Canadian flagbearer races for the last time

Source: China Daily | 09-08-2008 17:02

Three-time Paralympian Donovan Tildesley says he feels the best ever mentally and physically for this year's Games.

Donovan Tildesley in this undated file photo. Tildesley will  compete in his third Paralympics in Beijing.  [Canadian Paralympic Committee]

But even up to a year ago the Canadian swimmer who is blind from birth wasn't sure if he was coming to Beijing.

The 24-year-old from Vancouver thought he had finished competitive swimming when Paralympic organizers pulled the 400 Freestyle event, his strongest, from the Games.

"It's my best chance for gold and if they took that out, there would be no point in competing," he said in a telephone interview with chinadaily.com.cn on Monday.

However, the event was put back in and Tildesley decided he'd give it one last shot.

"I thought 'I'll keep doing what I'm doing until December [2007], and if I still like what I'm doing, then I'll try for Beijing,'" he explains.

And in order to prepare for the 2008 Paralympics, Tildesley decided to change his training regime.

"A few years ago I didn't enjoy it [the training]… I felt like a machine," he explains. "I felt it was too serious and intense, not that I'm not like that now, but now I'm more relaxed and less panicky."

Although his father Hugh had coached him since 1999, the younger Tildesley felt his dad had probably given him as much advice as he could and needed to go to the next level.

He enlisted the help of Kevin Johns, the brother of Canadian Olympic swimmer Brian Johns and worked with a weight trainer, a nutritionist and sports psychologist.