Tully Kearney

1. Tell us about yourself and how you got into Para Swimming?

As a teenager my mum was a national level swimmer, so swimming ability runs in the family. My older brother started training with a local club, so I’d spend my nights on the poolside with my mum watching my brother train, along with weekends watching him compete. One day his coach came up to us and asked me if I wanted to join in. I said 'Yes', and never looked back. I always looked up to my brother and wanted to do everything he was doing. On dry land I found it very difficult due to my physical limitations, so swimming was the first sport I had found where I could keep up, and where I felt ‘normal’ as I was treated just like any other kid. I started competing at the age of nine and fell completely in love with the sport, then progressed on from there. When I was thirteen I got my first national classification and started to compete at para swimming events. I was then noticed and put on the British Para Swimming Talent Programme (now called the Para Academy) in 2011, before working my way up over the years to being on the World Class Podium Programme and becoming a triple World Champion.

2. Can you explain how the classification in Para Swimming works?

Para swimming uses a function-based classification system designed to allow fair competition. The classes are prefixed with “S” for freestyle, butterfly and backstroke events, “SM” for individual medley events, and “SB” for breaststroke events. Swimmers with a physical impairment are divided into ten classes based on their degree of functional disability (S1-10). An S10 swimmer would be at a slight disadvantage to an able-bodied competitor, with the lower classes being at a higher disadvantage, increasing in descending order. Visual impairments are divided into three classes (S11-13). There is one class for learning disabilities (S14), and one class for those with hearing impairments (S15).

3. What motivates you to keep going if you have a setback such as, when your condition deteriorated ahead of the Rio 2016 Paralympics, forcing you to pull out?

My main aim as an athlete has always been to make it to a Paralympic Games, so the fact that I have not yet reached this goal means that I am not ready to give up. This is what keeps me going through the bad days.

4. How will you prepare for your first Paralympics if you get selected?

Making sure I do everything I possibly can to get myself in the best shape possible, by focusing on recovery and nutrition between training sessions. In January (2020) we had a training camp in Japan in Suzuka which is where the holding camp for the games will be for British Para Swimming, so I will use my experience from that to help me prepare. I have food intolerances, so I’ll make sure I take enough food with me to last throughout the holding camp and the games. As Elite Athletes we spend years training, competing and going on training camps abroad to gain experience to help us if we were to achieve the goal of going to a Paralympic games. I will make sure I use everything I’ve been taught over the years to ensure I have no regrets.

5. How important is the relationship you have with your coach?

The relationship an athlete has with a coach is extremely important. The athlete has to trust that the coach will provide them with the best training plan for their needs. The coach has to trust that the athlete will do the right thing and prioritise training and recovery. My coach knows exactly what to say to me on race day to get me in the right head space to perform at my best, especially when things have gone wrong. This is extremely important as it enables me to consistently perform at my best no matter the circumstances.

6. You have tried racerunning but, is this something you are thinking of taking up as another sport?

I started racerunning back in 2018 after having bilateral shoulder surgery, which meant I was out of the water for a while. A friend whom I met through being a sports scholar at Manchester Met university is a Para Cyclist and racerunner, and had been trying to get me to try racerunning for a long time. I had previously been to a taster day run by CP Sport in February 2017, but I couldn’t find any clubs in Manchester for racerunning and as I didn’t have frame, I gave up. After having the shoulder surgery I was desperately trying to find a way to keep fit and exercise. I love racerunning because it enables me to use my legs as I do not have use of my legs in the pool anymore, so racerunning gives me such an amazing feeling. My friend let me borrow her frame every week for almost a year until I finally got my own racerunner. She introduced me to my now athletics coach, Rick Hoskins at Stockport Harriers, where I train with the wheelchair racing group. Racerunning has been amazing for my mental health, and also my physical fitness. It enables me to save my shoulders a little by doing slightly less fitness training in the pool, so I use it as a fun sport but also for cross training. It is a great way for me to ensure I keep my fitness levels high enough to race well in the pool.

7. How much of an impact does the media have on para sport?

The media has a massive impact on para sport, both positive and negative. London 2012 left behind a massive legacy and did increase the profile of para sport, but sadly that profile has definitely dropped off over the years. The coverage difference between able-bodied and para sports is still massive, however coverage in para sport especially para swimming has improved over the years. Sports like swimming that use a functional classification system can be confusing to the general public as athletes race against others with different disabilities, but with the same level of ‘functional ability’, so visually it can be confusing to the general public. The Lexi Guide in swimming, is a system which explains para sport classification using figure diagrams and a traffic light colour system to describe the types of impairments in each classification, although this has not yet been updated since the changes made to the classification system. The difficulties in understanding the classification system and the movement of athletes from one class to another, and in some cases the ‘classing out’ of athletes following the changes in the classification system has led to a lot of debate and some negative portrayal of athletes. In some cases this had led to trolling of both individual athletes and sometimes staff on certain websites by anonymous contributors, where the administrators choose not to ‘police’ this abuse. Personally, I applaud BBC Sport for taking a stand over online abusive comments about athletes on social media, and I hope that this will set a standard for others to follow suit.

8. What are your plans for the next five years?

My goals for the next five years are to have finished my Masters in Physiology, start working in scientific research, and obviously competing at a Paralympic Games.

9. To a non-competitive swimmer all pools seem the same. Is that true of an Elite Athlete or are there some pools that you prefer and why?

All pools are different as they have different accessibility, atmospheres, spectator seating, floor space around the pool, ceilings, changing rooms and toilets, air quality and temperature, noise, café and shop, and most importantly different widths and lengths. The bigger leisure centres have more than one pool so that you can warm up at the right time for you instead of having to warm up and wait hours for a race. It also enables you to swim down immediately after a race, which is really important for me. I personally prefer long course (50 m) pools, as all international competitions are held in 50 metre pools and there are less turns - a skill that’s a bit of a challenge for me. Personally my favourite pool is Ponds Forge in Sheffield where I used to watch my brother race before I was old enough to compete myself. It was where I raced my first individual race when I was nine, where I competed in my first para swimming competition and where I broke my first European record. It was also where I qualified for my first World Championships, and swam my last race as an S9 before my condition deteriorated, and had my first race back after almost two years out after having to learn to swim again. So this pool holds some really special memories for me, and it's been devastating to the whole competitive swimming community to learn that it has been closed indefinitely due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The way we feel about this pool is the same way that footballers feel about Wembley. There are a couple of pools I’ve raced at, that for some reason just feel slow, like I’m swimming through treacle – I won’t name them and I’m not really sure why they feel like that, but it definitely makes me dislike the pools. So not only do all of the physical things, especially accessibility, make a difference, this also includes the memories I’ve had at the pools, both good and bad.

10. What advice would you give someone who is trying to get into para swimming?

To someone wanting to try para swimming, I suggest finding a local hub for para swimming such as the Matt Walker Para Academy in Manchester or Orion Swimming Club in the West Midlands. My best advice is to find a local club that has para swimmers already, or experience of para swimmers, and then just give it a go!

A special thank you to 'CP Sport' and 'CP Teens' for the introduction to Tully. Click to read more about about CP Sport and read about CP Teens.