake off was her seventh-place finish in the 400m individual medley.“It probably knocked my confidence,” she says. “I had just won gold, but I think I only saw the disaster of the 400. That’s all I probably still think about.”Her coach encouraged her to confront her doubts at last month’s Sette Colli Trophy in Rome, where she again tackled a demanding programme and came away with three medals – gold in the 200m butterfly and silver in both the 200m and 400m individual medleys.Ellen Walshe competing in the 100m butterfly in the National Aquatic Centre. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho “It was nice to get back on the blocks,” she says. “Hopefully carrying that confidence into the Europeans will help. But it’s probably always in the back of your mind: ‘Can I do this any more? Is it still possible?’”The Dubliner says she now enjoys training more than she ever did as a junior, but believes she has yet to race with the freedom she wants to.[ Cian McPhillips ready to make his mark on European Championship 800mOpens in new window ]“I just enjoy pushing myself to the limit,” she says. “I don’t quite do that to my full potential in competition just yet. I feel like I train to a level that I don’t quite race at.“I’ve had races where I got so carried away at the start and then it all kind of fell apart. Then I’ve had races where I’ve built into them and they’ve been quite good. It’d be nice to put it all together.”She is moving in that direction. At the Irish Open in July, Walshe broke Melanie Nocher’s long-standing Irish 200m backstroke record twice in one day, clocking 2:09.69 after years of working to strengthen what she considered the weakest stroke in her individual medley.“There’s no pressure of an Olympic qualifying time this summer,” Walshe says of next week’s championships, where she will compete in the 50m, 100m and 200m butterfly, the 200m and 400m individual medleys and potentially some relays.“It’s purely rankings and trying to be the best you can. We need to use that positively. Just race your heart out and see where you’re at.”