One second does not seem like a lot.
But to swimmer Kyle McMahon, it was all that separated him from a berth on the Canadian team and a chance to compete in the 2012 Paralympic Games in London.
McMahon found he'd just missed the cut a year ago at the Paralympic trials in Montreal, a meet that turned into a roller-coaster ride for the former Prince George Barracudas Swim Club member. The stinging disappointment he felt by not making the Paralympic team was tempered by the glory of winning a gold medal while setting Canadian records in the 100-metre breaststroke and 50m butterfly. A second quicker in either event would have placed him on the team for London.
McMahon was four seconds off the qualifying standard for the Beijing Paralympics in 2008. By the 2016 trials he'll be 25, about the time most swimmers' skills start to diminish.
"I hope this isn't my last time to qualify, but there's a strong possibility," he said. "But if I'm as passionate about it then as I am now, I might be able to stretch it even further."
McMahon graduated from Prince George secondary school in 2009 and headed to Victoria, where he joined Island Swimming. In 2011 he moved to Surrey and began training with the Surrey Knights, under coach Reg Shaw, a former Barracudas coach, who got McMahon ready for the Paralympic trials. McMahon now wishes he'd found Shaw earlier.
"[Shaw] is more understanding of how the para world works and my training is more stable," said McMahon. "It really puts a monkey wrench in the system when you move halfway through the four-year cycle [between Paralympic competitions]. After London, I said to myself, I'm not going to do that again, I'll make up for mistakes and stay with the same coach and same system so I'll get to where I need to be."
His longterm destination is the Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Paralympics and he's more determined than ever to get there. He now averages 30 kilometres per practice, training six or seven days a week. He took part in two national team training camps in March in Florida and California, leading to the world championship trials in April in Minneapolis, Minn.
"My times there were pretty consistent and actually exceeded my expectations," said McMahon. "The most surprising one was the 50 freestyle; I went from 36 seconds down to 35. That doesn't seem like a whole lot but it is a pretty challenging thing to do in a 50-metre sprint. Usually it takes longer than one race to drop a half-second in a 50. Hopefully that's a sign we're building momentum for something special in 2016."
He posted consistent results a week ago at the Kamloops meet and is now setting his sights on the season-ending B.C. age group provincial championships, July 4-6 at UBC in Vancouver, where he'll be reunited with several of his Barracudas clubmates.
McMahon's disability stems from a December 1995 car accident while driving with his mother and sister from Dease Lake to their home for Christmas in Burns Lake. The car they were in was rear-ended and the impact broke McMahon's seatbelt. Just four years old at the time, McMahon suffered a rear brain injury that left in a coma for two weeks. He spent the next 2 1/2 months in B.C. Children's Hospital.
He took up swimming at age 9 to help him regain the use of his limbs and has never looked back. His powerful swimmer's body has helped him overcome other life hurdles and he's now enrolled as a part-time student at Kwantlen Polytechnic University studying information technology. He figures he'll have his degree in five or six years.
McMahon hadn't planned on visiting Prince George this spring but changed his mind after receiving a call from PGSS athletic director Joe Flavell to inform McMahon he was this year's inductee into the PGSS Sports Hall of Fame.
"That was pretty cool," said McMahon. "I was really surprised, I had to read the message three or four times to let it sink in."
He took the opportunity this week to train at the Aquatic Centre with his former coaches Jerzy Partyka and Jason Smith.
