Irish swimmer Nicole Turner admits it's a "frustration" that the Tokyo Paralympic Games have been pushed back to 2021 but she remains determined to land a medal next year.
The 17-year-old reached five finals at Rio 2016, narrowly missing out on a medal in finishing fifth in the 50-metres in a personal best time of 37.31 seconds.
Having landed a silver at the Worlds last year, Turner had been targeting podium finishes in her events in Rio and she's told Off The Ball that it took a while to process the news of the Paralympics postponement:
"We had been discussing the possibility of the Games being postponed but when COVID-19 first surfaced we didn't think it was going to happen but as it progressed things were really up in the air. There were rumours then that both the Olympics and Paralympics wouldn't be going ahead as planned but it was only around a week or so before the decision that it was becoming clear what would would happen.
"We were fortunate enough, in that a lot of other countries had closed their pools and were missing out on the chance to train and swim, whereas the National Aquatic Centre had stayed open, but as time went on we knew logistically that Tokyo wouldn't be going ahead in August.
"When the speculation began in early March we were thinking that there was still six months to go and surely it won't be affected as time is on our side but unfortunately things worsened and the IOC and Paralympics Committee had to make that call."
Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
The Portarlington youngster made the decision in 2019 to take a year out of school to prepare for the Paralympics and is now set to delay going into 5th year until 2021 as a result of the Games being pushed back:
"During my Junior Cert year I would get up early and go into school at Colaiste Iosagain until 3.20pm, they'd allow me miss the final class of the day and my mam would pick me up to go to Dublin for training, I'd swim and do my conditioning training, probably leave the Aquatic Centre at around 8pm, eat dinner on the drive home and then I'd be up doing homework or revision until 11pm. That was the routine midweek and then it was double sessions from 7am on a Saturday morning so it became a huge strain.
"I'm not really a stressed out person but that year it just became very stressful and I was just trying to make sure my studies didn't suffer and thankfully I got through it okay. Balancing things was possibly in Transition Year but with the Paralympics on the horizon last year I had to make the tough decision to take a year out and delay starting senior cycle in school.
"Mam and I are travelling over and back to training for around three hours a day and I'd spend around three or four hours at the NAC so this has enabled me to be able to get some rest and recovery between sessions. Downtime, recovery and sleep is just so important.
"My focus is on getting through Tokyo next year because the window of opportunity in sport is quite small and my parents are so understanding of that and after Tokyo I have to decide on my education. I would hope to go to Paris (for the 2024 Games) and after Paris I can see what leaves me in terms of my career as an athlete."
Tino Henschel/Sportsfile
Turner took a bronze medal in the 50-metres Butterfly S6 at the World Para-Swimming Championships in London last September, moving from fifth place to third in the final 10-metres of the final. And she feels her form was beginning to peak just in time for the Paralympics:
"I'm not going to lie I was aiming to podium in Tokyo. When I was younger I was just developing and swimming for the fun of it and wasn't as nervous or focused on medals but now I know what I want to achieve and have that goal. So it was challenging for the Games to be put on hold for another year.
"I had gone into the Worlds ranked number two in the world so obviously I was hopeful of landing a medal but the new Chinese girl, Daomin Liu, was breaking records across multiple events during the week. On the morning of the heat Liu beat me by less than half a second and I was so determined to try and defeat her later that evening but then she went and smashed the previous world record by more than two seconds!
"It had only really dawned on me while lying in bed on the night of that final what I could achieve, my room-mate reminded me that now I was ranked in the top two in the world and had shown I'm among the three fastest in a major final and that I was perfectly setup for Tokyo in the following year.
"It was just out of my reach but since moving to the NAC in 2017 I've been consistently improving and getting a little bit faster. My coach is a former Paralympic champion himself and he knows his stuff. I've had no major injuries or illness so far thankfully so the longest I've ever been out of the pool has been breaks during the summer and that would be at most three weeks. I've nearly been out of the pool now for six weeks so it's a concern that all the hard work so far this year is fading away somewhat.
"I'm maintaining strength work and home and have been cycling for cardio but it's nothing compared to the focused work which I'd be able to do while in pool. It's even just missing the feel of the water so from that point of view it is a little bit frustrating."
