Paris 2024 Para Swimming Lookahead: Tess Routliffe returns from injury for second Games

It’s been a long wait between Paralympic Games for Canadian Para swimmer Tess Routliffe.

She made her Paralympic debut in 2016 at Rio. She was 17 years old and established herself as a star of the future with a silver medal in the women’s S7 200-metre individual medley. Heading into Tokyo, she was firing on all cylinders which included a triple medal performance at the 2019 world championships.

But an unfortunate accident leading up to Tokyo 2020, which resulted in a serious back injury, derailed her plans and despite her best efforts possible to return to form she was unable to compete at those Games held in 2021.

‘’I think I was (still) very motivated after not going to Tokyo,” said Routliffe, 25, who has hypochondroplasia, a condition affecting the conversion of cartilage into bone, causing shortened limbs. She was born in New Zealand while her parents travelled the world, grew up in Caledon, Ont., and now trains at Swimming Canada’s High Performance Centre (HPC – Quebec) in Montreal.

‘’I was in the best shape of my life when I broke my back. I was so ready to race, and I just didn’t get the opportunity. And now we’ve gotten two world championships since, which are huge opportunities to race. I think that really portrayed how ready I was and how much more ready I am today.’’

At those last two worlds held in 2022 and 2023, Routliffe collected seven medals including a gold in the S7 100 breaststroke in Madeira, Portugal. She then successfully defended that title and a won the 200-m individual medley last year in Manchester, England.

It took a lot more than numerous hours in the pool and in the training room for Routliffe to regain and eventually surpass her previous form.

‘’I had to work on my patience,’’ said the current Canadian record holder in the S7 100 freestyle, SB7 50 and 100 breaststrokes, and the SM7 200 IM. “I am pretty stubborn, and I wanted to get to work as fast as possible. I’m very grateful that I had a good support staff, letting me train as much as I wanted to, but also keeping me safe and healthy.

‘’I could have taken it a little bit too far and gotten a little bit too regressive. I had the best team in the world supporting me.’’

Sister support

That support includes her two sisters, Erin and Tara. Erin Routliffe is a professional tennis player who won the U.S. Open in women’s doubles last year with Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski. Erin was at the 2024 Olympic Games in women’s doubles. Tara is a U.S. college volleyball player.

‘’My sisters are constantly available any time we need to talk,” said Tess. “We have a sister group chat. If you just call one of them, one of them is going to answer for sure whether you need to cry, you need to tell good news, whatever you need, you always have somebody.’’

Canada will field a 22-member swimming team in Paris, and it is the individual sport with the most athletes. Fifteen of them were on the 2023 world championships team that won 19 medals (nine gold, four silver and six bronze), its best worlds since 2006.

There are 15 women on the team led by Routliffe, 10-time Paralympic Games medallist Aurélie Rivard of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., and world record holder Danielle Dorris of Moncton, N.B.

The men’s side includes double reigning world champion Nicholas Bennett of Parksville, B.C. and two-time Paralympic medallist Nicolas-Guy Turbide of Quebec City.

The Para swimming events take place each competition through the duration of the Games from August 29 to September 7 at the Paris La Défense Arena. There are 141 medal events. The classifications range from S1 to S10 for those with a physical disability, B11 to B13 for the visually impaired, and S14 for those with an intellectual disability.

Canada won eight medals in Para swimming at the last two Games in Tokyo (3-3-2) and Rio (4-4-2).

For more information visit our Paris 2024 Hub.

The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games will begin with the Opening Ceremony on August 28 and continue through September 8. Audiences can tune in for CBC/Radio-Canada’s coverage of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games from August 28 to September 8 on CBC, CBC Gem, CBC’s Paris 2024 website (cbc.ca/paris2024) and the CBC Paris 2024 app in English and on ICI TÉLÉ, ICI TOU.TV, Radio-Canada.ca/paris2024, and on the Radio-Canada Paralympiques app in French.