Standing on the starting blocks at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, Sophie Pascoe won’t be thinking about the four long years she’s spent preparing for this moment, neither will she be thinking about the competitors lined up beside her, or the spectators filling the stands.
“To listen to that national anthem after winning a race is a proud moment for you and your country.”
The only thing on Sophie’s mind at this exact point in time will be the finish line and her chance at that prestigious gold medal.
Sophie Pascoe has long had the Paralympic dream. Born in Christchurch in the early nineties and raised on a rural lifestyle block on the fringe of the city, Sophie enjoyed a typical Kiwi upbringing alongside elder sister Rebecca. Apart, perhaps, from one factor.
A fateful accident with a lawnmower when she was a toddler changed her life instantaneously, resulting in her left leg being amputated below the knee and severe scarring on the back of her right leg. To this day Sophie believes it was “the best thing that ever happened to me.
“I was very fortunate to have a supportive family who bought me up like my sister who is nine years older and never treated me differently,” Sophie recalls.
Not to be deterred from living an adventurous and ambitious life, she began swimming at the age of seven and by the age of 10 had set herself the goal of not only representing her country, but winning a gold medal – a promise she made to her beloved Gragra (Granddad) before he passed. She’s delivered tenfold on that.
She currently holds the world records for the women’s 200m individual medley, 400m individual medley, 50m butterfly and 100m butterfly. She’s ranked world number one in 200m individual medley, 100m butterfly and 100m backstroke, and world number three in 50m freestyle S10.
A medallist in the making
It was as a youngster at one of her first ever meets where Paralympians Roly Crichton and Graham Condon recognised Sophie’s talents and enticed her to join the QEII Swim Club with Roly as coach.
This unification was a wise move; under Roly’s guidance Sophie’s unquestionable ability emerged on the international stage.
She competed in her first IPC World Championships at the tender age of 13 where she bagged a bronze medal. Then at her first Paralympics, in Beijing as a 15 year old, she came away with three gold medals, one silver, one world record and the title of youngest ever New Zealand Paralympian.
Now 23 her CV reads something like this: 10 Paralympics medals, 21 IPC World Championship medals, two Commonwealth Games medals, winner of the Halberg Disabled Sportsperson of the Year award on numerous occasions, and made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2009 for her services to swimming.
She says there’s no secret to her success, rather a good old-fashioned approach of “process and hard work. And also keeping mentally and physically healthy and having a great support team around me.”
Asked what her most memorable career highlight thus far would be, she doesn’t draw on the world titles or gold medals, nor the first time she donned the silver fern, rather, she says, it’s been making her family, friends and support team proud every time she races.
“My whole team, all my supporters… everyone’s support contributes in some way towards my achievements.”
A Kiwi through and through she’s as down-to-earth as ever did exist. Evidently you can take this girl out of New Zealand, but you can’t take New Zealand out of this girl.
The road to Rio
Heading into the 2016 Paralympic Games, Sophie feels her qualification runs went “really well” and she is peaking exactly when she needs to be.
In order to gain a spot on the New Zealand team for the games, she had to achieve no lower than second place at the 2015 IPC World Championships in Glasgow. Check. She followed this up by qualifying herself an individual Paralympics spot at the 2016 NZ Championships in March.
When asked whether or not she’s messed with her winning formula from the last games, it turns out the ‘don’t fix what isn’t broke’ approach is as applicable to athletes’ training programmes as it is to life itself.
Sophie’s been preparing for Rio 2016 from the moment the last Paralympics ended, following the same programme as usual only with changes to the day to day regime. In quantifiable terms that’s four years, or 47.5 months, or 202 weeks, or 1,483 days of grounding.
She and coach, mentor and friend of 15 years, Roly Crichton, are “like an old married couple” – or a well oiled machine, depending on which way you look at it.
“We have to adapt to how my body has changed in that time and we are constantly coming up with ways to stay ahead of the competition,” she says.
“Every four years we re-evaluate, but everything I’ve done leading up to this point will contribute on the day. It’s now [two months out] all about fine-tuning.”
Five hours a day, six days a week, including gym workouts, massages, physiotherapy and a lot of swimming – that’s the kind of dedicated training regime it takes to become a world champion.
“I don’t feel like I’ve sacrificed anything because this is exactly what I want to be doing. But I definitely took a different path to my friends who went to university and were going out most weekends while I was at home getting an early night.”
Outside swimming Sophie does have other interests, namely fashion and movies. A self-confessed “girly girl”, she studied part-time at fashion school and in 2015 was a judge for the Westfield Riccarton Style Stakes at Addington Raceway during New Zealand Cup and Show Week.
She believes it’s important to have a good work/life balance in order to keep a happy athlete training, even if only to better focus on the end goal of being the best in the world.
Like every sport there are challenges to overcome both along the way and within that sport, whether these are rules and regulations, drug doping or geographical, financial or logistical restrictions.
In Para-Sport the biggest challenge is disability classification. Para-Swimmers are divided into 14 functional classes. Sophie is classed as S10, SB9 and SM10, which means physical and/or motor impairments of a lesser deficiency (the greater the impairment the lower the class number).
This classification procedure intends to provide a structure for “fair and equitable competition according to how much their impairment affects their ability to carry out the fundamental activates in a specific sport,” as stated on the Paralympics New Zealand website.
“It’s not really something that concerns me because I can’t control it anyway. I just focus on what I can control – my own performance and being the best in the world in my class.”
Let the games begin
The Rio 2016 Paralympics run from September 7-18 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. International Paralympic Committee (IPC) president, Sir Philip Craven said they are expecting a record 4,350 athletes from around 170 countries to compete across 22 sports.
Sir Philip also notes more broadcasters than ever before have signed up to cover the games, including a number of new territories. He is “fully confident” they will break the four billion cumulative TV audience figure for the first time, compared with the London 2012 Paralympics cumulative TV audience of 3.8 billion.
Although only a small portion, a portion nonetheless of said cumulative audience will be the many Kiwis huddling under blankets, fingers clawed around hot drinks, tuned into their tellies at all hours of nightfall in a solid showing of support.
Sophie has five possible chances at a gold medal in this year’s Games: in the women’s 50m freestyle, women’s 100m freestyle, women’s 100m backstroke, women’s 100m butterfly, and women’s 200m individual medley. Naturally she’s aiming for five out of five.
As far as pre-race rituals go, she’ll slip into a brand new suit, just as she does before every race final. Quite the opposite of her demeanour outside the pool, her performance in finals is formidable.
“I’m looking forward to just getting out there and competing. I love it and I’ve been training so hard for so long to get there. I can’t wait for that adrenaline rush.”
Sophie’s first heat will take place on September 9 with the 50m freestyle, and the support from home is duly noted.
“Athletes love when we get any kind of backing or support of any kind. It would be great to know New Zealand is behind us, tuning in and watching the games. It always helps to know you have that support at home.”
Despite the fact her tunnel vision is set firmly on the games, Sophie takes the time to offer advice to the budding young athletes out there: “always follow your dreams and goals.
“You’ve got to do it – got to get up for the job. There are days that I hate it and days I love it. Those days (when you hate it) make you stronger. You realise if you miss a session you can’t make up for it – that’s the life of being an athlete. You’ve just got to get through those harder days and push yourself.
“Once you’ve finally achieved that goal the emotional relief and space after that is unreal.
“To listen to that national anthem after winning a race is a proud moment for you and your country.”
By Lydia Truesdale
