Marie Dannhaeuser's Story
Please let me take this opportunity to introduce myself and to share with you how I came to be a Paralympian, and how my involvement in sport has, in many different ways, shaped and influenced my life and who I am. Swimming has always been a part of my life – as a child growing up with a disability, my parents signed me up for lessons at a very young age. At first, swimming was used as a means to encourage physical activity – but it also quickly became something that I could do alongside my friends, something I was good at, and something that I really enjoyed. I was eleven when someone suggested that I start swimming competitively, and although I wasn’t convinced that competition would be for me, I decided to try it out. After joining a local team and winning a few medals at my first swim meet, I was hooked!
It was at a meet that I heard about the Paralympics for the first time – explained to me as being an elite multi-sport competition for athletes with a disability held immediately following the Olympic Games. This event captured my imagination, and I immediately had bold ambitions of making the team headed to the 1996 Games in Atlanta. I began learning about what it took to be an athlete, and started to train more seriously. Being an athlete meant setting goals – and working hard to achieve them. I also learned that unfortunately, sometimes, hard work isn’t enough. I experienced many successes and disappointments in sport – an early disappointment being that I did not make the 1996 Paralympic team. It was devastating at the time, but I re-grouped and firmly set my sights on the 2000 Paralympic Summer Games in Sydney, Australia!
Back in training, I quickly realized that it can be difficult to achieve meaningful and lofty goals alone, and I was fortunate to have an incredible support system backing me. My family and friends did everything they could to allow me to focus on swimming, and I worked with amazing coaches who supported me and pushed me to train beyond limits I may have thought possible. My coaches and I never viewed my disability as a reason to avoid incorporating new things into my training routine. Rather, it was a difference that we worked with together, by adapting training sets and drills to suit me. In these efforts, I understood that it was important to welcome, accept, and sometimes ask for, the support you need in order to reach your dreams.
The year 2000 did not disappoint, and in what was certainly a team effort, I made the Canadian Paralympic team competing in Sydney. What an experience. The competition was fierce, and I am proud of my best finish – a fourth place in the 200m freestyle. However, what I will take away most from those Games was the experience of being part of team Canada – walking in together for Opening Ceremonies in a stadium filled with people was filled with many unforgettable moments. Following the Sydney Games, I competed for two more years, before retiring from competition, capping off my career with a bronze medal at the 2002 World Championships in Argentina.
My involvement in Paralympic sport does not end there. I knew that when I retired, I wanted to continue my involvement in sport, but in a role other than being an athlete and I pursued both academic and professional goals to reflect this new goal and interest. I had the incredible opportunity to be part Team Canada twice more, as a member of mission staff in Beijing (2008) and Vancouver (2010). These roles gave me the opportunity to view the Paralympic Games in a much different light, and I certainly gained an awareness of how much behind-the-scenes effort and teamwork that goes on in supporting Canadian athletes at the Paralympics. As I write this letter, I am preparing to hand in my PhD dissertation on women’s experiences in Paralympic sport. It has been challenging and testing work, but also a labour of love. Through my studies, and by speaking with athletes from other sports, I have come to understand Paralympic sport as not only an elite sporting opportunity, but also as a wider social Movement which encourages people to (re)think what disability means and how it is perceived. I realize that competitive sport is not for everyone, and further, that not every athlete with a disability will compete at the Paralympic Games. However, the positive physical and social benefits of involvement in sport and physical activity are overwhelming and these benefits can, and should, be shared equally whether one has a disability or not.
