Joanne O’Riordan: Paralympian Nicole Turner is a symbol of hope

Time can be a bizarre thing. For Paralympians, that four- or in this case five- year gap can change you a lot. For Nicole Turner that time has made her into a whole new person. Wanting to drop out of school because she wanted to put all her time and energy into getting that Paralympic medal, dealing with a pandemic and postponements and becoming a veteran on the swim team at the grand old age of 19, time has been pretty good to her.

Starting on the blocks at the S6 Tokyo 2020 Paralympic butterfly final, how was she coping?

“If you asked me what I was thinking about before my 50m fly in Tokyo, I cannot tell you. I remember shaking like mad before the race, the whole way throughout the race, then after the race. But I think that the key for me before the block is about not overthinking,” she says.

“If I overthink things too much it gets in my head, and then the race doesn’t go to plan. ... You just think about reassurance if anything, you’ve done it so many times in training, you know, nothing’s changed. Like it’s a different venue but the pool’s the same length, the blocks are the same, everything is pretty much the same. So it’s just about routine and doing it over and over again.”

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For those who don’t know, Turner was born in 2002 to parents Jason and Bernie and has two older brothers Daniel and Ciaran. Even though she never knew officially she had a disability until she was five, it has never held her back.

“My family never treated me any differently. Even when I was younger I used to play up to my disability being like, ‘I can’t reach this, and that’ and my family would tell me to ‘shut up, there’s a step over there, go get it’. But I think that’s just the way to go. Like, it’s not going to change, and I’ve grown up with it. Other than being a bit smaller than everyone, I can’t really see myself being any different.”

Hard work

It’s true that we only see these Paralympians or Para-athletes once every four years, but it’s constant hard work, drive, commitment, sacrifice and determination behind the scenes. When Turner was in school that sacrifice was needed very early on.

"I think the year of my Junior Certificate we had the home Europeans that year as well. So I finished school in May and then the Europeans would have been in August. But, literally, I'd be leaving my house at 9am. I'd be in school from then until 3.20pm. Originally it was meant to be 9am to 4pm but because I live in Portarlington and the pool's in Blanchardstown, it'd be like an hour and 10 minutes in the car every day.

“And if I did that I wouldn’t get to train on time, so the school agreed to let me go 40 minutes early. So I leave school at 3.25pm , and then I’d get up to Blanchardstown for a swim from 5pm to 7pm.

“And because I’m so far away again, it wasn’t realistic for me to eat my dinner late at night. So my mom invested in a thermal food flask kind of thing. And I ate my dinner in the car on the way home. And then I’d come home, and I could be doing homework till about 10.30pm, 11pm every night.

“So it was quite challenging, but I think you just have to overcome it. Like, I think if anyone else thought of it like that and was struggling, they’d be, like, just pack in the swimming.”

Unlike normal times during the pandemic mother Bernie Turner wasn't allowed into the pool, so during the lunchtime trips with nothing to do except wait for Nicole, she started walking around the Sport Ireland campus. She couldn't go shopping due to lockdown, so during the bleak winter months she learned how to crochet, brought meals for the swimming team, and to quote Nicole, "has made enough blankets for every baby in the country".

Incredibly tense

That sacrifice paid off. In an incredibly tense 50m butterfly, Turner wrote herself into the history books by earning a silver medal, losing out to Chinese athlete Yuyan Jiang, who is missing two limbs. Nicole and her family, who once thought she was the only little person in Ireland, have become symbols of hope for families worldwide.

“When I had my homecoming there was a young boy called Eddie in a wheelchair. And he can’t use his legs. Mam and dad were like, ‘come over here’, like, obviously, you didn’t want to intrude or anything. They’re like, ‘will you come over here for a second’.

“And I went over, and I showed him my medal. And he was around five or six, so he’s quite shy. But then, like, as I was leaving, he turned to his mom, and he was like, ‘Oh my God, mom, I want to be like Nicole one day’. I just think it’s nice in a way that people see what I’m doing even though I have a disability, and they want to be in my shoes one day.”

The Paralympic movement is well and truly under way. With more publicity and athletes out there, Turner hopes to inspire other children like Eddie and adults all over the world.

For now her mother is back driving her to training while Nicole is preparing for her driving test. She’s undertaking a college course and has already bought her new pet, a French bulldog called Paris.

Yes, Paris is named for Paris 2024, where Nicole hopes for her and the Paralympic movement the only way is up.