MANCHESTER, England – Back and neck injuries have forced double Paralympic Games medallist Nicolas-Guy Turbide to put aside his prime event – the 100-metre backstroke for the foreseeable future.
The S13 visually impaired swimmer from Quebec City reached the pinnacle of his sport in the 100 back last year with a gold medal at the world championships in Madeira, Portugal.
His rise to the top in the 100 back was very progressive. It started way back when he was 16 at the world championships in Montreal with a sixth-place finish.
In 2015, he reached the final again with a fifth at the worlds in Glasgow. A year later, the international rise continued at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio, where he won bronze. Three years later, Turbide was a silver medallist at the world championships in London. He repeated the exploit at the Games in Tokyo in 2021.
Then victory in Portugal. But it came at a cost.
‘’The 100 back and 50 free were on consecutive days last year and I was so injured after the 100 back that I withdrew from the 50 free,” he recalled. ‘’My back and neck had seized up the next morning. After the tests there was something not normal and I wasn’t feeling well either.
“At that point I felt I’d reached my objectives in the 100 back although I’m not saying I’ll never swim it again but my back needs time to recuperate.”
However, Turbide feels he still has the potential to make a run internationally in the 50 freestyle and he will race in the event on Friday at this week’s Manchester 2023 Para Swimming World Championships .
‘’For me, it’s really exciting to try and get a personal best performance in the 50 free this week and make my mark in preparation for the Games in Paris next year,’’ said Turbide, who will also complete his bachelor's degree in administration with a concentration in financial consulting at Université Laval this winter.
‘’You don’t train for the 50 like a 100-metre event. It’s high intensity training with less repetition which is again good for my body. There’s less mileage and no turns, and I can already perform it at the international level.’’
As a future financial analyst, it appears Turbide can already make wise decisions.
