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Important season ahead for Canadian Paralympic swimming stars Valérie Grand’Maison and Amber Thomas

08 April 2011

Valérie Grand’Maison of Montreal led Canada last year with a six medal performance at the Para swimming world championships but says she’ll have to work even harder to at last duplicate that performance next year at the Paralympic Games. 

Grand’Maison opened her 2011 season here on Thursday at the Can Am swimming meet with a victory in the women’s S13 category 100-metre breaststroke for the visually impaired with a best in training time of one minute and 26.70 seconds. 

‘’I didn’t have a very good preliminaries but I made up for it in the final,’’ said Grand’Maison, 22, who ranked third in the prelims. ‘’The 100 breaststroke is probably my weakest event but the schedule worked out that I was able to do it here. I’m glad I did because it gave me some confidence.’’ 

At the world championships last year in the Netherlands, Grand’Maison grabbed a quarter of the Canadian swim medals, but she wasn’t totally satisfied. 

‘’We’re a year out from the Paralympic Games trials and now I have to be ready to improve each time I go out and race,’’ she said. ‘’They’ll be more competitions on the schedule this year and that’ll help me evaluate my performances and see what I need to improve each time out.’’ 

While Grand’Maison is already an established international star in the sport, Amber Thomas of Drayton Valley, Alta., is one of several young Canadian swimmers that appears primed to make some noise not only in 2012 but in 2016 as well. 

Thomas opened her meet Thursday with victories in the S11 400 freestyle and 100 breaststroke for visually impaired. She improved her time by 10 seconds from the prelims to the finals in the 400. 

‘’My time in prelims was much better than usual so to lower it by that much in the final and come close to my personal best is very satisfying,’’ said Thomas, 17. ‘’I was just trying to keep a strong effort through the entire race. I think I achieved that and I saw a bigger improvement in my middle 200.’’ 

The competition, which ends Saturday, is the first selection event to determine the Canadian team for the Para Pan Pacific Championships August 10-14 in Edmonton. 


For more information: 

Martin Richard 
Director, Communications 
Swimming Canada 
Mob. +1 613 7254339 
email. Mrichard@swimming.ca 

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