“Mens Sana in Corpore Sano” doesn’t fully describe it. For those of us with an education that included Latin, we instantly translate this phrase into “A healthy mind in a healthy body.” Except, that, in the case of Ian Corry, scholars would have said: “Egregius animus in corpore saluberrimum” which roughly means: “An outstanding mind in the healthiest [fittest] body” Ian was an outstanding athlete who maintained his dominance over his rivals and would-be contenders well over, I guess, a decade. I don’t know quite when he started, but when I swam my first Ulster Grammar Schools event, he was probably well on the way to selection for the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, New Zealand. That day, Coleraine’s Jeremy White pipped me in the 50m breaststroke final in around 40 point something seconds. In the programme, above our names, was: “Junior Record 50m: I. Corry, R.B.A.I 36.3 seconds.” I remember it well. Four seconds faster over 50 metres? Nearly six metres ahead or a quarter of the pool ahead! That’s how it was when you swam in any Ulster or Irish Breaststroke race. Ian had been there and done it faster than you could ever imagine or, worse still, it was an open event and he was competing that day. He never had an off day. He never swam a slow race just to win it and get away home. And this continued all the way through to his second Commonwealth Games selection in 1978. Ian was never arrogant towards his fellow competitors. Confident, yes, but why wouldn’t you be when you were as good as he was? To me as a newcomer, he was encouraging, not just in his words, nor his deeds in the races but, most importantly, in training. I don’t think I ever got to train with him more than once in the Games squad. What I do remember is the top lane hammering out miles of freestyle, which I hated, and seeing Ian, a breaststroker and fantastic Individual Medley swimmer, leading his lane along through the punishing repetitions. He had set out his medical ambitions long before entering medical school. He never spoke of “sore shoulders” but would talk of “damaged deltoids”- gobbledygook to those of us headed for studies of inanimate objects. Always in superb physical condition that not only wowed his admirers but also mothers in the spectator galleries. Like a walking anatomy textbook, it was not difficult to pick out deltoids and other muscles on his majestic physical frame. My family’s only encounter with his medical career was when my youngest brother sustained a bad fracture of his thumb during a hockey match and was quite surprised to encounter big brother’s “bete-noire” at the first fracture clinic. Ian performed a skillful operation that allowed Ken to carry on playing hockey and cricket. The warmth of the tributes from fellow medical staff and patients alike, show us that Ian played a leading, sustained, role in Ulster Orthopedic Surgery and he will be missed by so many. To me, he will be the first swimming superstar I encountered, who blazed trails when the local directions and objectives of our sport were still evolving, setting and improving upon standards for all to aspire to. I will always remember his supportive family. His parents as swimming volunteers and his three younger, admiring sisters, always there competing alongside him. On behalf of my family, we all share their loss at this sad time, but we will always look back on those days when “getting somewhere near Corry” and a silver or bronze medal, was the best we could hope for at a gala. We never got there, but in striving to be like Ian Corry, we, like so many others, were much better people because of it. James Boucher Vintage also-ran breaststroke swimmer, May 2025

James Boucher