The last couple of months have been pretty hectic as I took part in both sets of trials for the upcoming Paralympic Games. On top of this I have continued visiting schools, which I find very important as I am passionate about the need to educate children about disability and the importance of keeping active.
I have also done a few events for Southern Water, including speaking to a group of children who had behavioural issues and learning difficulties. I told them about my experiences as a Paralympic athlete and I got in the water with them and played various games, which was very enjoyable.
I also attended the National Association of Hospice Fundraisers on behalf of Souther Water to give an inspirational speech about some of my experiences. Again, I had a lot of fun and have to take my swim cap off to the amount of work these guys do to raise money for the various hospices around the country.
The post-trials waiting game is more nerve-racking than the Games themselves. It’s a case of the unknown as you just have to wait until you see your name in black and white before you know you have made the grade. This selection process takes place every four years, around four to five months before the Games, and it is a very stressful time for elite athletes. This year was no exception.
I swam at the first set of trials in March in London and it was a great experience being able to swim in the Olympic pool. The week of competition went really well for me and I swam three solid races, winning three gold medals and obtaining two qualifying times in the 100m breaststroke and 200m individual medley.
Not only were these great results but the opportunity to be in the competition pool for the Paralympics and feel the atmosphere of the crowd and its surroundings was a great advantage for the British swimmers.
The second set of trials were the British International Swimming Championships, held at Ponds Forge, in Sheffield. The championships this year were busier than previous years as teams prepare themselves for what the Paralympics in Britain will be like. Teams travelled from as far as New Zealand and Brazil, as well as most of Europe, to understand how they will need to acclimatise.
For me it was about consolidating the times I swam at the first trials in London and to swim as strongly as I could to once again hit the qualifying standards. I raced in the same three events in which I competed at the British championships but this time managed to go a little quicker.
It was then an anxious 48 hours after these second trials waiting for the team to be officially announced on Tuesday, April 10. The team was posted on the British Swimming website just before I got into the pool for my training session and I was extremely happy to see I had been officially selected.
Sixteen swimmers (eight male, eight female) have had confirmed places accepted by ParalympicsGB and an additional 26 swimmers have had their nominations accepted by ParalympicsGB subject to IPC confirming final athlete slot allocation. I am one of the 16 confirmed athletes while my wife, Nyree, is one of the 26 swimmers who will have to wait until the official slot allocation is announced on June 6.
We have a very strong team of swimmers, with experienced athletes such as myself competing alongside almost half of the team who will be making their Paralympic debut. Although this will be my fifth games and I have been competing at a high level for a long time, I am not the most experienced. I am very pleased that Jim “The Swim” Anderson was selected for his sixth Paralympic Games and it will be an honour for me to be part of another games with Jim as he was there when I competed at my first Paralympics in Atlanta in 1996.
Hopefully my experience and knowledge will help these young and less experienced athletes compete at their best at the second largest sporting event in the world and not be overwhelmed by the enormity of the event, especially with it being a home games.
In the next few months I have to put my head down and train hard so that I am fully prepared for the summer. I do have a few more events which I am going to attend but my main focus is on my training. I will keep you informed more regularly in my build up so please keep an eye on how I am doing.
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With March almost upon us it's going to be a stressful couple of months for me and my family as the two trials for the Paralympics draw near.
First, I will swim at the British Gas Olympic/Paralympic Swimming Trials, at the Aquatic Centre in London, from March 3-10. I will bid to qualify for the Paralympic Games in four events: the 200m Individual Medley, 100m Breaststroke, 50m Fly and 100m Freestyle.
The qualifying standards for the Games are pretty tough and I will have to hit my personal best (PB) times if I am going to make the grade. My PBs for the 200 Individual Medley and 100m Breaststroke are faster than the qualifying time but my other two PBs are slower than the standard.
I still feel very confident as training over the winter months has gone very well. Ahead of the races I feel that I can achieve one or two qualifying times, which will then let me swim the other races as long as I am in the top two in Britain. If you want to keep an eye on how myself and other swimmers are doing at the trials, you can catch it on the red button on any BBC channel from March 3 - 10. There will also be a preview on March 2 in which I believe I will be featured.
My aim is to try and qualify at these first trials so I can then start training hard again and swim through the second set of trials in Sheffield in April.
Since the new year I have taken part in a number of events, the most recent of which was the Southern Water swim teachers' seminar in Crawley. I was very honoured to attend as I'm a big fan of Southern Water's Learn to Swim scheme. This partnership has now been going for 20 years and continues to grow.
Myself, Duncan Goodhew and David Sparkes (Head of British Swimming) were invited to talk to the teachers about our experiences of being involved in swimming and we all remembered our first swimming teacher, which is awesome. I feel swimming is a great life skill to have and encourage everyone to learn the basics, no matter what age or ability.
My eight-month-old daughter is already in the water and I can see the amount of progress she is making as she can now get to the side of a pool and holds on by herself. During the seminar there were a number of workshops going on and I was very impressed listening to what the different speakers had to say.
I heard Alison Bell talk about trying to include the Olympic theme into her swimming lesson and I loved her creativity in bringing the torch relay, Olympic rings and more into her lessons. Her creative use of different water toys is a great way to engage with children and teach them about Olympic mottos and themes and bring them into fun swimming lessons. All the teachers went away with ideas to incorporate into their own swimming lessons.
I would like to say a big thank you to Southern Water for their commitment over the past 20 years to help over 600,000 children learn to swim and I am very honoured to be an ambassador for this scheme.
Keep an eye out in the media for my results at the trials and I will let yo know how I got on and my experiences in the Olympic/Paralympic pool in my next update.
