Swimming the dream

Jack Gill is one step closer to reaching his Summer Games dream.

The 13-year-old Upper Canada Swim Club (UCSC) member was recently identified as a potential athlete for the 2020 and/or 2024 Paralympics and was invited to take part in Swim Ontario’s newly-formed Para-Swim Academy.

By Jonathon Brodie, The Brockville Recorder January 19, 2018

The UCSC meditates before they dive into the pool for practice and club coach Martin McKend told Gill the good news after the deep-thinking exercise. Gill was just happy his coach saved the info for after the meditation because he said he wouldn’t have been able to concentrate if he knew beforehand.

“It feels good,” Gill said about being part of the Para-Swim Academy.

Gill thinks he caught Swim Ontario’s eye at the national championships back in August where he made it all the way to the final in the 400-metre freestyle event in the 11-year-old and older division and he did it as the youngest swimmer in the race.

Gill swam in a heat at nationals against nine-time Paralympic gold-medallist Benoît Huot and got to talk to him afterward, which, “Really boosted him and that’s when he moved to looking towards Worlds and Paralympics,” McKend said.

“They definitely have stories to share and experiences to share,” added McKend. “Jack is part of the group here, but I know he’ll get another side of this new experience by getting involved with all these Para-swimmers, especially at that high level.”

Most people are surprised to find out he has anything holding him back, Gill said.

If no one told you, you would probably have a hard time guessing Gill has cerebral palsy.

CP mainly affects his right leg and limits his control of it. Most of the time you wouldn’t really notice it unless he does particular movements or increases his effort that would likely make him lose more control in his leg as he fatigues.

It’s not important to Gill to keep his cerebral palsy away from public view, he said. What is important to him is swimming as hard as he can, not to prove anything other than he’s a competitor who loves the water.

He doesn’t want to just be like any other swimmer, though. He wants to be, “Like the other Team Canada swimmers,” he said.

Gill started swimming about five years ago, but thoughts of competing on the big stage of the Olympics and Paralympics didn’t pop into his head until last year when he qualified for nationals. From that moment on, McKend said he noticed Gill started to train harder.

McKend thinks another boost will be seen in Gill’s performances because of the Swim Ontario recognition.

“I think it will give him a lot more knowledge and a new experience,” said McKend.

The Para-Swim Academy will give Gill a chance to attend monthly camps at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre and he’s allowed to train out of the facility three times a week if he wants to. Gill won’t be able to take full-advantage of the latter perk because of the heavy travel and other commitments like school, but McKend said Gill’s mother told him whenever there’s a PA day or an UCSC practice gets cancelled they will head to Toronto.

In a lot of ways this opportunity is opening a huge door for Gill, as well as one for coach McKend.

“He’s going to learn more about his ability and what he can do in his stroke where I’m fairly knowledgeable, but my strength is in able-body swimming,” said McKend. “Para-swimming is something new for me, so both of us going to these camps are going to be able to learn a lot more about his body and how to modify the able-body technique to best suit his cerebral palsy.” Gill is 13-years-old right now. He’ll be 19-years-old by the time the 2024 Olympics come around – the time distance to those Summer Games almost half his age now.

A lot can change over that time, going from a young teen to a young adult. Gill isn’t sure how different he’ll be by 2024, but he does know one thing will for sure change the older he gets.

“I’ll be a lot faster,” he said. Gill doesn’t say a lot. He describes himself as a quiet kid. It didn’t occur to him that if he ever makes it to the Paralympics there’s a good chance he will have to do a lot more interviews and even more talking. Is he going to be OK with that? “Yep,” he simply said. He’ll just let his swimming do all the talking for him.

Source The Brockville Recorder