Popham’s ready for Tokyo – no doubt about it
Just back yourself. It’s a simple motto but one that will drive Australian young gun swimmer Ben Popham at his first Paralympic Games in Tokyo.
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Just back yourself.
It’s a simple motto but one that will drive Australian young gun swimmer Ben Popham at his first Paralympic Games in Tokyo.
“In terms of what I’ve learnt from this campaign, because I’m training so well and the times are so consistent, I think more than anything is just back yourself,” he said.
“I think with all the uncertainty we’ve had in the past two years and with very little opportunities to race and race fast, it can become quite easy to doubt yourself, but with the training times and the camp environment that we’ve set up here (in Cairns), I’m just learning to lean into my numbers and lean into my gut and to back myself again.”
Popham, who lives with diplegic cerebral palsy, was seven when his physiotherapist gave him two choices – Para-equestrian or Para-swimming.
As fate would have it, he chose the pool, and spent the next decade working towards selection in the Australian Para-swimming team.
He earned his first call-up at the 2018 Pan Pacific Para-swimming Championships, exploding onto the world stage to win gold in the men’s 100m freestyle S8 and men’s 4x100m freestyle 34 Points.
That performance was backed up with a silver and two bronze at the 2019 World Para-swimming Championships in London.
The 20-year-old will make his Paralympic debut later this month, but is not putting too much of a focus on medals, instead wanting to just go out there and deliver the best performance that he is capable of.
“I don’t want to put too much emphasis on medals and that sort of stuff, just because we don’t know what everyone’s doing, especially with the current circumstances,” Popham said.
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“I think I just want to be able to put my best foot forward on the day – I think that’s a massive thing for me – and make sure throughout the meet I’m always mentally prepared and executing my race plan, and hopefully on a good day the cards will fall my way.
“For me, it’s all quite individualised and just making sure I hit my stroke rates in the first 50m and the second 50m and all that sort of stuff, rather than external things.”
Popham has been undertaking his final preparations with the Australian team in Cairns, and is leaving no stone unturned as he looks to shave milliseconds of his times.
“We’re focusing on making sure the dives, the starts and turns are really tight,” he said.
“I think I’m pretty happy with my speed going for the first 50m and the second (50m), but its just making sure that we’re not losing any time on the turns especially, so just making sure they’re really tight, clean and consistent.”
While it will be the Western Australia’s swimmer’s first Paralympic Games, he
“First Paralympics is obviously quite a big one, but I think I’m pretty fortunate that this is my third senior team so I’ve had a bit of experience and practice in this area,” he said.
“In terms of preparation, I think I’ve been hitting the nail on the head.
“I think it’s been the best prep I’ve ever had. I’m feeling really good in the water and I’m just excited to race to be honest.”
Hall firing for his Games three-peat
Brenden Hall has dominated the men’s 400m freestyle S9 for the best part of a decade, winning back-to-back Paralympic gold medals – and the times he’s been clocking in the lead up to Tokyo could indicate that a golden three-peat is on the way.
Hall and the rest of the Australian Paralympic swim team have been training at Cairns’ Tobruk Memorial Pool as part of their final preparations before they head to the Paralympic Games later this month.
The 28-year-old was the youngest male on the Dolphins team when he made his Paralympic debut at the 2008 Beijing Games, but enters what will be his fourth Paralympic Games in Tokyo as a seasoned veteran.
Hall has been the benchmark in the men’s 400m S9 at the last two Paralympic Games, swimming his way to gold at Rio in 2016 and London in 2012.
Heading into Tokyo as the back-to-back defending champion, he has a clear goal in mind.
“Everyone’s got their own goals and their dreams, and mine haven’t changed from where they were when I stepped off that dias in Rio,” he said.
“You make that decision pretty much after that swim where you become a champion and you want to be a defending champion going in, and that’s how I’d like to try and keep it.
“That’s the goal, hopefully it all goes smoothly.
“I’ve done the hard work, when the time comes in Tokyo we’ll see the results.”
The Nambour product has been hitting top form as he prepares to mount an assault on a third-straight gold medal, after producing some scintillating times at recent pool sessions.
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Another gold in Tokyo would also complete a return to the top of the podium for Hall, after he claimed bronze at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and silver at the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships.
“The preparation for me has been pretty good, pretty exciting,” he said.
“I think over the last eight months training has been pretty tough but the times that I’ve been doing I haven’t been able to hit since 2016 or before 2012, so hopefully it can be an exciting time coming out of that over the next three weeks.
“But at the moment, I’m just making sure I’m head down, bum up and I keep working hard over those final weeks of preparation leading into Tokyo.”
Hall said while the five-year cycle between games had brought its challenges, it seemed to be working in his favour as the big event draws nearer.
“I think there are some things that are a lot easier to navigate because all of a sudden you don’t have all that choice on your hands,” he said.
“You pretty much know what every day is going to be like, it’s going to be pretty similar, and you just get into that routine and you know in the long run you have a job to do and that’s the most important thing out of this.
“It actually makes it easier when the time comes to get that job done, because you’ve been very repetitious with how you’ve approached everything, so all you have to do is just go through the motions hopefully, when the time does come, it will all just sort of fall into place and all the pieces come together like a nice puzzle.”
Why you can’t risk missing Pearse power at Paralympic Games
If there is anything we have learned from Col Pearse’s young swimming career so far, it’s that you can’t risk missing him in action.
Pearse had his right foot amputated when he was a toddler after an accident involving a lawnmower, but he has never let that get in the way of his ambitions.
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The decision to start swimming, which came after he met decorated Paralympian Ellie Cole in 2012, is one that has taken him to new heights.
He has turned heads on almost every part of the journey.
In 2017, he smashed five national records in the S10, 13 and under age group. Just two years later, he swept to four gold medals at the Australian Age Championships.
Then, at the World Para Champs in London later that year, he took home an individual bronze medal in the 100m butterfly (S10).
The 18-year-old Echuca product is in now Cairns preparing for his first Paralympic Games, putting in as much as 50km per week at training as the swimming team puts the final touches on its preparation.
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He is nearing taper time ahead of his debut Games experience at Tokyo, but he hasn’t allowed himself to think too much about what that competition – which is in less than three weeks.
“I haven’t really thought about racing too much at the moment, still just focusing on my training, little things, the one percenters which make me better,” Pearse said.
“Once we get closer I’ll get a little bit nervous – that flight to Tokyo I think is where it’s really going to start – but for now, I’m excited.
“It’s my first team, the whole team is together – it’s good fun right now.
“We still have enough time to enjoy ourselves and really prep ourselves for the racing.”
The Paralympic Games start on August 24.
Dedekind confident Paralympic team can succeed
SUNSHINE Coast swimmer Katja Dedekind is confident the Australian Paralympic swim team can replicate the exploits of their Olympic compatriots when they compete at the Tokyo Games later this month.
The Australian team has commenced camp at Tobruk Memorial Pool, the same venue as used by our all-conquering Olympic Team for their pre-Tokyo preparations.
And Dedekind reckons this Paralympic swim team has the talent to be able match their outstanding medal haul.
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“At USC Spartans we train with Kaylee McKeown, and to see her achieve so well at the Olympics was just amazing,” she said
“The whole Australian Olympic team did so well over there and I’m so proud of all of them for putting themselves out there and doing their absolute best.
“With the talent we have on the Paralympic swim team I think we can do just as well as them.”
Dedekind won bronze in the women’s 100m backstroke (S13) at the Rio Olympics, an achievement she described as a shock.
She proved that success wasn’t a once-off with one of each medal at the Para Pan Pacific Championships at Cairns in 2018.
But her goals for Tokyo aren’t restricted to a specific colour of medal, with South Africa-born Dedekind simply happy to be able to compete.
“The bronze medal from Rio was a bit unexpected,” she said. “I didn’t know I was a backstroker until then.
“If I’m able to go over there and get another medal it would be absolutely amazing, but I’m just stoked to be given the opportunity to go and race again.”
“It’s been a while, I’m just happy the Games have been allowed to go ahead.
“Everyone wants to be a Paralympic champion and a gold medallist … but I’m just happy to be able to go over there.”
matthew.mcinerney1@news.com.au
Originally published as Popham’s ready for Tokyo – no doubt about it
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