Paralympian Col Pearse training in dam on family’s dairy farm

Aussie teenager Col Pearse has transformed the family’s dairy farm dam into an makeshift Olympic training pool to keep in shape during isolation. WATCH HIM TRAIN

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Col Pearse swims in water so brown, he can see nothing.

Not even his arms.

Which is, the teenager concedes, “slightly terrifying”.

But still, not the worst of it.

“No, the worst is swallowing the water,” Pearse cackles. “You really don’t want that.”

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Paralympian Col Pearse is training in his family’s dairy farm dam during isolation.

But still, it happens.

It’s an unlikely new part of life for this Australian Paralympic contender who spends six days of every week churning anonymously, and blindly, through laps of his family’s dairy farm dam.

While the 2020 Paralympic Games may have been postponed for a year thanks to COVID-19, and all public pools closed indefinitely, the training regime of this 16-year-old swim star, a fella who lost his right foot to a lawnmower aged two, continues unabated.

Over the past fortnight, Pearse and his family have used the breaks between milking and working 500 head of cattle to transform their dairy farm dam into a makeshift Olympic pool, complete with lane ropes, overhead flags and turning walls at each end.

Elsewhere, the Year 11 student has also converted a garage on the property, which sits 15km outside Echuca in northern Victoria, into the gym section of Australia’s most unique training facility.

Col Pearse has turned his family’s garage into a gym to workout during isolation.

Asked by The Saturday Telegraph about the perils of continuing his Paralympic preparations in a farm dam, Pearse says: “Well, when your head goes underwater, you can’t see a thing.

“Nothing. Not even your arms.

“So occasionally I’ll lift my head out, just to make sure I’m going in a straight line.”

Which is also slightly, err, crucial.

“Because in one corner of the dam we’ve got all these pipes, ropes and stuff for irrigation,” his mum Teena explains. “That’s why we had to run the pool lane at an angle so Col doesn’t get tangled in all that stuff and drown.”

As part of the homemade swim facility, the Pearse clan have also constructed turning walls out of wooden pallets, which are then held in place with steel fence posts.

“We’ve also made lane ropes out of blue string that was in the shed,” the swimmer continues. “Then used a heap of plastic bottles to keep them afloat.”

Col Pearse takes a dip in the muddy waters of his family’s dam to keep in shape for next year’s Paralympics.

At each end of the dam, orange flags are also draped over the lane, as they would be in an Olympic pool, so the teen who spends two hours in the water every day can do backstroke as well as freestyle and his favoured stroke of butterfly.

“With swimming, a month out of the pool takes two months to get back,” Pearse says of his need to stay active.

“So while the Paralympics have been postponed, I need to keep training.”

But as for concerns about the delay?

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“Being 16, I’m nowhere near my peak,” he says. “If anything, I’ll be bigger and stronger a year from now, so it’s probably going to be an advantage.”

Still, there are no advantages now.

“Coming into autumn, the water is getting cold,” he says. “So I’ve bought myself a wetsuit, which keeps me warmer but makes the butterfly action far more difficult.”

But again, this isn’t anywhere near the worst of it.

“Training butterfly, your head is constantly going up and down in the pool,” Pearse says. “So, yeah ... you tend to swallow some water.”