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After dirt bike accident left Dieleman paralyzed, he found freedom in the pool

Sep 9, 2016 | 11:15 AM

RIO DE JANEIRO — There’s a sense of euphoria Jonathan Dieleman feels when he slides out of his chair and into the cool water of the swimming pool.

“Swimming for me was a way to get out of my wheelchair,” said the 31-year-old member of Canada’s Paralympic team. “When I broke my back six years ago, one of the things I first thought about, just being able to feel free, was getting into the water.”

Dieleman is part of a diverse Canadian swim team at the Rio Paralympics, that ranges in age from 13-year-old Danielle Dorris to 40-year-old Tammy Cunnington — both of whom are making their Paralympic debut.

Aurelie Rivard, who opened her Paralympics with a gold medal and a world record in the S10 50-metre freestyle, and Benoit Huot are expected to lead a team gunning for at least 14 medals in the pool.

Dieleman was a bit of a daredevil growing up on his family’s farm in Telkwa, a tiny town just outside Smithers in northern British Columbia.

The oldest of six boys, he competed in rodeo, riding bareback and bulls, before breaking his back in a dirt biking accident in 2010.

“I was wheeling across one hayfield in fifth gear, hit a rock, and went cartwheeling,” he said. “The bike landed on me. Thirty seconds after I came to in the field I knew my back was broken.”

A swimmer growing up, he returned to the pool six months after the accident.

“I didn’t know how to react the first time I went in the water after I broke my back, so I was wearing a lifejacket,” Dieleman said. “I put the lifejacket on and I was wearing it for 10 minutes, then I took it off. Ever since then, it’s been just more and more getting the feel for the water.

“I totally enjoy being in the water. If I could live scuba diving, that would be my ultimate dream.”

He plans to go scuba diving this fall in Belize.

Dieleman won silver in the 50-metre breaststroke at last summer’s Parapan American Games, and is aiming high here as well.

“My goal I set about a year ago was to be on the top of the podium in this event here in Rio, so I do have high expectations of myself,” said Dieleman, sporting a red mohawk he had shaved into his head during a stopover in Toronto en route to Rio. “But we’ll see how it goes.”

Dorris, meanwhile, is making her Paralympic debut in just her third season of swimming. The young athlete said swimming has given her an immediate sense of belonging.

“You don’t need to be afraid of who you are and what you look like here,” she said. “We are all pretty much the same. We all have a disability.”

Dorris, who was born with only a portion of her arms, finished fifth in her heat of the 100-metre butterfly on Friday and didn’t advance.

Cunnington makes her Paralympic debut after winning three medals at last summer’s Parapan Ams.

She was just six when she was struck by an airplane propeller at an air show in Ponoka, Alta. The accident left her a paraplegic, but with the use of one arm plus her shoulders and core.

The Red Deer, Alta., native was a para-triathlete, but when she learned her category wouldn’t be part of the Rio Paralympics, she switched her focus to swimming in 2014.

Canada once dominated the Paralympic pool, winning 48 swim medals at the 2000 Paralympics in Sydney. That number dropped to 16 by the London Games four years ago.

“We were ahead of the curve on everybody,” said coach Craig McCord. “The rest of the world has really taken on Paralympic sport with a fervour and a passion, they’re investing money, and it’s one of the challenges we face.”

The Paralympians draw inspiration from their Canadian Olympic counterparts, who, led by young star Penny Oleksiak, captured six medals in Rio.

McCord is a big believer in mindfulness, and so “the big thing we’ve talked about is ‘acceptance’ and ‘surrender.’”

“And the whole concept that Ben Titley, Penny’s coach, convinced Penny she could win a medal and she surrendered to the fact that anything was possible,” McCord said. “As soon as she did that, everybody else followed her, and all of a sudden we’ve got a bunch of people accepting that anything is possible.

“I think we’re in the same boat, anything is possible for us.”

The Vancouver-based coach will step down after Rio, and called his 12-year career at the helm of Canada’s Paralympic team “an absolute journey.”

“I tell everybody I’ve had the best job in the world for the last 12 years. I’ve been around the world, I have friends all over the world, and I’ve met the most amazing athletes/people that you could imagine,” McCord said.

“I never thought I would end up being so passionate about this. But it’s still so pure, right? There’s no million-dollar contracts on the line here, there’s no (Michael) Phelps here, there’s no Usain Bolts here, it’s just a bunch of guys. They want the medal and they go after it hard, it’s still really pure that way. It’s one of the joys of this.”

Lori Ewing, The Canadian Press