Tammy Cunnington on the blocks at the 2018 Pac Pacific Games in Australia. (Supplied)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

TOKYO 2020(21)

Red Deer’s Tammy Cunnington returning to Paralympics with unfinished business

Jun 4, 2021 | 2:42 PM

Tammy Cunnington is headed back to the Paralympics.

Cunnington, who competed in her first Paralympic Games at Rio 2016, found out this week she’d been selected as a team member for Tokyo.

The games in Japan were of course supposed to happen last year.

Even in recent weeks, the viability of the Olympics and Paralympics has been called into question due to rising COVID-19 numbers in that nation.

Cunnington says despite the uncertainty, she’s preparing based on the insistence of the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee that the show will go on.

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“The last 18 months, nothing’s been certain, even when people thought it was, so we’re focused on going there and taking it day-by-day. “I feel good about travelling there. They’ve put out a playbook, laying out safety regulations, information about COVID testing, and the bubbles. They’ve done a good job of making it a safe environment both for athletes and the people of Japan.”

There’ll be no touring or mingling with the public, Cunnington says, and family members will not attend.

Later this month, Cunnington flies to Berlin for one final tune-up meet ahead of the Aug. 24-Sept. 5 Paralympics.

“The process has been long and arduous. Trials were cancelled a few weeks ago, then they chose other ways to select the team,” says Cunnington who had considered retiring after Rio. “For me, it came down to videotaping a time trial last week and submitting training logs to prove competitive readiness.”

Cunnington, now 45, competed in five events in Brazil, but came down with pneumonia while there, preventing her from achieving what she wanted.

She admits clawing back and reaching Tokyo is a bit about unfinished business.

“I expect to make the finals in at least two of my three events. In Rio, because of my illness, I didn’t feel like I got to leave it all out there. I did get one personal best but it wasn’t enough,” she recalls.

“This year has been much more difficult in terms of training with limited pool time available. I’m typically doing two to three hours daily between the pool, weight room and hand cycle in my basement. I do double days, so a swim in the morning, bike or weight session in the afternoon, five days a week. Saturdays, I do a long swim and then have one recovery day. The rest of my time is spent preparing food and eating the right way to be ready for the next training session.”

Cunnington will swim the 150 metre Individual Medley, 50 metre Backstroke, and 50 metre Breaststroke.

In her scarce spare time, Cunnington does speaking engagements and is active on social media and in the community.

“That’s my way of giving people a different outlook on someone in a wheelchair,” the three time Parapan American Games medalist says. “I’m hoping after hearing my story, the next time someone sees someone like me, they don’t make an assumption about that person just because they’re in a wheelchair. Maybe they’ll wonder if that person’s a Paralympian too.

“It’s great when the world is accessible and easy to get around, but no matter how accessible something is, it doesn’t help if able-bodied peoples’ perceptions and attitudes aren’t positive. I want people to look at my character, not my characteristics.”

She’s also done work with Fast and Female, alongside fellow elite athletes such as Natalie Spooner, Kaillie Humphries and Erica Wiebe.

Cunnington was six when she was struck by a plane at an airshow in Ponoka, leaving her a paraplegic.

“It means a lot that I’ll be able to say I’m a two-time Paralympian and of course wearing the maple leaf on my chest is always a big thrill,” she says. “I’m not 100 per cent certain, but I expect I will retire after Tokyo. I just want this journey to end on my terms, if it ends.”