Road to Trials

Welcome to the Road to Trials series, where we are featuring four swimmers in their lead up to 2024 Olympic & Paralympic Trials

Jessica Tinney may very well be a fan of those electrifying and highly stimulating rollercoaster rides at amusement parks.

However, it’s some of the other journeys - the ones associated with memories of administrative and political decisions which she had no control over. Those, can often leave her confused, upset, and flustered. On the flipside, making her feel confident throughout her swim days, Tinney knows she is the benefactor of strong support from Swimming Canada and Swim Ontario.

For Tinney, an extremely talented swimmer, a good day at the pool, usually amounts to the adrenalin and endorphins, accelerated by performance enhancement. Matters that are not under her control, can leave un-necessary concerns.

Mentally and physically focussed on excelling in the aquatic sport, and also improving her times and peaking with the goal of one day competing for Canada at the Paralympic Games, Tinney just might be one of those individuals who have a lot on their mind.

Right now, she owns the Canadian record in the 200-metres individual medley SM5 with a time of four minutes, 30.46 seconds. To qualify for the Paralympic Games in France this summer, she needs to drop 22 seconds from her personal best.

It’s a challenge, but Tinney is at her best when it comes to challenges.

Impervious to most things, Tinney’s facial expression may give away her actual feelings when someone asks her about a specific period. For example, zero in on those three months early in 2023.

The 24-year-old graduate of Queen’s University in Kingston, a proud recipient of a Bachelor of Sciences degree in Kinesiology and chosen to the Dean’s List, can easily be described as one who is astute and articulate.

But in the water, she’s engaged in reaching her objective. That means performing in a manner that may very well exceed her expectations. Obsessed with excellence, Tinney has been persistent in training six days, and having 11 workouts a week, at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre (TPASC).

She was born with cerebral palsy, which is a disability that affects balance and coordination, and she doesn’t have equal ability in both arms or minimal mobility with her legs. Tinney uses a wheelchair to get around. At home, she functions without one. Her situation hasn’t stopped Tinney from setting significant personal objectives and doing what she can to achieve and perfect them.

“I love swimming and keeping active,” said Tinney. “When I was about eight years old and swimming at Variety Village, I had no idea that one day I would set a Canadian record and would be competing at a world championship.”

But, coming off a superb 2022 swim season, Tinney was stymied by classification changes to her swim categories.

Swimmers with physical disabilities are divided into 10 classes based on their degree of functional disability. Canadian officials had previously classified Tinney in what is called S5, but during international classification, she was determined her to be in the S6 class.

A better way of describing her situation. In classification S5, she was among the top five swimmers in the world. In S6, her times would not even qualify for the Canadian Trials.

That lasted for several months, until her coaches and Swimming Canada were informed that they had won an appeal and Tinney was back in S5.

“Everything was stable and here I am working at improving, then (classification adjustments),” she recalled. “The changes back in February of 2023 - it was like a gut punch. I thought, that was it. I may never swim again because the times were so significantly different.”

Many rallied to her side, including her coach – Don Burton, who has been the Ontario Swim Academy coach at TPASC for the past several years.

“I could see that (Tinney) was struggling for weeks on how to deal with this,” he said. “We had some challenging discussions how to navigate through this and I know most people faced with this change would have thrown their arms up and quit.”

Tinney is being featured in a Swim Ontario “Road to Trials” series of stories highlighting provincial swimmers with aspirations to make the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games, schedule from July 26 to August 11.

A bit of information about Tinney.

Back in 2022, at the World Para swimming championships in Portugal, she placed fifth in both the 100-metres breaststroke SB4 and the 200-metres freestyle S5. Then came the national record at the Bell Canadian Open. She also earned a bronze medal in the 200-metres freestyle multi-class and placed fourth in the 50-metres butterfly multi-class.

Now, in 2024, she had back-to-back personal best times at the Scarborough Pan Am Classic followed by the Winter Ontario Swimming Championships. At the Speedo-sponsored Canadian Open, she set her latest record.

“She’s been through a lot and is just a wonderful and polite individual,” added Burton. “We have a way to go with her times, but anything is possible.”

David Grossman is a veteran multi award-winning Journalist and Broadcaster with some of Canada’s major media, including the Toronto Star and SPORTSNET 590 THE FAN, and a Public Relations professional for 50+ years in Canadian sports and Government relations.