Parent paces Canada

Alex Parent’s transatlantic expedition produced three personal best times in the pool—and a great time all-around.
The 14-year-old member of the Fort Frances Aquanauts was the highlight performer among the eight-person Canadian squad that took part in the DSE National Open disabled swimming championships in Sheffield, England last week.
“It was unbelievable, and a real eye-opener for Alex,” Parent’s mother, Liz, who accompanied her son across the pond for his British adventure, said Tuesday.
“It was his first international meet, and hopefully there will be more to come,” she added.
With 24 countries and more than 350 swimmers attending, the meet provided Parent with a full-flavoured international experience.
And he responded by compiling the most points of any of the four male Canadian participants—despite racing several of his events against swimmers much older and much more experienced than him.
He also set three personal bests out of the six events he competed in.
“The coaches were happy with how he kept his poise, despite being probably the youngest athlete there, and how he swam his heart out,” said Liz Parent, who dropped off her son in Thunder Bay for a week-long school field trip en route home.
“They’ve given Alex some times to work towards in order to possibly qualify for the Paralympics [Summer Games] next year in [Athens] Greece,” she noted.
“He’s not sure he can get those by next year, but we reminded him there’s another Paralympics four years after that if he doesn’t make it this time around.”
If Liz Parent was worried how her son would fit in with an older group of teammates, it didn’t take long for those worries to subside.
“There was a really good team feeling right from the start,” she remarked. “There was four guys and four girls, and they all got along really well, and pretty well did everything together the whole time they were there.”
While bonding with his own team was enjoyable, Liz Parent said Alex did quite well in strengthening international relations with the world swimming community.
“Alex has a big collection of caps, T-shirts, and pins that he was trading throughout the week,” she noted. “He had a great time meeting athletes from other nations.”
As for outside the swimming arena, Liz Parent said the chance to sample British life in the city which was the birthplace of the Stanley Cup in 1892 was another gratifying segment of the trip.
“We got to go to places like the [Kelham Island] metal-working museum as Sheffield is famous for its metal-working industry,” she said. “We can’t wait until we can go back to England again someday.”
(Fort Frances Times)