The Last Race

We both knew the significance of the night. The last time in this forum. No more pressure, no more crowds, no more expectations.

We have both worked hard to enjoy the moment. To smile more. To dwell on success and not perseverate on what could have been.

As he slipped on the LZR for the last time, I took out a loonie we had been given prior to the meet. As many know, there is now Canadian folklore of the luck of the loonie that was imbedded at center ice for the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics of 2002, which culminated in a hockey gold medal. The loonie fit perfectly in the back of suit and we made our way to the ready room.

He swam well, the best time for the season, he finished seventh. On a personal level a good swim, best 50 free this season, however he was not in the mix for this race, he is a distance guy.

We shook hands as we left the deck. His head was high, there was a smile. It was over.

Rick Mercer

Rick Mercer is in town. He wanted to do some work here with the Paralympians. At one of one meetings Erin Sulpher, our press attaché had mentioned that the Mercer group was to be in town and did any one have any ideas of what we could do with Rick.



Immediately two things came to mind. Firstly, swimming with opaque goggles and secondly getting into a LZR suit.



Swimming effectively blindfolded is an extremely difficult task for someone sighted. The sensory deprivation is astounding. I remember years ago having to take a course in guiding blind skiers. It was at Grouse Mountain and I met our instructor and a group of trainees in the ski line. We were blindfolded in the line and were to be guided by instructors to the top of the lift. I had never met anyone in the group and as luck would have it the lift stopped for about 20 minutes. The delay felt like 2 hours! All of the usual social clues in conversation had been eliminated, making conversation without eye contact a huge challenge. When we eventually made it to the top of the hill, the rest of the day was spent skiing as either a guide or blindfolded. I admit it, I peeked! The difficulty of judging time, space and terrain, plus absolutely trusting somebody I met that morning was asking far too much. We were suggesting Rick get in a pool and swim with Donovan’s goggles, there would be humour there.

Getting into one of the LZR suits is an exercise in strength, perseverance, and losing one’s inhibitions. First, in order to get the suit over the feet we put plastic bags over the feet, and then the suit is rolled down, and slid over the feet. The next step involves painstakingly pulling the suit up the legs and with the assistance of one or two people hiking it over the hips. Once over the hips it is further stretched so the shoulder straps are in place. The last step, bringing the back of the suit together to enable the zipper to be close the back of the suit and to then locked at the top.

Some photos here show to what ends McCord will go to support this team! In the change room yesterday Donovan was leaning back on the wall. It is temporary, and rattles. We joke that it is like a cheap motel room. In the room was the Spanish coach with Mohamed and the Japanese coach with Kuwai. As the wall was rattling both Craig and Donovan starting moaning as the wall vibrating rhythmically. The place cracked up!

After the 50 heats we met with Rick Mercer and the CBC crew. There was an interview in front of the cube and then we traveled to a practice pool for some of the action shots that had been planned.

Mercer is a true entertainer. He submitted to the McCord method of suit deployment, and swam completely blind with Donovan’s goggles! It went very well, Rick demonstrated the vagaries of swimming blind with some acute turns, which could have been dangerous without tapping. As the scenes concluded, with his goggles still on he attempted to pull himself out of the pool. Unfortunately he caught the bridge of his nose on the pool ledge. There was a scream, and frankly I thought he was horsing around. I knew he wasn’t when he saw blood a let of an “F” bomb while cameras were rolling! True to his professionalism he completed the scene after some medical care.

Who knows what will be shown in the end.

Last night was another excellent effort, very close to best time but not fast enough to make the podium.

The young Chinese swimmer, Bozun Yang broke the world record for the win beating his own mark by .7 seconds, the second and third place finishers were at 1:08, and 1:09. Donovan was well back at 1:11.9.

The 50 free heats went well, he was able to claw his way into a second swim, this is not his best race but will be his last as a Paralympian, he is aware of the significance of the swim!

The 100 free

A great day in the pool for Canada. The Canadian S13 ladies again swept an event, 1,2,3!! It was the 200 IM and the second time this has happened in the meet. As well Stephanie Dixon scored a silver medal.

Donovan’s race was an exciting one. Young Mohamed set another world record in the 100 free, 57.65.Before last year no S11 had gone under 1 minute for the 100 free, the world record was set 20 years ago by John Morgan, a man who was an able bodied scholarship swimmer at Stanford who progressively went blind over a short period. His record of 56.75 will likely be broken within the next year. Bozun Yang as well went under a minute in 59.25; the young Polish swimmer took the bronze in 100.49. Donovan was a game fighter but finished fourth.

Tomorrow s the 100 back, his last legitimate medal chance. We both know this to be the case and took care in the warm down to normalize lactate, ate sensibly and he will be asleep before 10 pm. Tomorrow he will be in the last heat of 2, he is ranked in the top 5. These guys are going fast, he will need a great race to make the podium.

The medal Ceremony was exceptional. Donovan sat beside Bozun Yang, he beside Mohamed. Yang held both their hands and in English said” We are not at war, we are friends” I was taken both by his English and sincerity. Donovan received his medal first; standing proudly, medal around his neck, cane in 1 hand, and flowers in the other. Before Yang stepped forward to receive his silver medal he was guided to Donovan, whom he embraced. He then received his medal and flowers to wild cheers from the Chinese crowd. The march off saw more of Yang’s colorful antics; he donned a cape, kissed his flowers and threw them into the crowd.

Then off walked three men who had swum their hearts out to win Paralympics recognition.

This capped a hard fought evening. The preliminaries were a cat and mouse game, no one wanting to show their finals strategy. To be frank I have been concerned over the last 6 months as to how fast the winning time was to be and had estimated between 4:36-4:38. In the morning Yang had done his first 100 meters in 1:03 and the decayed but swam a 4:44. Mohamed had coasted as had Smyrnov at 4:55, Donovan was at 4:57. The final was to be between these four men. Yang set an early pace but was soon passed by Mohamed. Donovan was in touch finishing the 200 in 2:15, but could not stay with Mohamed and Yang. The last 100 was anxiety provoking as his old nemesis, Smyrnov started to make a move. It was too little too late and for once in the Paralympics Donovan had beaten the much bigger and stronger man. His finishing time was well off his best time but we had gambled on going for gold with the fast first half, which he could not hold.

Tomorrow is the 100 free. Again he will have to find a way to the final as he did in the fly, as the field is very deep.

He swims in 11 hours. Hydration, and rest are now in order.

Sept 10

Sept 10

Today was recovery day. Weigh in at 0700, breakfast and then head to the pool for a 10:00AM swim. Transportation here has been exceptionally good as has been communications. Today was an exception. We arrived at the bus stop to get the 9:45 AM and were politely told the buses were not running! After a few gesticulations the problem was solved and we were shuffled to a bus scheduled to the Bird’s Nest, which left us a few blocks from the Cube. Although a little behind schedule we made it work.

We were careful today to be in full recovery, last night was a hard swim and despite a good night’s sleep we need to be sure Donovan is not over stressed. His heart rate was at all times below 140, usually 110. He swam 2600 meters with two 50’s at 400 pace, just to feel race speed. He was right on.

We have been very cautious regarding fluid containers. Earlier this week Donovan left his bottle at the warm down pool. I returned to fetch it and to my horror a Russian coach was holding it with the lid off! I politely took it and tossed it into the garbage! I have never seen this at any swim meet! I noticed he coaches 2 blind swimmers in Donovan’s class.

We went this evening to watch finals for an hour. It was quite a night for Canada and our S13 girls. As you know the latest is the new LZR suit from Speedo. They have played a role in multiple world records since February. We have been able to be out fitted by Speedo and most are wearing the new suits.

Tonight in the “ready room” (a gathering area prior to the swimmers’ march on) as Kirby Cote and Val Grande’Maison were zipping up their suits both had nightmares. Both suits ripped. The support staff sprung into action locating replacement suits and a quick change was made within minutes of the races! The result was incredible with Val winning the gold Chelsea Gotell winning the silver, Kirby missing the bronze by .5 seconds. The three ladies are pictured here, far more composed with suits intact. Picture “borrowed” from Swim Canada web site and likely taken by Chad Webb or Mike Ridewood.
Left to right, Kirby,Val,Chelsea

We have our own equipment failures, (not as exciting as Janet and Justin at the Super Bowl). In a race simulation the zipper on Donovan’s suit blew. He completed the set in record time but we have since replaced his suit!
The whole team is now very conscious of the need for replacement equipment and support staff is at the ready.

As this is posted we will be 12 hours from heats. There should no problem getting to finals, all we need is a lane.

The 100 fly

The 100 fly


The depth of S11 swimming has grown incredibly over the last 4 years. The winning time in Athens, 2004 was 1:06.34; in today’s heats there were 3 swimmers under that time. The Spanish swimmer Mohamed was just off his world record, and the ever-persistent Ukrainians were lurking as was the young Chinese swimmer Bozun Yang and the wily veteran Kawai. I was concerned that Donovan might not final, but he found a lane, qualifying 7th in 1:11.03. In fact, from my perspective he is lucky not to have been disqualified at the finish as his arms recovered a short distance underwater. Craig McCord was tapping at the finish end and appeared to move a judge out of the way to make the tap. I do not believe the judge re-positioned himself fast enough to see the infraction. Luck never hurts in this game, I am not impartial but Donovan did not gain any advantage with this finish, and I firmly believe the rules should be modified so a swimmer who is blind can make a reflexive defensive move when so close to a wall in order to protect themselves from injury when traveling at race speed.

After the race Donovan was a little disappointed with the time, he was hoping to go under 1:10. He warmed down his post race lactate was 12.8, after water and 1000 meters protocol swim it was 1.4, a good sign of his fitness and ability to recover. It is important to flush out lactate to recover in time for the next swim. Afterwards it was back to the village for pasta, hydration and a rest.

The evening swim was awesome.

Firstly the winner, Mohamed , from Spain broke a 20 year record, an amazing 1:01. for the 100 fly. The Ukranians caught the young Chinese swimmers to finish second and third. Interestingly the great Kawai held on and tied for third.

Donovan knew he was to swim significantly faster just to be in the race. To his credit he went out in 31.28, essentially tied with Smyrnov. He could not keep the pace up but managed a best time by 1 second, 1:09.53.

In an event we had entered to “get wet”, it was nice to see speed and a second swim. These guys are fast and all medals will take superb individual efforts!
Tomorrow will be rest, easy swimming, some pace work and prepare for the 400 free.