‘I wouldn’t be where I am without Eimear’
Volunteer coach put Turner on path to glory
SWIMMERS had no plan B in lockdown. Whereas sportspeople in other disciplines were able to adapt, taking to road-running or make-do-and-mend gyms in gardens and sheds, there was no workable substitute for a swimming pool.
Nicole Turner knows to the day how long she was out of the water last year, during the first lockdown that saw everything shut as the world tried to deal with an unprecedented, terrifying time.
Sixty-seven days. From March to June, the routine of a lifetime was upended. As an elite athlete, the Paralympic silver medallist eventually got back into the waters of the National Aquatic Centre, and 14 months later she was standing on a podium in Tokyo.
But absence from the water pained swimmers beyond the elite level, too. When Turner started swimming, inspired by older brothers, and impatient to get into the water, she joined Piranha Swimming Club in Portarlington.
Her first coach there was Eimear Mathews, the woman she credits with providing the grounding in the sport and the love for swimming that led to success in global competition.
They remain steadfast friends, even as Mathews professes mock horror at reaching 30 years as a sporting volunteer. She is, though, the ideal person to promote nominations for the 2021 Federation of
Irish Sport Volunteers in Sport awards. She remains heavily involved in the Piranha club, and found a way of satisfying her own swimming passion while the pools remained shut. But the absence of children from the pool pained her. ‘I’m really lucky, because I have a bog lake within 5km of my house,’ Mathews laughs. ‘I’m still swimming in the bog lake, and getting quite dirty every day doing it! I did find it very hard because I missed the kids. But I set up a Zoom class for the swimmers, and we did strength and conditioning three or four times a week. ‘We also did some cookery classes, and while they mightn’t all have showed up to the strength and conditioning, they all showed up for the cookery. ‘That was great fun. We did keep some interaction there with the swimmers. They really loved that, but it was hard for everybody. ‘But we’re really lucky because all our swimmers have come back to us. I thought they might get used to sitting down playing (computer) games, but they’re all back.’
Nicole Turner was enchanted as a six-year-old by the Beijing Olympics, and a year later her talent flourished at the World Dwarf Games in Belfast.
In 2016, she won two silvers and a bronze at the European Championships and later that year, as a 14-year-old, she reached five finals at the Paralympics in Rio.
European and World Championships have brought further medals since, but it was claiming silver in Tokyo that made her a national figure. She is certain, though, that her successes owe an enormous deal to her first coach, and now dear friend.
‘She wants swimmers on deck with a smile on their faces and she never wants to put them off,’ Turner says of Eimear Mathews.
‘Even if they didn’t achieve what they wanted to achieve, she will always support them to keep going. I think that’s the key, especially when you’re so young and starting off. I don’t think the thing to do is throw you in at the deep end.
‘Like Eimear, the key is to be nice and gentle, and to have a bit of patience.
‘Then you’ll get there, you’ll thrive and you could go on to the Paralympic Games.’
Mathews’ own devotion to her sport is inherited. Her first clear memory involves swimming, and the love and care of someone teaching her to strike out on her own.
‘I remember learning how to swim for ages and ages and ages and then I remember when I was three, one day I got my hands off the bottom of the lake and I was able to swim,’ she smiles.
‘I really remember that feeling. It’s probably my earliest memory, of “I can swim! I can swim!”. I wanted to celebrate forever.’
And letting others share in that exhilaration has been a tireless motivation over the past three decades of volunteering in sport.
‘I have five children, and one of my daughters lives in Canada,’ she says, offering a story by way of illustration.
‘She came home with her kids three or four years ago and we had a family holiday in Galway, and I had to be back for six o’clock on Tuesday (for training).
And my family were there, “Come on, this is the first time we’ve done this”, but I said, “No,
“She wants swimmers to have smiles on their faces”
I have to be back”. I wouldn’t let the kids down.
‘It’s a responsibility you have when you get involved in a club. You have to be there, and you have to be there for the children.
‘They have their stories, and they want to tell you their stories. If you have time to listen, they’ll respect you and they’ll do whatever you want.
‘It’s not what I want, they lead the way. If they want to do tumble turns today, it’s, “Okay, we’ll do them, but first we have to do the crawl or the backstroke”.
‘Everything ends with a happy memory, and they want to come back for more. I think that’s a coach’s responsibility, isn’t it? That the children want to come back for more.’
It worked with Nicole Turner. Her commitment to the Paralympic Games saw her put her schooling on hold for two years. Since her return from Japan, she has started a post-Leaving Cert course in Portlaoise, this the most workable way of reconciling her commitments to training in the National Aquatic Centre with furthering her education.
She lives less than four kilometres from Eimear Mathews but, as is the way with people living busy lives, the friends don’t see each other as often as they wish.
But Turner gives an instant reply when asked to put the importance of her friend into words. ‘If I never had Eimear coach me, I don’t think the base would have been planted and I don’t think I’d be where I am today without her,’ she says.
As for Eimear Mathews? ‘For me, Nicole is a really special person. Every time I meet her and see her, she lifts me up.
‘She comes to see us every time she wins a medal, and we have pictures of her on the rocking chair with our dog.
‘She’s inspirational, she’s motivational, she has great courage, great perseverance. She’s an inspiration to everyone that could ever know her.
‘She doesn’t even realise how inspirational she is. She’s so modest.
‘She’s magic.’ OEBS ambassador, Paralympic silver medallist, Nicole Turner and her childhood coach and long-time swimming volunteer, Eimear Mathews made the final call for nominations for the 2021 Federation of Irish Sport Volunteers in Sport Awards.
The awards will see EBS and the Federation of Irish Sport hail the work of volunteers from around the country. To nominate an everyday hero, and to be in with the chance of winning €1,000 for your local sports club, simply visit www.volunteersinsport.ie. Nominations can be made by a club, individual or sporting body. The closing date for nominations is tomorrow, October 17, 2021.