AND WE’RE OFF.
Ireland’s swimmers have soared out of the blocks at the spectacular Paris La Défense Arena on the opening morning of competition at the 2024 Paralympic Games.
Nicole Turner and Róisín Ní Riain qualified for their respective finals later this evening, and while Dearbhaile Brady doesn’t progress on this occasion, the Derry 17-year-old clocked a personal best on her Paralympic debut.
La Défense, the home of French rugby team Racing 92 at the heart of the city’s CBD, has been transformed for the Games this summer. A shallower-than-normal 50m swimming pool has been installed, with capacity at 17,000. It was short of that early doors, but there was huge home support present and the noise was electrifying at times.
Covering a swim meet live and in person is chaotic, to say the least.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Heat after heat.
In and out.
“This is worse than hurling,” one member of the travelling Irish press pack remarked. “It’s happening too fast!”
Turner and Brady flashed by in the same Women’s S6 50m Freestyle heat. Turner, a Butterfly silver medallist in Tokyo, was third in 35.35 and fifth overall — over two seconds behind the fastest qualifier — while Brady was fifth, and 10th overall, in 36.45.
Brady was hoping to make a final: The pair shared the podium at European Championships earlier this year.
The 42 unfortunately missed them in the mixed zone. This really was the Splash and Dash.
Team Turner spotted ready to shout the house down!#TheNextLevel | #TeamIreland | #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/w7ZeW6MDZP
— Paralympics Ireland (@ParalympicsIRE) August 29, 2024
We would be better prepared for Ní Riain in the Women’s S13 100m Butterfly.
It was a case of job done as the Limerick 19-year-old opened her second Games how she intended: with a ticket to the final. She finished fourth in her heat from Lane 3 — and fifth overall — with a time of 1:06.40.
“It was a good, strong swim to get started with and nice to kick off, I’ve been raring to go,” Ní Riain told the Irish press afterwards. “It was a bit of fun getting out there this morning, happy, and back tonight so that’s a good start.”
“The goal was always just to make it back tonight,” she continued, explaining that it isn’t possible to leave anything in the tank.
“A long time coming. Turn the nerves into excitement.”
Ní Riain will be targeting the podium, though was almost two-and-a-half seconds behind the fastest qualifier. She also competes in the S13 100m Butterfly tomorrow, in which she is world champion.
What of the noise? “I had a French girl in my heat so I knew what was coming but it was nice,” she smiled.
That was a common theme across the morning session, as it has been all summer. Remember that guy Marchand?
Allez!
A new world record was set amidst the madness earlier: USA’s Christie Raleigh Crossley clocked 27.28 in the Women’s S10 50m Freestyle heats. The 37-year-old was making her Paralympic debut.
The Women’s S5 200m freestyle heats were the final races of the morning session. In the first two, Canadian swimmers were left to finish alone in the wake of the field. They both received incredible receptions.
But one of the most profound moments came at the very end.
It was fascinating to watch China’s Lu Dong, who lost both of her arms in a car accident as a child. The 32-year-old has won a plethora of medals through her career, including Paralympic gold at London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.
She also competes in butterfly and backstroke, and away from swimming, plays piano and video games with her feet.
Para swimming classifications are decided based on the level of the athlete’s impairment, rather than the impairment itself, so while all of Dong’s freestyle rivals here had one or two arms and raced on their front, she stormed up and down the pool on her back. She finished fourth — and qualified for the final in seventh overall.
The stadium marvelled as Dong removed her goggles with her feet and nonchalantly exited. Remarkable, yet so unremarkable for these top-level athletes.
The venue emptied quickly thereafter and quietened down significantly. This was the calm after the storm, as divers checked the underwater cameras and other post-race boxes were ticked.
As a group of volunteers smiled for a photograph beside the pool, preparations for this evening immediately got underway.
We’ll do it all again, but this time, there will be medals.
Turner and Ní Riain will hope to follow in the footsteps of Mona McSharry and Daniel Wiffen and maintain Ireland’s stunning swimming success at La Défense Arena.
A bientôt!
