Parent solid at world championships Sets sights on Beijing

Alex Parent now knows what it’s like to swim with the big fish.
The Fort Frances Aquanaut returned home last week after competing as a member of Team Canada at the International Paralympic Committee’s world championships in Durban, South Africa.
The meet marked the first time the 17-year-old had the opportunity to measure himself against the top names in his sport at a truly international competition.
“Overall it went really well,” he remarked. “Obviously I was pretty nervous, it being my first world meet, but the nerves really didn’t get to me too much after my first race.
“After that, I was confident for the whole week.
“My last race, the 50m free, wasn’t the best but it was still a solid swim,” Parent added. “I felt I gave a good effort the whole week and I’m happy with the results.”
Parent has every reason to be pleased with his performance, having set new personal bests in four of the five events in which he swam, including the 100m backstroke (1:12.4), 100m freestyle (1:01.9), 200m IM (2:40.1), and the 400m freestyle (4:44.99).
While he did not qualify for the finals in any of his events (something neither he nor his coaches were expecting prior to the meet), Parent’s solid performance moved him up the world rankings and kept him in the running for a spot on the Canadian team that will be looking to strike gold at the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing, China.
“In the 400m free, I’ve gotten a lot closer to my goal,” said Parent, who lost part of a leg to cancer as a child.
“All my events now, I’m getting to where I need to be at a good time, so hopefully by 2008, I’ll be right where I need to be and then some,” he enthused.
Parent’s hunger for a berth on the Canadian Paralympic team was further whetted by the strong social ties he witnessed firsthand between Team Canada members.
“When any of our teammates were in the finals, it was just everybody backing them up and cheering for them,” he noted.
“It’s just such a great experience to be in that team environment,” he added. “It’s such a strong team. Everybody’s really close. It’s awesome.”
As an added bonus, Parent’s inclusion on the team also provided him the opportunity to visit one of the world’s most exotic locales—South Africa.
“The first two weeks we were just going around checking out South Africa—going to the markets, going to the beach a lot,” he said.
However, Parent said the best, in terms of sightseeing, was saved for last.
“We also got to go on an African safari on the last day,” he remarked. “There were lots of neat animals and we got to eat some pretty exotic food.”
Now that he’s back in wintery Canada, Parent said his focus is on training with Aquanauts’ coach Tristan Hutton for the Speedo Eastern Canadian Championships being held Feb. 15-18 in Montreal.
“It’s another meet leading up to Beijing,” he noted. “It’s nothing that will guarantee my spot on the team, but it’s just another one that I should attend.”
Hutton certainly will be doing his best to prepare his charge for the upcoming rigours of competition—putting him through his paces for roughly the next two months.
“We’re going to be working hard during the Christmas break,” Hutton said. “We’ll be in the pool pretty much every morning.
“For the next eight weeks we’re going to go pretty hard. Lots of volume and lots of speed endurance, and lactic acid tolerance,” he added.
“Then we’ll relax him, slow him down for the meet, and see where he stands from there.”
The evaluation process leading up to a Paralympic Games is continuous for the athletes competing under the Swimmers With A Disability (SWAD) branch of Swim Canada—meaning no decision will be made concerning who makes Team Canada until the last possible moment prior to the event.
SWAD’s philosophy is to only take athletes who have a solid chance of bringing home a medal. Therefore, the pressure remains high for Parent to continue putting in solid performances at meets.
“We’ve got to keep showing improvement every time we show up, so there’s no rest for the weary,” Hutton said.
“He has a lot of work to do, in his category, to catch up to the medalists.
“Right we’re out of the top eight [but] the Canadian coaches have not let me know where their limits are [in terms of what their cut-off point for people making the team is] so we’re kind of rudderless,” Hutton added.
“I do know we have to improve quite a bit for him to make the team.”