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.