An Inspiring Path to Para Sports Advocacy

When it comes to para sports, one would be hard pressed to find a more passionate advocate than Darda Sales.

In fact, to say the four-time Paralympian is a perfect fit in her role as Swim Ontario’s para swimming development coordinator, a position she’s held since September of 2020, would be an understatement... of Paralympic proportion.

All you need is five minutes of listening to Sales tell her own story about how she got into para sports as a youngster and how it took her to the highest international levels of not one but two sports, and it’s easy to see how it shaped the strong-willed, accomplished individual she is today.

Not that she’d entertain the idea of stopping five minutes into her story, or any narrative, for that matter. The soon-to-be 40-year-old is an occasional motivational speaker, and it shows.

“I told you I’m a good quote,” she says while bursting into a contagious laughter.

Born in London, Ont., Sales – née Geiger – lost her right leg in a farm accident back in 1985, one month shy of her third birthday.

Following an amputation, she attended countless hours of physiotherapy from the ages of 3 to 9 but, in her own words, “absolutely hated it”.

“It wasn’t anything I wanted to do (or) my friends were doing. It made me different,” she explains. “So the physiotherapist said ‘You’re not liking this. Why don’t you try taking swimming lessons. You can achieve some of the things we want to achieve but maybe in a more fun way.’”

“Swimming lessons were something other nine-year-olds were doing so I was really excited.”

Six months in, the recreation therapist at the children’s treatment centre asked if she would like to try competitive swimming.

“Being the youngest of a very physically active family, I’m very competitive. I thought ‘Yeah! That sounds great!’ I loved that I could actually compete but also have my own sport. I wasn’t chasing any of my siblings in their activities, it was my own thing.”

A short time later, her very first swim meet turned into a life-changing experience.

“I met three swimmers who were going to the 1992 Barcelona Paralympic Games. They started telling me what a swim meet was about because it was my first one and I had no idea what I was doing. Then they told me about the Paralympics, (that) they were going to represent their country, travel, meet all these people. They made it sound so amazing, I decided it was something I wanted to do… to work for.

“So, nine years old, my very first swim meet, that became the goal, and everything I strived for over the next nine years until I made the (national) team.”

Sales indeed achieved her goal less than a decade later, and then some.

She competed in swimming at three Paralympic Games from Sydney 2000 to Beijing 2008, claiming one gold and a silver medal along the way, while reaching the podium four times (1-1-2) over two world championship appearances.

Sales explains her affection for swimming, and a large part of her competitive success in the pool, by going back to that childhood wish of just wanting to be a regular kid.

“I love being in the water. I’m the most free (there), can move around as I choose. The water feels amazing. I don’t have my prosthetic (nor) my wheelchair. It’s just my body and me, and what can my body do. That’s what I like the most about swimming. That’s what was so attractive to me. I could be powerful and fast, things that I couldn’t be on land.”

Injuries forced her out of the pool in 2010 but her retirement as a competitive athlete would be short-lived.

“I started playing wheelchair basketball, which was supposed to be my recreational sport but it ended up turning much more competitive than that. I made the national team in 2014, went to world championships, and won that year in Toronto. Then I went to the Rio 2016 Paralympics, where we finished fifth.

“Wheelchair basketball is 180 degrees different from swimming. But that’s what I loved about it. It was always a challenge. I had to learn something new the whole time, so that was very attractive for me.”

After a second retirement from high performance sport, Sales knew she wanted to give back. Para sports and her athletic career provided her many tools to do so.

“It gave me confidence… a place to just be me, and to be accepted for who I was. In other areas of my life, like school, you’re always the other, that kid on the outside. In gym class, I was always picked last or I was told to sit on the sidelines. Swimming invited me in.

“It gave me friends. Some of the best friends that I’ve ever had and will ever have come from swimming. And I met my husband (two-time Paralympian Brad Sales) through swimming. I guess that’s a good one,” she chuckles.

Sales notes that self-assurance influenced all aspects of her life, giving her, among other things, the confidence to think she could go to university and get a degree.

As she did in sports, she achieved that goal and more.

She holds an undergraduate degree in kinesiology from Western University in London, Ont., a master’s of health education and health promotion from the University of Alabama, and earlier this summer completed a doctorate.

“When I was in Alabama, my professor suggested I do a PhD. I said ‘No I shouldn’t.’ (laughs) But he said ‘You really should. You have some great ideas and life experiences, that could really influence your research.

Sales moved back to Canada and was introduced to a professor who was looking at para sports at Western.

“I started my studies with her. Through her connections and my background, I got involved with the Ontario Parasport Collective, a group of 24 different organizations in Ontario that all work with para athletes and try to come together collaboratively to move para sports in a good direction in the province.

“They were looking for some research to be done on athlete development and Swim Ontario was a member of this organization as well. They said ‘You have the swimming background, we have the membership to help you find participants. Could you do this study?’ So that’s where I started down the path of looking at para athlete development. What does it look like? What are people experiencing? It was a really good fit.”

Sales says one of the keys is to be more intentional.

“One of the findings from the research we did with (that organization) was we need to be intentional about para athlete development. In Canada, we have an integrated para swimming system. It has some really great benefits, you get access to more competitions, funding, well-educated coaches, all of those things. But it’s not the same as mainstream swimming.

“So we have to admit it, and that’s okay. We need to identify what those differences are, and how do we support them. Right now, with the work that I’m doing with Swim Ontario, (backed) by Swimming Canada, we’re looking at addressing some of those concerns when it comes to development.

“We need to recognize that there are differences. And it’s not bad, just different. So, we need to look and give some focus to it.”

The former Paralympian in both swimming and wheelchair basketball offers a number of examples to illustrate her point.

“How do people become aware of para swimming? How do they get involved? Even that’s different. In mainstream sport, if you want to get your kid into swimming, you call the local club and of course your kid can (show up), there are no questions. You may get on a waiting list, but you just kind of do it.”

Sales says that the process differs when it comes to para sport, more often than not.

“From my research, most of the parents and kids aren’t looking for competitive para swimming opportunities on their own. More often, they hear from a friend or doctor, about a club that offers a program. But they’re not actively searching for it. When we’re looking at promoting our sport, we need to be (more) intentional about letting everyone know that para swimming is a ‘thing’ because you never know who’s going to find someone, and then pass that on. That’s something we need to do a little bit differently when it comes to getting athletes involved.”

Another key component, which is close to Sales’ heart, is the education of coaches.

“(The onus is on) a lot of athletes to educate their coaches on what they need. But when you’re a young kid coming into a sport, you don’t know what you need. So, there’s a disconnect.

“Currently, in our formal coach education, we do have some modules through the National Coaching Certification Program and Swimming Canada that address introductory ideas on training athletes with a disability but they’re totally separate modules. Which means that coaches have to take the time, money, energy and initiative. Most coaches aren’t doing that proactively, it’s all reactive. So that influences that first experience. We need positive first experiences and in order to do that, we require coaches with more experience and better education.”

After dealing with the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic for the better part of her first two years on the job, Sales is enthusiastic about the months and years ahead.

“There are so many layers to what we’re doing. Obviously, we went through a pandemic, so a lot of the things I had planned to do weren’t possible. But we are making headway.

“Ultimately, I’m working to increase awareness, recruitment and development. That’s where my focus is. That involves educating coaches, working with clubs to identify where their gaps are for bringing in para-athletes. It’s needed. Very much needed.”

Sales sees her role in Ontario as a pilot project that could ultimately be implemented in other jurisdictions across the country.

“The amazing part for me is I get to fully focus on the para-athletes and think about how we make that system better. Historically, para swimming has been a piece of everyone’s portfolio. And it’s a very small piece. At this point, we’re talking about a relatively small portion of the population of swimmers, in Ontario especially. (Many coaches and administrators) don’t always have the time and energy to focus on that.

“The great part about my position is that I do. We can make a difference, and we can make headway and gains. The support that Swimming Canada has put behind this position – and given to the province to make this partnership work – has been amazing,” says Sales, who attended the 2022 World Para Swimming Championships in Portugal as part of the Canadian team support staff.

She is proud of some development initiatives Swim Ontario was able to implement over the past two years despite the hurdles brought on by the pandemic.

“In the winter of 2021, we surveyed all the clubs to find out their thoughts, feelings and questions about para swimming. We wanted to know where they were coming from. Building off of that, we ran what we call the R.E.A.C.H. webinar, an educational series, to answer some of the questions that were asked in the survey.

“Then we did a ‘Pools to Schools’ awareness building pilot project, with elite para swimmers presenting to schools across Ontario. We used what was learned from virtual conferencing and conducted it over Zoom calls, which allowed us to access some parts of Ontario that we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to reach. In total, we gave 69 presentations with six athletes involved in the program and reached close to 2,700 participants.”

Sales is also excited about the tour team that allowed athletes to attend a classification event.

“It’s only the second time that Swim Ontario sent a para tour team anywhere. It was really successful. We had 10 athletes get classified, which was huge seeing as there was such a backlog due to the pandemic... They also had an opportunity to race. It was a great opportunity to bring the athletes together because a lot of athletes don’t have the opportunity to do any touring team activities until they reach the national program.”

Over the next few months, Sales plans to do more work around building capacity at the club level. She is planning multiple visits to provide clubs, coaches and athletes with personalized attention, to answer questions and provide support.

“We’re also looking at doing ‘becoming para ready’ activities with the clubs so that they can start to look at and address some of the areas they might need to before an athlete comes knocking on their door.”

As for her long term goals?

“In five years, I’m hoping to see 50 per cent of the clubs in Ontario have a para swimmer. I would like our percentage of Ontario athletes that make the national team to increase, and ideally, want to have the ‘Pools to Schools’ program get to 10,000 students.

“Also, in general, have more coaches able to identify that they’re comfortable working with para swimmers. And that’s going to come through our coaching education opportunities, and again that awareness building piece.”

Darda Sales can be reached via email HERE. She is being inducted into the Ontario Aquatic Hall of Fame as an athlete on September 24, 2022