Danielle to take the plunge once more for Olympic dreams Swimmer’s plan back on track
Olympic qualifiers were going to be special
AN Irish swimmer has vowed to reboot her Olympic dreams following lockdown.
Danielle Hill had been just a fraction off the qualifying time for the Tokyo games with a training plan designed to secure her place before the coronavirus pandemic struck.
But instead she was forced to suspend that hope as socialdistancing measures left her out of the water for months.
She recently returned to limited training at the pool at Belfast Royal Academy and has said she and her coach will simply cut and paste their plan to next year, aiming for the postponed Olympics.
And the 20-year-old hopes to gain more pool time this week following the recent announcement by the Executive that elite athletes will be able to resume training indoors from Monday.
Danielle has spent lockdown working out in her back garden and even venturing into Lough Neagh with triathlete friends in a bid to maintain her fitness.
She said: “This year, the Olympics was always the goal and I was only 0.65 away from the time.
“My coach Peter and I were 110% certain that the Olympic qualifiers were going to be something special for both of us.
“It’s nice that we can copy and paste the plan but it was a little bit annoying that it had worked but then we couldn’t show everyone what we had been working towards.
“I don’t mind repeating it all, some people might find that boring but I know it’s going to work.
“Our season will start back in August and hopefully by that stage, the new normal will be
around.”
Despite the frustrations, Danielle said she thinks Northern Ireland has done lockdown “the right way”, adding: “No sport is bigger than a worldwide pandemic.”
Her usual swimming bases include Belfast Royal Academy, Larne Leisure Centre and the 50m pool at Bangor Aurora.
She said: “Once lockdown was eased and up to 10 were allowed to gather we were able to come to an arrangement to use the BRA pool for an hour.”
With swimming pools in the Republic reopening weeks ago, she was able to visit the National Aquatic Centre in Dublin but said as a non-funded Irish athlete she could not afford to travel every day.
Danielle compared the experience to when she suffered an elbow injury two years ago and felt like she had to learn to swim all over again.
She added: “Whenever I got back into the water then, I had to learn how to swim again because I couldn’t even straighten my arm at one stage. So I count myself very lucky this time I can just get in and swim.”
DANIELLE HILL CO ANTRIM YESTERDAY