‘I’m not going just to make up numbers’
Swimmer Jesse Reynolds is in contention for a podium finish at the 2021 Tokyo Paralympic Games after smashing his personal best time. Zoe George reports.
Swimmer Jesse Reynolds is in contention for a podium finish at the 2021 Tokyo Paralympic Games after smashing his personal best time.
The 24-year-old has been battling an elbow injury for the past two months and only resumed full training a fortnight ago, but last week he cut 2.5 seconds off his 2016 Rio Paralympics backstroke time, via a virtual race.
‘‘That is the goal for Tokyo. I’m not going there just to make up numbers,’’ he said.
‘‘I’m there to have a shot of winning, with the main goal the podium. It’s pretty exciting.’’
He’s been racing on his own, but against competitors from around the world via video for an international competition in the build-up for the 2021 games.
‘‘That’s been a bit different, trying to compete with people [while at] home,’’ he said.
‘‘It was nice to get some racing under my belt, as I haven’t raced since January, which is strange.’’
Each competitor is filmed ‘‘from a certain distance and elevation’’, then the footage is sent to the UK for judging. While it’s not a Paralympic qualifying event, it allows athletes to see where they ‘‘stack up’’ before qualifiers in March and April next year.
But he was able to race in front of a crowd of other swimmers who vacated the water and stood poolside at the AUT Millennium on the North Shore, to cheer him on. That helped him reach his personal best of 1.03.00min for his 100m backstroke.
‘‘That was pretty cool. It was nice to see where we were at and the training we have been doing has been going well,’’ he said.
‘‘We’ve got a good benchmark now. It was awesome.’’
He’ll hopefully be racing in the virtual finals in December.
Racing virtually has become the new-normal for athletes around the world, paraswimmers are no different.
‘‘Until we have a vaccine sorted and can travel without quarantine, we’re going to be racing online for awhile I think.’’
He, like other athletes, has had to adapt. He’s done a lot of that in the last eight months. The injury meant he had to ‘‘train with purpose’’, with a focus on technique over speed. That’s helped him reach his personal best, too.
He’s doing three gym sessions aweek, then eight to 10 swims, he’s got rehab, a session with the physio, and time with his support team, all while working around his day job as a mechanic.
Reynolds was born with
PFFD – proximal femoral focal deficiency – his femur only grew to two centimetres, with his knee fused into his hip socket. He was born with a normal shin and a foot. When he was a child he had the foot amputated, so he could wear a prosthetic.
Sport – particularly swimming – is his place of solace.
‘‘It was difficult before I found swimming. I was always very competitive, so I liked to play games with my mates and try to beat them. But with my
prosthetic and the way my hip is set up, I’m not very good at running. So most sports and most competitive things as a child involved some form of running, which was quite frustrating.’’
It was school swimming sports that got him hooked.
‘‘[When] I took it more seriously, then I was top of my class in swimming. It was pretty incredible for me to win without someone else letting me win –
that’s something that happened a lot.
‘‘The biggest thing sport did for me, it gave me something where I could go have fun with friends. It put me on an even playing field with able-bodied kids. And that was fun for me.
‘‘Sport is fun and primarily it should be fun, as much as you can think about high performance and get wrapped up in being the best you can be ... if you don’t enjoy it you’re not going to have a very long career.
Give it a go.’’
Reynolds said it’s still satisfying ‘‘to this day’’ to beat able-bodied athletes, including his able-bodied training partners. Those partners, along with coach Simon Mayne, will support him as he tries to qualify for Tokyo in three styles – 100m backstroke, 200m individual medley and the 400m freestyle, in SB8 and S9 classifications.
‘‘My time that got me seventh in Rio, if I was to swim that now, I’d probably wouldn’t get top 16. Everyone has progressed very quickly,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m currently swimming the winning time for Rio, but Tokyo will be a different story. It’s exciting to see who can improve the fastest and where we can get to.’’
Reynolds is grateful he’s in New Zealand, where Covid-19 lockdown restrictions have eased and he’s now able to train in thewater. ‘‘We were able to get back out and train. Yeah, we had a pretty decent lockdown, but after that we’ve been able to train and compete and carry on while the rest of the world is in and out of lockdown. Who knows what their training looks like. We do have an edge there.’’
But Paralympian #205 is not resting on his laurels. He’s continuing to adapt as he heads towards Tokyo.
‘‘Adaptation and resilience ... you’ll find for most of the top athletes is how well they adapted to these situations.
‘‘Especially as para-athletes we are constantly making adaptations to how an ablebodied person would train, what a perfect technique is for a person with two legs as opposed to one. We’ve been used to adaptation and change. ‘‘But [Covid] has been difficult for a lot of people, and we’ve had to make lots of changes to keep the goal in mind, and still have something short term to train for.’’
He’s looking forward to New Zealanders cheering him on.
‘‘People understand how paralympics sport is just like able-body sport, and we do just as much training and compete at a similar level as able-body sport.’’